Marvin Francis Explained

Marvin Francis (1955–2005) was a Cree^[1] poet from Winnipeg, Manitoba best known for his book-length poem City Treaty published by Turnstone Press.^{[2] [3]}

Life

Francis was born on the Heart Lake First Nation^{[4] [1]} in northern Alberta. and lived in Edmonton. After quitting high school, he travelled across Canada and worked on various industrial jobs, including on oil rigs and for the railroads.^[1] Eventually he attended the University of Winnipeg, where he wrote radio plays and short stories in addition to his poetry.

He was pursuing his doctoral studies in English when he died of cancer in 2005.^[1]

Poetry

Francis is known for integrating elements of spoken word poetry and performance into his writing,^[5] drawing on his experience as a poet, playwright, actor, artist and theater director.^[6] In 2002 he published his book-length satiric poem "City Treaty,"^[7] which engages with "globalization, neoliberalism, and narratives of cultural identity"^[8] as it deals with the "ongoing links of treaty trickery with the everyday discourses of global capitalism."^[9] The long poem has been called "a streetwise anti-globalization manifesto for the indigenous world"^[3] and "an exuberant collection of songs, interventions, jokes, maps, histories and manifestos."^[10]

"City Treaty" received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2002.^[11]

His poem "Edgewalker" has been called an important work in understanding the "ideological boundaries that often separate the beneficiaries of colonialism from those who are objectified and impoverished by it."^[12]

A second volume of his poetry, Bush Camp, was published posthumously in 2008.^[13]

Works

• City Treaty (Turnstone, 2002)
• Bush Camp (Turnstone, 2008)

Notes and References

1. "Entry for Marvin Francis" in Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writers from the Land of Water, High Water Press, 2011, page 271.
2. Web site: Marvin Francis. Canadian Dimension. January 3, 2021.
3. "'How Come These Guns are so Tall': Anti-corporate Resistance in Marvin Francis’s City Treaty" by Warren Cariou, Studies in Canadian Literature, 31(1), 2006.
4. Web site: Marvin Francis. University of Manitoba. January 3, 2021.
5. The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature edited by Daniel Heath Justice, Oxford University Press, page 584.
6. "The Remembered Earth: Place and Displacement in Native American Poetries" by Kimberly M. Blaeser from The Native American Renaissance: Literary Imagination and Achievement edited by A. Robert Lee and Alan R. Velie, University of Oklahoma Press, 2013, page 265.
7. University of Toronto Quarterly, University of Toronto Press, 2003, page 46.
8. "Retracing Prairie Literature" by Alison Calder, The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature edited by Cynthia Sugars, Oxford University Press, 2016, page 701.
9. Public Poetics Critical Issues in Canadian Poetry and Poetics, edited by Bart Vautour, Christl Verduyn, Erin Wunker, and Travis V. Mason, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, page 322.
10. "Booked: A literary travel guide for the stay-at-home vacationer" The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2013.
11. "The Brave New Words Winners List," The Winnipeg Sun, April 27, 2003, page C2.
12. "Edgework: Indigenous Poetics as Re-placement" by Warren Cariou from Indigenous Poetics in Canada, edited by Neal McLeod, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014.
13. Web site: Marvin Francis Media Gallery. January 3, 2021.