Brick Books 50th Anniversary: Brilliant and Timeless Books to Take Another Look At— awâsis – kinky and dishevelled

Alive and Thriving for 50 Years

We’re delighted to continue our 50th anniversary series this month with Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer’s awâsis – kinky and dishevelled This months blog post is written by Emily Riddle.

Founded in 1975 by poets Don McKay and Stan Dragland, Brick Books is marking its 50^th anniversary in 2025. Keeping a poetry-only small press not only alive but thriving for fifty years in a capitalist culture is an unlikely feat, and we’re in the mood to celebrate. One of the ways we’ll be celebrating throughout the year is by publishing a series of blogposts by Canadian poets reflecting on titles from our backlist—brilliant and timeless books we’d love readers to take another look at.

awâsis – kinky and dishevelled

by Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer

From the mind of an accomplished and beloved poet, awâsis–kinky & dishevelled is Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer’s sixth book. awâsis, in our very funny, sexy, sacred language, translates roughly to “child” but, as I have been told by my Elders Jerry and Jo-Ann Saddleback, means “little spirit that was loaned to us in the most holy sacred manner.” Louise begins this book with a photo of her grandson and a Pablo Picasso quote: “We are all born children—the trick is remaining one.” We all have inner children to revisit and heal, whether Indigenous or not. awâsis is an autonomous being on a rip through life—as a sparrow, a woman, a fox.

awâsis provides us with an example of a type of freedom that is still relational—he is a gender-bending, time-travelling hero, a trickster with something up her sleeve, and you will want to live vicariously through him. Being free is having good relations and speaking truth to power and to the darkness one experiences in the ongoing colonial project. This book perfectly encapsulates nêhiyaw humour, raunchy and full of teachings, sex, and heroism. I come back to many poems in this collection, but the one that remains with me the most is “Comeuppance.” The narrative of getting up to speak at a ceremony and farting because of feast food is fantastical and relatable. I will continue to return to this collection because I feel both challenged as a poet and comforted as a nêhiyaw iskwêw by its words. Let us all remember the meaning of awâsis and remember we are on loan.

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