Currently based in the Niagara region, Valentino Assenza has been a published poet and performing spoken word artist for over two decades, performing all over Canada and the U.S., including as a member of the Toronto Poetry Slam Team (slam is a competitive poetry event, performed in front of a live audience and a panel of judges).
He’s released four chapbooks: Wandering Absence (2004) and Il Ritorno (2006) with Labour of Love Press; and Quiet Confessions of a Loudmouth (2008) and Make Our Peace with Rattlesnakes (2009) with Lyrical Myrical Press. In 2019, he released Through Painted Eyes, his first full-length poetry collection, published by Piquant Press.
Through Painted Eyes is a beautiful collection. Through tender poetic snapshots and lush lyrical vignettes, Valentino Assenza takes us on a journey of memory that spans both generations and continents – where the old world of Sicilian shopkeepers merges with the modern, urban hustle of Toronto’s east end. Through Painted Eyes will help you remember how the wisdom of the past can heal us and move us forward. It will tickle your sense of nostalgia, ignite a desire to be drenched in tradition and culture, but most importantly, it will open your heart.
– Andrea Thompson, writer & spoken word artist & educator
An active supporter of the Toronto poetry community, he was the organizer of Cryptic Chatter, a monthly poetry/spoken word series; a board member for the Art Bar Poetry Series; and a founding member of The Toronto Poetry Project, a collective of poetry/spoken word artists, originally founded in 2005 as Toronto Poetry Slam.
Since 2015, he’s been the co-host and co-producer of Howl, a weekly Tuesday night program on CIUT 89.5 FM, where he showcases authors, poets, scriptwriters, playwrights and songwriters, including local writers and literary icons. Over the years, he’s interviewed such notables as George Elliott Clarke, Anne Michaels, Denise Donlon, Ron Sexsmith and Margaret Atwood, among others. On the last Tuesday of every month, he hosts CIUT Howl Open Mic, an on-air poetry open mic featuring previously self-recorded pieces submitted by poets and spoken word artists of all experience levels.
(Photo credits Valentino Assenza, CIUT Howl)
What we like about this poet
We love how Valentino Assenza extends his love of writing and poetry into the broader poetry and spoken word community, supporting other writers and helping us get to know emerging and local as well as well-known authors.
His first full-length poetry collection, Through Painted Eyes, is full of intimate, candid and nostalgic vignettes, including detailed and poignant tributes to the dearly departed. He paints with words and takes you on a journey to some of the places he’s known and loved. “The Tobacconist” is one of our favourites poems in this collection. Get to know Valentino Assenza and his work. You’ll be glad you did. (Written by C.M.)
Accessibility information: Please refer to the venue he’s reading in.
Ideas for where you can go from here:
- Get to know Valentino Assenza and buy his books.
- Check out his previous and upcoming appearances. If you’re in the area, plan on attending.
- Are you a poet or spoken word performer – or aspiring to be one? Consider submitting a piece to CIUT Howl Open Mic. Check out the details and submission guidelines.
We love poets because they inspire you to see and feel words in a new way. Seeing and feeling words in a new way allows you to be transported to another time and place, real or imagined. Being transported to another time and place, real or imagined, is part of the flourishing offline life Young W helps you discover: by exploring POETRY and the other 8 pillars of Arts & Letters, including those you may be hesitant to try.
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