| POETRY CURRENTS | |
HOWL, A FESTIVAL OF ART & REVOLUTION
As this month ends, we’re just hearing the last of the Howl Festival of Art & Revolution which travelled to Toronto last month and to Montreal earlier in October, and finishes this weekend at ABC No Rio in NYC. This last stop on the festival tour is being coordinated by Softskull Press.
IMPURE SPOKEN WORD
This month in Canada sees the spoken word movement finally making history. The occasion is the launch of Impure: Reinventing the Word, an astonishing book that dubs itself as “an examination of the theory, practice and history of ‘spoken word’ in Montreal.” Aptly enough, the 288-page book is an oral history: Through interviews with 75 artists, as well as posters, photographs and manifestos, it documents the origins of the Montreal spoken word scene, and in doing so, serves as a commentary on an entire movement in literature.
Impure represents three years of work by Victoria Stanton and Vincent Tinguely, the book’s authors, as well as an immense effort by Conundrum Press to compile and present the photos, posters and other memorabilia that formed the scene in Montreal. The book launches October 27th in Montreal, November 4th in Toronto and November 25th in Vancouver.
Here’s part of their press release:
Conundrum Press Announces the Launches for Impure: Reinventing the WordImpure: Reinventing the Word compiles interviews with 75 French and English artists from Montreal, as well as New York poet John Giorno, in the first comprehensive examination of the theory and practice of “spoken word.” Drawing on the polygot word culture of one of North America’s most hybrid cities, this book taps the wisdom of musicians, activists, griots, dub poets, publishers, performance artists, storytellers, and slam poets. The reader will discover:
Montreal Launch: Saturday, October 27, at La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent, 8 pm, $20 with book, $5 without. Featuring: Your host Alexis O'Hara, Alex Boutros and Kaarla Sundström, Jake Brown, Jean-Paul Daoust, Nathalie Derome, Les Abdigradationnistes, Louise Dubreuil, Ian Ferrier, Corey Frost, Catherine Kidd, André Lemelin, nah ee lah, and many more... Co-sponsored by CKUT.
Toronto Launch: Sunday, November 4, at BarCode Ballroom, 549 College, 8 pm. Featuring a Fluffy Pagan Echoes reunion, Trish Salah, Debbie Young, Zoë Whittall and Dee Smith.
Vancouver Launch: Sunday, November 25 at Café Montmartre, 4362 Main Street, 9 pm, as part of Thundering Word Heard. Hosted by T. Paul Ste. Marie & co-produced by Grunt Gallery’s Live Performance Biennial. Featuring: Jen Lam, Kedrick James, Justin McGrail, Tanya Evanson, Steve Duncan, Louise Dubreuil, Lee Gotham, Tom Konyves, and Nathalie Derome. Impure: Reinventing the Word
Victoria Stanton and Vincent Tinguely
Translations by Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood
Conundrum Press
ISBN 0-9689496-1-4
7.5" x 9" - extensive bibliography included - English edition with French text included - black and white archival photos throughout - 288 pages - $20
- How Michel Garneau smuggled poems out of prison in LifeSaver rolls during the FLQ crisis.
- The rise of videopoems, poetry postcards, dance poetry and the Vehicule Poets.
- How French and English, American and British rock’n’roll poets collided at the bilingual Ultimatum Festivals in the eighties.
- How musician and spoken word innovator Ian Stephens, and others like the Punkatariat Poets, rallied around Foufounes électriques to create a vibrant scene.
- How French and English speaking artists influence one another onstage and interact behind the scenes.
- How “spoken word” is -- or isn’t -- like literature, theatre, stand-up comedy, publishing or singing.
- That it is impossible for the artists included here to agree on what their practice should even be called.
Launch info and media contact: Victoria Stanton, perfectwasteoftime@compuserve.com
HALLOWEEN IN VANCOUVER
For Halloween spoken fun, go down to Carral Street in Vancouver as Conscious Development presents: A Soulful Spoken Word Hip Hop Halloween, Monday, October 29th at the Blarney Stone, 216 Carral Street (between Cordova & Water), $5 at the door. The evening features soul singer/spoken word artist Amalia Townsend and MC Shankini with The Golden Section band. Come out costumed as your favorite literary figure, hip hop personality or jazz performer, or just come dressed for Halloween.
VANCOUVER VIDEOPOEM FESTIVAL
The major Vancouver story of the month takes us to the Edgewise Electrolit Centre, which presents the 3rd annual Vancouver Videopoem Festival. This year’s festival fare includes performance, poetry readings, juried and curated videopoem screenings, a construct-your-own videopoem workshop plus an ongoing interactive installation by Ryan Knighton.
Opening the festival on Thursday, November 8th at 7:30 pm is the Off The Page Multimedia Performance Poetry Cabaret featuring commissioned performances by bill bissett, Tanya Evanson, Alice Tepexquintle and Sheri-D Wilson. Poetry readings by Clint Burnham, Jen Lam and Miranda Pearson open the screenings November 9th, 10th and 11th. Juried by Geoff Inverarity, Laiwan and Rita Wong, this year’s screenings include work by Victoria Stanton, Penn Kemp, Scott Russell and Zaffi Gousopoulos and more.
A Bravo!FACT presentation is also included in this year’s lineup: “Elimination Dance” by Michael Ondaatje & Bruce McDonald, and “Kingsway” by Michael Turner & Clancy Dennehy.
And, for those who want to learn how to do it, there will be a Saturday Videopoetry workshop with New York performance artist and poet Adeena Karasick.
The Closing Reception + Party happens at The Web Cafe, 390 West Hastings. Here are the schedule details:
Third Annual Vancouver Videopoem Festival
8–12 November 2001, Pacific Cinémathèque, 1131 Howe Street
Info: Raquel Alvaro, Programmer, 604.535.8588 / raquel@videopoem.com
- Thursday, November 8th
Off-The-Page Multimedia Performance Poetry Cabaret featuring Vancouver performance poets bill bissett, Tanya Evanson, Alice Tepexcuintle and Sheri-D Wilson, $7, 7:30 pm
- Friday, November 9th
Poetry reading by Miranda Pearson, juried videopoetry screening, $7, 7:30 pm
- Saturday, November 10th
Introductory videopoem workshop with Adeena Karasick, $35, 2 - 4:30 pm at Pacific Cinémathèque. Please pre-register by phoning 604.535.8588
Poetry reading by Jen Lam, juried videopoetry screening, $7, 7:30 pm
- Sunday, November 11th
Poetry reading by Clint Burnham, curated videopoetry screening + Bravo!FACT presentation, $7, 7:30 pm
Closing Reception + Party @ The Web Cafe, 390 West Hastings, admission by donation, 9 pm
- Monday, November 12th
Screening of Robert Ashley’s operatic works presented by The Western Front, curator: DB Boyko, artist talk to follow screening, $7, 7:30 pm
- November 8 – 12
Installation by Ryan Knighton
RIBSAUCE
Next month you can catch the Montreal launch of a fine new CD/book anthology called Ribsauce. The project is subtitled “Words by Women,” and presents 24 women authors on the page and 15 female voices recorded on CD. It’s an edgy, powerful, focused look at what young Canadian women writers are doing across the country, and features almost all of Canada’s top female spoken word performers. This project is long overdue, as women have been the driving force in the scene here since 1995. This book shows what they’re up to. It’s presented by two publishers, Vehicule Press, which created the book, and our own Wired on Words label, which supplied the content for the CD.
The launch happens on Thursday, November 22nd at La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent, Montreal.
