Kirsteen Main was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, where she still resides. In spite of living with severe cerebral palsy she has been writing poems since the age of twelve. Not being able to walk or talk, Kirsteen was given, at age eight, a way to communicate what was on her mind—her thought, ideas, opinions and eventually her poems. It’s called ‘facilitated communication’ and what happens is that someone holds her arms while she points to letters on an alphabet board, spelling out what she wants to say. This takes some time and considerable energy on her part.
Kirsteen has presented her poetry twice at the Kickstart Festival of Disability Arts and Culture, and has also performed at regular open mic nights in East Vancouver. Kirsteen holds centre stage at these events while her poems are read to the audience by her workers or family members.
Some of her work has been published by the Poetry Institute of Canada as well as in the 2004 We’Moon datebook. She has also collaborated with her sister Cat in writing a script for a piece called “sistershow”, which they performed at the Firehall Theatre for BCBuds in May 2008, and subsequently at other locations.
In 2006 she was a guest teacher at Point Grey Secondary School with a former worker on his practicum. He facilitated Kirsteen on her alphabet board as she wrote one line and a student the next, and so on, composing a poem “live” within the class. This same worker had taken Kirsteen to his alma mater St. George’s in 2004, where he introduced her to the whole school, explaining her facilitated communication, reading some of her poems, and engaging Kirsteen and the students in a Q&A session. It is said that she made quite an impression.
Over several years, Kirsteen also gave presentations at Kwantlen and Langara colleges to students training to work with children with special needs in schools and in the community. These presentations, along with her poetry, were according to the students, very popular, educational and inspiring.
Kirsteen was invited to have one of her poems included in the Scottish edition of Safe and Secure, published by the PLAN Institute in 2011. This poem and two more of her works were included in the subsequent Alberta edition and will also be part of the upcoming updated BC Safe and Secure publication.
Kirsteen began painting a few years ago and some of her pieces were hung in her home. A family friend who is an artist saw them and exclaimed that Kirsteen had real talent and must begin painting again. Hours were spent carefully selecting paintings to be paired up with the poems in Kirsteen's first book, 'Dear Butterfly'.
‘Dear Butterfly’ is her first complete collection of her original poetry and artwork to date, and was released on April 25th, 2014. She was invited to present a selection of these poems for Project Everybody in September, 2014 at the Roundhouse Community Theatre in Vancouver, BC. She is currently planning for future events around Vancouver and beyond to promote her book, and share her art and poetry with as many people as she possibly can.
Kirsteen has presented her poetry twice at the Kickstart Festival of Disability Arts and Culture, and has also performed at regular open mic nights in East Vancouver. Kirsteen holds centre stage at these events while her poems are read to the audience by her workers or family members.
Some of her work has been published by the Poetry Institute of Canada as well as in the 2004 We’Moon datebook. She has also collaborated with her sister Cat in writing a script for a piece called “sistershow”, which they performed at the Firehall Theatre for BCBuds in May 2008, and subsequently at other locations.
In 2006 she was a guest teacher at Point Grey Secondary School with a former worker on his practicum. He facilitated Kirsteen on her alphabet board as she wrote one line and a student the next, and so on, composing a poem “live” within the class. This same worker had taken Kirsteen to his alma mater St. George’s in 2004, where he introduced her to the whole school, explaining her facilitated communication, reading some of her poems, and engaging Kirsteen and the students in a Q&A session. It is said that she made quite an impression.
Over several years, Kirsteen also gave presentations at Kwantlen and Langara colleges to students training to work with children with special needs in schools and in the community. These presentations, along with her poetry, were according to the students, very popular, educational and inspiring.
Kirsteen was invited to have one of her poems included in the Scottish edition of Safe and Secure, published by the PLAN Institute in 2011. This poem and two more of her works were included in the subsequent Alberta edition and will also be part of the upcoming updated BC Safe and Secure publication.
Kirsteen began painting a few years ago and some of her pieces were hung in her home. A family friend who is an artist saw them and exclaimed that Kirsteen had real talent and must begin painting again. Hours were spent carefully selecting paintings to be paired up with the poems in Kirsteen's first book, 'Dear Butterfly'.
‘Dear Butterfly’ is her first complete collection of her original poetry and artwork to date, and was released on April 25th, 2014. She was invited to present a selection of these poems for Project Everybody in September, 2014 at the Roundhouse Community Theatre in Vancouver, BC. She is currently planning for future events around Vancouver and beyond to promote her book, and share her art and poetry with as many people as she possibly can.