Programs

Talk is cheap. Good ideas aren’t. As we continue to cascade into a fearsome global polycrisis, we need to discover, understand, share and promote ideas that we can rapidly implement to avert climate effects on our natural and human communities. We need direct action and legislative change. We need our best thinkers, the best ideas. We need all of us. Upstart & Crow’s Climate Initiatives spotlight and support exceptional thinkers in regenerative economics, social change, climate crisis communications, alternatives to fossil fuel extraction – and other ideas from across the globe.

Read a sentence that wasn’t originally written in your primary language, and immediately your perspective shifts. Combine that with discovering voices from different countries and different cultures, and you begin to understand why Upstart & Crow is so passionate about fiction in translation. Our Found in Translation Series of author interviews introduces our followers to some of the most interesting, readable, immersive books translated into English and available in Canada today.

As a mirror to our world, and an often-underappreciated art form, we stoke the celebration of poetry — and its creators. We host workshops and residencies to support emerging and established poets, and build collaborative creative initiatives to expand the role of poetry in our lives.

How can storytelling be reciprocal? How can we widen the community of writers and storytellers in Vancouver and beyond? How can we build more joy, fascination and confidence in the literary arts? Our community initiatives seek to answer these questions through workshops, book donations, and paid opportunities for writers to hone their work.

Coming Fall 2025, a series of debates and discourses about the issues affecting us at a local and global scale.