The Seventh Annual Spring Equinox Poetry Celebration

A Words Aloud Poetry Cooperative (Grey/Bruce) event

 

 

Curry and Poetry

 

Sunday, March 19, 2006, 6:00 p.m.

 

at the Kozhi Korner Curry House

 

$25.00 - includes an open buffet, entrance to the poetry reading, and a complimentary chapbook or CD. 

Drinks of all kind will be available for purchase.  Poets will have their books/CDs for sale.

 

Featured Poets:

 

Jennifer Frankum – reads from her second collection of poetry, Dance More Often

in which she expresses both sadness and wonder in poetry that invites readers to turn their backs on everydayness of dust bunnies, difficult partings, and dying grandmothers to dance more often. http://www.bmts.com/~brucedale/jenni.htm

 

Dawna Proudman – reads from her recently released book, “Elements of Grace”

Dawna has coordinated two successful Words Aloud Spoken Words Festivals (2004 and 2005), and launched Elements of Grace in Durham in December.  On January 31st she was the featured poet when the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts reintroduced poetry into their events in Collingwood.  http://www.bmts.com/~brucedale/dawna.htm

 

Daniel Kolos – inspired by the 13th century Persian poet and mystic, Rumi, Daniel will read from his recent Chapbook, “Inspired by the Master” as well as from his first collection, “Slipped Out.”   www.bmts.com/~damilos/poetry.html Daniel has teamed up with Larry Jensen, who has composed new music for Daniel’s “Ode to Gwendolyn MacEwen”

 

 

Larry Jensen will sing his recent compositions;  Larry runs Jensen Music in Owen Sound with Katherine Mann and has been a leading light of folk music for the past 20 years.

 

The other local poets who will read at this Spring celebration are:

·       Harry Posner – owner of zencha tea bar in Collingwood, Harry has reintroduced public poetry readings to that area for the first time since Barbara Weider’s wildly successful poetry festivals in the past.  Harry will be reading from his book, Wordbirds.

·       Paul Scott – retired teacher from the Chatsworth area, Paul has been writing poetry all his life and is an active participant at Words Aloud poetry events.

·       Anne Duke Judd – award winning poet and publisher (Brucedale Press), http://www.bmts.com/~brucedale/judd.htm Anne has consistently graced our Spring Equinox readings with her poetry

·       Dianne Joyce – a published poet, free lance writer, and yoga teacher and who lives in Hanover, Ontario: http://www.writersunion.ca/j/joyce_d.htm

·       Melanie Knapp – is a tutor at the literacy centre at the Owen Sound library and has a degree in psychology from the University of Waterloo, with interest in drama, art and poetry.  Melanie will read from her two works, Two Souls Linked and  Two Souls Speak.

·       Alan Glicksman – artist, experimental sound performer and poet, has recently moved to Owen sound and will join us to share his recent poems with us.

 

OPEN MIC:  anyone else who would like to read will be able to do so at Open Mic by signing up upon arrival with the organizer, Daniel Kolos

 

 

 

September 30, Saturday, 6:30 p.m.

Poetic Cyclotron I

at Collingwood’s

zencha tea bar

There will be a contained and potent concatenation of poetic energy that could create, who knows, a literary supernova in the tiny tea shop known as zencha!

Participating Poets:

Liz Zetlin

Timothy Ormond

Chris Gallagher

Judy Lowry

Peter Bowen

Harry Posner

Daniel Kolos

and original music and songs

composed by Natalie Jack

written for this event!!!

The event will be free

potential audience members would need to reserve a spot by calling or emailing the shop. 

tel: 705-446-0096, email: zencha.teabar@sympatico.ca

 

 

 

November 3-5, 2006

Words Aloud 3

for details see

www.durhamart.on.ca/wordsaloud

 

*     *     *     *

Text of CFOS 650 AM Radio interview with Daniel Kolos at Noon on March 19, 2006:

 

Words Aloud Poetry Cooperative has been around since the late nineties and just had two successful years of staging major Spoken Word Festivals. 

 

After the applause dies down and the award winning poets from all over Canada return home, we turn to honing our own poetry and, as a poetry cooperative,  we put on five or six local poetry readings throughout the year in different communities. 

 

We kick off our year either at St. Valentine’s Day or around the Spring Equinox.  The last Erotic poetry evening was so spicy that no one dared to organize another, so I thought we would spice up our Spring reading with some curry.

 

Kozhi Korner Curry House on Second Street, Owen Sound, has kindly hosted Words Aloud poets for three years now:  our hosts, the Kozhikotts, put on a wonderful buffet dinner and then we go on to feature local poets. 

 

I put the word out some months ago and asked who would like to do feature length readings and I only had two poets respond to that.  Everyone else was shy and took short, five minute spots. 

 

1.      So we have Jennifer Frankum of Southampton who has published two books through Brucedale Press of Port Elgin;

2.      we have Dawna Proudman of Durham whose first book of poetry just came out:  Elements of Grace.  She launched it in Durham in December at Chickory Common, Durham’s famous health food store and organic café; she then took it to Collingwood on January 31st and became the first poet in many years to give a solo performance at the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts.  This gig at the Kozhi Korner will be her official launch in Owen Sound.

3.      There being usually three featured readings, I took up the slack and will be reading from a book I am preparing for publication, Inspired by the Master.  It is poetry that I cannot help but write every time I take up a book by Rumi, the 13th Century Persian mystic and poet.

 

The audience who will come to dine and hear “Poetry with a Curry Flavor” will also receive a treat:  we will have the pleasure of a musical set with Larry Jensen who has entertained Owen Sound audiences for years!

 

The other poets who will join us will be:

·       Harry Posner – owner of zencha tea bar in Collingwood, Harry has reintroduced public poetry readings to that area for the first time since Barbara Weider’s wildly successful poetry festivals in the past.  Harry will be reading from his book, Wordbirds.

·       Paul Scott – retired teacher from the Chatsworth area, Paul has been writing poetry all his life and is an active participant at Words Aloud poetry events.

·       Anne Duke Judd – award winning poet and publisher (Brucedale Press), http://www.bmts.com/~brucedale/judd.htm Anne has consistently graced our Spring Equinox readings with her poetry

·       Dianne Joyce – a published poet, free lance writer, and yoga teacher and who lives in Hanover, Ontario: http://www.writersunion.ca/j/joyce_d.htm

·       Melanie Knapp – is a tutor at the literacy centre at the Owen Sound library and has a degree in psychology from the University of Waterloo, with interest in drama, art and poetry.  Melanie will read from her two works, Two Souls Linked and  Two Souls Speak.

·       Alan Glicksman – recently returned to Owen sound from Toronto – an artist, experimental sound maker and poet, he will make his poetry debut in our area Sunday night.

 

Those poets with books and CDs will have them available for sale and I am sure they will be happy to autograph and inscribe their work.

 

It might be smart to reserve a place at the Kozhi Korner by calling the restaurant at 371-8801

 

Owen Sound has become a hotbed of literature over the past ten years, with Ginger Press taking the lead, the Public Library following up with a poet in residence, Sheatre (Joan Chandler and David Sereada) and the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery sponsoring not just theatre and art but also songwriting, short stories and poetry, and the Grey-Bruce Writers are headquartered in Owen Sound as well.  So when people say or the city councilors claim that Owen Sound is a cultural Capital in Ontario, they are right on!  And the Words Aloud poetry Cooperative has been part of that tradition for eight years now, organizing at least one, sometimes two or three poetry readings a year in the city.