The Single Onion celebrates Black History Month with a special event curated by Bethel Afework and featuring the poets Bkay Won, Iftu Hargaaya, and Jya Noe.
Thursday, February 19, 2026
7:00 PM MT
Shelf Life Books
1302 4 St SW
Calgary
Streaming is available at www.youtube.com/@SingleOnionPoetry
About the Poets:
Bethel Afework is an educator, poet, musician, entrepreneur, and nature-lover with a passion for making cities more enjoyable and welcoming for everyone. In 2016, she founded Raw Voices, a monthly spoken word, comedy, and music showcase featuring open mics and guest performers. They happen every last Friday of the month at Alcove Centre for the Arts (Alcove). Bethel is currently the Executive Director and a Co-founder of Alcove, a recreational art space dedicated to making the arts more accessible by creating warm, inclusive spaces where people can explore their creativity. Through a partnership with cSPACE’s, Alcove has offered free, year-round drop-ins in downtown Calgary five days a week since April 2023, and expanded with a second location in Beltline in August 2025.
Bkay Won is a Calgary based creative stepping onto the poetry stage for the very first time, bringing fresh perspective, vulnerability, and rhythm to the mic. Known for a thoughtful and expressive style, Bkay Won uses words to explore identity, growth, and everyday moments that connect us all. For Black History Month, this performance marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter rooted in storytelling, feeling, and honest self expression.
Iftu Hargaaya (she/her) is an educator and organizer whose work spans the nonprofit sector, public education, post‑secondary teaching, and her current role in learning design with the City of Calgary. She is a Pan‑African organizer with United African Diaspora, 1919 Magazine and the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, grounding her community work in liberation, political education, and collective care. She began writing poetry after the police murder of Trayvon Martin as a way to process her grief and anger, later developing a four‑week healing‑through‑poetry workshop while working in mental health education. Today, she continues to organize, teach, write, study and spend time with her very cute mini poodle named Nina Simone (Nina for short)!
Seemingly overnight Juliet McLean, aka Jya Noe’s (Jay-yuh-know-eh) name is heard around Calgary more and more, with her thought provoking takes on everyday trials and tribulations. Though performing since her late teens, Jya took a long hiatus to raise her sons, and complete her schooling. Jya always speaks of issues relatable to familial and society as a young black woman living in the web of complex systematic ploys aimed to erase the voice. Not only does Jya speak from the heart with relatable content speaking to the times, but she also begs the listener to dig that much deeper within their core to find and face complex emotions, long since forgotten. Jya knows pain, loss, joy, and bewilderment personally, intimately. Unassuming at first listen, her words instantly take a bite inside the listener, causing internal battles to be forged while empathizing with the diverse range of people around her. Jya Noe’s resume of performances is rich and vast, most if not all as the guest of honour. She endeavours to continually use her vocal instrument whenever possible to deliver crowd pleasing, yet dark and moving artistic performances, sure to stay within the hearts of all who are privy to hearing her. She does not and will not disappoint, she only asks for one to be open!
The Single Onion takes place the third Thursday of the month, nine times a year. Our event schedule can always be found at www.singleonion.com
We gratefully acknowledge the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the League of Canadian Poets, the Calgary Arts Development, Inside Out Theatre, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, and Shelf Life Books.
