Drew Hayden Taylor has been coming to Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for 35 years. His first visit was for the Theatre Arts program now known as the Playwrights Lab. He has returned more than a dozen times since. Some of his works include the plays Someday, Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, and AlterNATIVES—all developed in part at Banff Centre—as well as the novel Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. On his most recent visit in March, he spent time writing in the Hemingway Studio—one of the Leighton Artist Studios nestled among the trees on campus, offering the solitude artists often seek to focus on their work. “It’s beautiful. Sitting in this room, I just focus on my work. I have no interruptions, no distractions,” said Drew. “There is something about coming to Banff that really opens the creative juices.” This visit, the artist from Curve Lake First Nation Indian Reserve No. 35 in Ontario completed the final draft of a play set to be produced in Winnipeg, along with the third draft of a novel he hopes to publish next year. He also began work on a non-fiction book exploring Indigenous theatre and literature. Drew often jokes, “I’m half Ojibwe, half Caucasian, so technically that makes me a special occasion,” and says he aims to use his work to “bridge the cultures from Native to Non-Native.” “One thing I’ve noticed about being an Indigenous person is that we’re often looking back—at what we’ve lost, where we’ve come from, what we’re trying to reclaim or preserve,” he said. “What I like to do is turn that lens 180 degrees and look to the future. I’m just taking that traditional method of Indigenous storytelling and giving it a new passport.” Over the decades, Banff Centre has provided Drew the quiet he needs to tell stories that speak loudly across cultures. To keep up with Drew and check out some of his work, head to his website. #BanffCentre #DrewHaydenTaylor (fb)

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