{{short description|Cree Canadian poet}} '''Marvin Francis''' (1955–2005) was a Cree<ref name=Manitowapow>"Entry for Marvin Francis" in ''Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writers from the Land of Water'', High Water Press, 2011, page 271.</ref> poet from Winnipeg, Manitoba best known for his book-length poem ''City Treaty'' published by Turnstone Press.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marvin Francis|publisher=Canadian Dimension|url=https://canadiandimension.com/articles/author/marvin-francis|accessdate=January 3, 2021}}</ref><ref name=CanadianLit>"[https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/10207 '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.</ref>
== Life ==
Francis was born on the Heart Lake First Nation<ref>{{cite web|title=Marvin Francis|publisher=University of Manitoba|url=https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/complete_holdings/ead/html/francis_marvin_09.shtml|accessdate=January 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412160334/https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/complete_holdings/ead/html/francis_marvin_09.shtml|archive-date=2014-04-12}}</ref><ref name=Manitowapow/> 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.<ref name=Manitowapow/> 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.<ref name=Manitowapow/>
== Poetry ==
Francis is known for integrating elements of spoken word poetry and performance into his writing,<ref>''The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature'' edited by Daniel Heath Justice, Oxford University Press, page 584.</ref> drawing on his experience as a poet, playwright, actor, artist and theater director.<ref>"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.</ref> In 2002 he published his book-length satiric poem "City Treaty,"<ref>University of Toronto Quarterly, University of Toronto Press, 2003, page 46.</ref> which engages with "globalization, neoliberalism, and narratives of cultural identity"<ref>"Retracing Prairie Literature" by Alison Calder, The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature edited by Cynthia Sugars, Oxford University Press, 2016, page 701.</ref> as it deals with the "ongoing links of treaty trickery with the everyday discourses of global capitalism."<ref>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.</ref> The long poem has been called "a streetwise anti-globalization manifesto for the indigenous world"<ref name=CanadianLit/> and "an exuberant collection of songs, interventions, jokes, maps, histories and manifestos."<ref>"[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/booked-a-literary-travel-guide-for-the-stay-at-home-vacationer/article12885203/ Booked: A literary travel guide for the stay-at-home vacationer]" The Globe and Mail, June 28, 2013.</ref>
"City Treaty" received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2002.<ref>"The Brave New Words Winners List," The Winnipeg Sun, April 27, 2003, page C2.</ref>
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."<ref>"Edgework: Indigenous Poetics as Re-placement" by Warren Cariou from Indigenous Poetics in Canada, edited by Neal McLeod, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014.</ref>
A second volume of his poetry, ''Bush Camp'', was published posthumously in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marvin Francis Media Gallery|url=http://urbanshaman.org/site/mediagallery|accessdate=January 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115084515/http://urbanshaman.org/site/mediagallery|archive-date=2016-01-15}}</ref>
==Works== * ''City Treaty'' (Turnstone, 2002) {{ISBN|978-0888012685}} * ''Bush Camp'' (Turnstone, 2008) {{ISBN|978-0888013248}}
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== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Marvin}} Category:Writers from Winnipeg Category:Writers from Edmonton Category:Cree male writers Category:Cree poets Category:21st-century Canadian male writers Category:21st-century First Nations writers Category:Canadian male poets Category:Poets from Alberta Category:Poets from Manitoba Category:1955 births Category:2005 deaths