| One of the results of July’s second annual International Spoken Word Festival was the formation of the Spoken Word Arts Network (SWAN), a new collective organization of artists dedicated to promoting poets who work in the oral tradition. It’s another step forward in the official acknowledgment of the oldest form of poetry, which has become marginalized in modern times. In 2000, the Canada Council for the Arts, the federal arts funding agency, created a spoken word and storytelling program, and last year the League of Canadian Poets made changes to its rules to offer membership to spoken word artists.
SWAN’s international team of organizers includes the festival’s artistic director, Calgary poet Sheri-D Wilson, as well as Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Nishin Productions, Cape Croker), Lillian Allen (Dub Collective, Toronto), Bob Holman (Bowery Poetry Project, New York City), D Kim (Festival Voix d’Amériques, Montreal), Sean McGarragle (West Coast Poetry Festival, Vancouver), Jem Rolls (Edinburgh) and Andrea Thompson (The League of Canadian Poets, Toronto), to name a few. SWAN kicked off this month with an event called Liberate the Voice Day, and other activities are planned in the future. For more information, visit www.spokenwordarts.net.
The New Gallery in conjunction with NeWest Press and Pages is hosting poets Nina Berkhout and Shawna Lemay, as they both present new collections of poetry. Berkhout’s is entitled This Way the Road and Lemay’s is Blue Feast. The event takes place on Friday, September 30 at 7 p.m. at The New Gallery (516D -9 Ave. S.W.).
Annie’s Book Company is hosting Calgary poet and author Del Pine, who is launching his fourth chapbook, Town and Country. It contains new and collected poems and a short story that mix Alberta issues with private musings. Pine’s clarity and humour allow him to embrace seemingly disparate themes, from the four brutally slain Mounties who were casualties in a continuing drug war, to whoever gave that smoking monkey his first cigarette. His reading is on Tuesday, October 4 at 7 p.m.
Pages has three readings this week, the first taking place at 7:30 p.m. in the John Dutton Theatre of the W.R. Castell Public Library (616 Macleod Trail S.E.). Journalist Catherine Ford presents her new book Against the Grain: An Irreverent View of Alberta, challenging the view that we’re all a bunch of boozed up right-wing idealists. David Gray of the now-tumultuous CBC is hosting the event.
The next evening, Wednesday, October 5 at 7:30 p.m., back at Pages’s Kensington store, Lisa Moore reads from her new work, Alligator. A specimen of what’s being called the new North Atlantic gothic, her novel revolves around a collection of savants and ne’er do wells, one of whom likes alligators. Also reading that night is author Jaclyn Moriarty with her new novel, I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes – a title that I’m sure must be metaphorical and not, in fact, a reference to an actual bed made of pancakes. That would be crazy.
On Thursday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m., Pages presents the debut of Adrian Michael Kelly’s first novel, Down Sterling Road, which follows a family in the aftermath of a devastating accident. The reading is taking place at the Hillhurst United Church (1227 Kensington Close N.W.).
McNally Robinson rounds out the end of the month with a few events, the first spotlighting Calgary author Marie Jakober and her new historical novel, Sons of Liberty. Her earlier work, Only Call Us Faithful, won the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction, and this one returns to the same historical terrain with the tale of a mysterious group attempting to wrest control of Baltimore from the Unionists. She reads on Monday, October 3 at 7 p.m.
The following evening, Tuesday, October 4 at 7 p.m., Elizabeth Ruth reads from her new work, Smoke, about a young disfigured boy and the doctor who reads to him.
Last but not least, filling Station’s Flywheel series ends the month with a sampling from upcoming Calgary writers. Note that this week Flywheel is running on Wednesday, October 5 at 7 p.m. – a change from its usual Thursday night slot. |
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