Welcome to Season 9 Episode 5 of What's Literacy Got To Do With It? by Literacy Quebec!

In today's episode, Jaimie sits down with Linda Sparks, who started her journalism career writing articles for the Aylmer Bulletin and the West Quebec Post, including her own weekly column entitled the Faces of West Quebec. Linda also worked in the film industry as a location scout, screenwriter and production coordinator. She even worked on a Rolling Stone music video! Recently Linda has written her first fictional novel A Pair of Brothers for middle-grade readers. Linda talks about her journey to becoming a writer and journalist in Western Quebec. We discuss the importance of lifelong learning, especially with learning a language and continuously developing digital literacy skills!

Next up Chris interviews Roen Higgins, an award-winning spoken word poet, educator, dynamic speaker, certified impact coach and a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) facilitator. Founder of The Elevated Creative, her mission is to elevate audiences with important life skills such as self-care, resilience, leadership, cultural identity, creative literacy & community well-being.  In this conversation we hope you’ll learn or re-learn from Roen the art of using your imagination and opening up the creativity you already have inside, to live your best life!

Show Links: 

• Have questions or need help? Contact Literacy Quebec's Literacy Helpline or call 1-888-521-8181


• Check out Linda Sparks


• Connect with Roen Higgins via social media @roenhiggins 


• It's National Indigenous History Month. Learn more through the University of Alberta's free course: Indigenous Canada


• And it's also Pride Month. You can learn more about the history here.


• Yamaska Literacy Council Lob for Literacy event


• Drag Story Time is back! Check out LQ’s Facebook page for more


• Our friends at Suspicious Fish are celebrating their launch of 3 new anthologies and a new film, filled with stories from different generations of people from southwest Montreal. Order their books on their website and check out their videos


• Jump onto www.literacyquebec.org for events and to find what literacy services our members can offer you or someone you know.

What's Literacy Got To Do With It? is a community-based podcast for English-speaking, lifelong literacy learners in Quebec. Our hosts, Chris Shee and Jaimie Cudmore from Literacy Quebec explore community building, lifelong curiosity, and multiple types of literacy. It's incredible what we can learn from each other. Subscribe, share our podcast, and write to us at admin@literacyquebec.org, call us at 514-508-6805. Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for videos of interviews and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @LiteracyQuebec Special thanks: Podcast Theme Music by Gerry Legault and LQ's team including Margo Legault and Laura Thompson for their support.