Programs

Talk is cheap. Good ideas aren’t. As we continue to cascade into a fearsome global polycrisis, we need to discover, understand, share and promote ideas that we can rapidly implement to avert climate effects on our natural and human communities. We need direct action and legislative change. We need our best thinkers, the best ideas. We need all of us. Upstart & Crow’s Climate Initiatives spotlight and support exceptional thinkers in regenerative economics, social change, climate crisis communications, alternatives to fossil fuel extraction – and other ideas from across the globe.

Events and opportunities launching early 2027! 

Read a sentence that wasn’t originally written in your primary language, and immediately your perspective shifts. Combine that with discovering voices from different countries and different cultures, and you begin to understand why Upstart & Crow is so passionate about fiction in translation. Our Found in Translation Series of author interviews introduces our followers to some of the most interesting, readable, immersive books translated into English and available in Canada today.

Events and opportunities launching early 2027! Interested in what we’re up to elsewhere? See our Vancouver programming here. 

As a mirror to our world, and an often-underappreciated art form, we stoke the celebration of poetry — and its creators. We host workshops and residencies to support emerging and established poets, and build collaborative creative initiatives to expand the role of poetry in our lives.

Events and opportunities launching early 2027! Interested in what we’re up to elsewhere? See our Vancouver programming here. 

We offer a variety of public and paid workshops in the studio and online throughout the year, ranging from poetry, to sketchbook practice, to paper art. Many of our workshops are funded by our non-profit literary arts society.

For the latest workshop news, check out our events page or sign up for our newsletter.

Events and opportunities launching early 2027! Interested in what we’re up to elsewhere? See our Vancouver programming here. 

To say our society is polarised, and that mis- and dis-information have made it harder to build consensus and genuine relationships, has become a truth so obvious that it feels like a defining feature of our times. We live in a difficult duality: helplessness or ennui in the face of national and international political patterns, and disconnection from community under the weight of online influence and polarisation. Upstart & Crow’s Civic Dialogue pillar seeks to meet this challenge by amplifying authors, writers and thinkers who can help us navigate these times; by creating programming that uses the written word to spark civic engagement; and through a series of reflective debates.

Events and opportunities launching early 2027! Interested in what we’re up to elsewhere? See our Vancouver programming here.