Saturday, August 15, 2026 | 1 to 5 p.m.
In collaboration with La Grande Nuit de la poésie, presented by the Amis du patrimoine de Saint-Venant-de-Paquette, ccdMalvina invites you to an afternoon where sculptural gesture and poetic voice meet — before the night carries on until dawn in the neighbouring village of Saint-Venant.
A collective creation workshop with sculptor Royden Mills
The afternoon opens with a collective creation workshop led by Royden Mills, a Canadian artist and adjunct instructor at the University of Alberta.
Royden Mills began his art practice in a rural studio in northern Japan, where he lived for two years with his wife, Linda. Since then, his work has led to major public installations presented internationally. His sculptural practice is fundamentally about bringing bodies back into public space: at Malvina, he continues this exploration through the Symbioses of Intelligences project, and is also the creator of the Malvina Horse, a life-size sculpture unveiled this summer as part of the heritage trail Malvina in the Old Days. In his own words, his sculpture aims to inspire a community to gather and feel fully present, opening onto metaphors, emotions, and physical potential too often overlooked in everyday life.
An afternoon with three voices of Quebec poetry
The afternoon’s guided trail visits will be punctuated by poetic pauses, featuring three poets invited by La Grande Nuit de la poésie.
Pierre Nepveu
Poet, novelist, and essayist, Pierre Nepveu is one of the defining figures of contemporary Quebec literature. A leading scholar of Gaston Miron, whose first biography he wrote, he spent most of his career in the Département d’études françaises at Université de Montréal, where he is now professor emeritus. His work is marked by a lasting fascination with place and our relationship to territory — a sensibility that resonates naturally with the landscape of Malvina. Winner of the Prix Athanase-David for his body of work and a member of the Order of Canada, he has also played a key role in bringing Gaston Miron’s scattered writings to wider readers, notably through his co-edition with Marie-Andrée Beaudet.
Maxime Catellier
Born in Rimouski, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, Maxime Catellier is a novelist, essayist, and poet. He teaches literature at Collège de Valleyfield and now lives in Saint-Anicet, in the Montérégie region. His body of work — poetry collections, essays, novels — is marked by a distinctly modern language rooted in a surrealist lineage, and by a deliberate blurring of genres: verse pamphlet, surrealist novel, essay-fiction, photographic poem. His most recent publications include the novels Mont de rien and Golden Square Mile, and the essay Le temps présent.
Douce Sévigny
Originally from Saint-Hugues-de-Bagot, Douce Sévigny is a spoken-word artist and watercolourist. The author of two poetry collections, she blends rawness and tenderness in language devoted to the strength of women and to a deep appreciation of Quebec’s territory. Founder and organizer of Le Balcon des Incompris, she champions accessible poetry and a democratization of the stage and the spoken word — a conviction that leads her, she says, less toward God than toward the dirt roads shared with wild turkeys.
The night carries on until 3 a.m.
From there, the experience moves to the village of Saint-Venant-de-Paquette for La Grande Nuit de la poésie, which unfolds into the early hours across the church, the big top, and the Maison de l’arbre.
The program brings together dozens of voices in readings, spoken word, and song, along with talks, an open mic, and overlapping performances all evening long.
Pierre Nepveu will give a talk on Gaston Miron later in the afternoon, Douce Sévigny will perform as part of L’heure de la relève, and Maxime Catellier will take part in the opening show marking the 100th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s birth.