Words
Aloud Spoken Word Festival
June 25-27, 2004
POETRY IN ACTION and WORKSHOPS by Canada's BEST spoken word artists including CBC National Poetry Face-Off Winners; Sunday celebration showcasing new talent and live music
at the
Durham Art
Gallery
251 George Street East
Durham, Ontario
WORDS ALOUD SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL,
JUNE 25-27,
2004, Durham, Ontario
(With Final Report
reproduced as the
second half of this
web-page)
FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERT
JUNE 25 7:30 P.M.
Segun Akinlolu, spins together original poems, folklore, and song
in a unique configuration honouring the oral traditions of his Yoruba people.
Based in Ottawa, he has performed in Africa, Canada, the U.S. and
Britain with his acoustic guitar and African percussion instruments. He has published three volumes of poetry, a
novel, and two live poetry albums. Visit Segun at www.beautifulnubia.com.
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
In addition to numerous written publications and public performances, she
recently released a spoken word CD entitled Standing Ground. She is now working
on a performance piece with Mohawk choreographer Santee Smith and Maori hip hop
artist Te Kupu. Kateri's
other interests include tracking with the Ndakinna Wilderness Project, learning
the Anishnaabe language, studying dreams, and traditional gathering and
harvesting.
Visit Kateri at www.honouringwords.com.
Sheri-D Wilson is an award winning ‘action poet,’ playwright and
‘Poet in Residence’ for CBC''s Sounds Like Canada. With five collections of
published poetry and a poetry CD entitled sweet taste of lightning, Sheri-D
Wilson has been featured on CBC
Canada and has written articles for the ‘‘Globe & Mail.’’ The San Francisco
Examiner describes her as ‘Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen .
. . [with] a chromosome of Patti Smith and a double-helix strand from Jim
Carroll.’
Visit Sheri-D at www.sheridwilson.com
Click here for Photo
During the day, Wendy Morton is an insurance investigator. During
the night, she's a poet, with two books, Private Eye and Undercover published
by Ekstasis Editions. Periodically, she boards WestJet flights, reads poems to
the passengers, and writes them poems as ‘poet of the skies’. She loves to
promote poetry anywhere and will stop strangers to read them poems, and
otherwise commit random acts of poetry, sometimes in a PT (poetry travels)
Cruiser, supplied by Chrysler.
Visit Wendy at www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/mortonw.htm
SATURDAY NIGHT CONCERT JUNE 26 FEATURING CBC POETRY FACE OFF WINNERS
2002-04, 7:30 P.M.
Motion (Wendy Brathwaite) is an award-winning poet, radio show
host and author of her debut collection, Motion In Poetry. This Toronto-born
talent brings her movement from the stage to the page to the airwaves.
Motion's recordings include appearances on Urbnet Hip Hop Vol. II,
Breakin' Hingez, Wordlife: Tales of the Underground Griots, Rap Essentials and
the Blu Magazine
Collection. ‘The Trilogy,’ her latest video collaborating with Tara Chase and
Apani
B. Fly, has been rotated on Much Music and Vibe, and is featured in this year's
Angela Davis Women's Film Festival.
Visit Motion at www.motionlive.com
Mary T. McDonald won the CBC National Poetry Face-Off in 2003 and
writes poems to be posted in the transit buses of Edmonton. A retired school teacher,
she belongs to the Stroll of Poets in Edmonton. She has three daughters and
seven grand-children.
Shane Koyczan is the 2004 CBC National Poetry Face Off
winner and he will be performing at the Words Aloud festival...for more
information visit www.koyczan.com
Jon Radojkovic was initially a poet, then journalist, author and
is now in the process of exploring visual poetry. He lives on a farm with his
family near Chesley in Southern Ontario.
He'll be launching his debut poetry video, Going Fishin,' which is a
visual representation of his poem about eco-consciousness as told through a
men's camping trip. Visit Jon at www.bmts.com/~brucedale/jon.htm.
WORDS ALOUD POETRY COOPERATIVE
is a group of eight poets dedicated to building a local audience for regional
and nationally known writers.
Performers for the Spoken Words Festival are chosen for their
artistry, both on the page and on the stage.
The programming balances accessibility with the excitement of new
adventures. It always stops short (so
far) of anything that would get us tar and feathered.
The Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival
is being coordinated by Dawna Proudman and Liz Zetlin. A list of
Words Aloud members is included at the end of this description.
Words Aloud Members:
Anne Duke Judd (port Elgin). A poet and short story writer, Anne
is the owner of Brucedale Press, which specializes in the work of area writers.
Daniel Kolos (Priceville). A poet and short story writer and
Egyptologist, Daniel is a former CBC Radio writer and is the author of two
non-fiction books on Egypt as well as a poetry collection.
Judy Lowry (Williamsford). A poet and visual artists who works in
clay, painting and drawing, Judy has taught art and poetry to publish school
and college students.
Barbara MacKay (Artemesia). A poet and short story writer, Barbara
is a former on-air contributor to CBC Radio, and a non-fiction magazine writer.
She is president of Make Hay Communications & design, a marketing
communications firm.
Dawna Proudman (Durham). A poet, short story writer and editor,
Dawna is the facilitator of Just Write Workshops for adults and children.
Before moving to Grey County, she was Events Coordinator for Nathan Phillips
Square at Toronto City Hall (1990 to 1993).
Jon Radojkovic (Chesley). A poet and short story writer, Jon is a
journalist with three regional newspapers and an organizer of the Sing Out and
Song Bird Cafes.
David Sugarman (Durham). A poet and organizer of the Song Bird
Café, David is a businessman as well as a board member of Project Canoe, a
non-profit organization guiding youth through creative and natural outdoor
experiences.
Liz Zetlin (Markdale). A Stephen Leacock award-winning poet, visual
artist, editor, teacher and member of the League of Canadian Poets, Liz is also
on the Advisory Board of Wild Ginger, a local poetry imprint publishing work
by, for and about Grey/Bruce poets.
for
your records, the following final report has been sent to the Canada Council,
Fresh Start and the League of Canadian Poets with attached financial report,
clippings, etc.
cheers,
Dawna
WORDS ALOUD
SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL 2004
FINAL REPORT
The Words Aloud
Spoken Word Festival surpassed every expectation. The energy of the performers
fed the energy of the audience which accelerated the energy of the performers
which fed the energy of the workshop participants which fed the energy of the
audience and so on. We not only created a market for spoken word poetry where
none previously existed, but, the excellence of the programming has ensured
that those who did not attend this year will be ready to take the plunge next
year. For weeks after the event we were approached by people saying "I
heard how good it was! I can’t believe I missed it! I am definitely coming next
year!"
CREATING AN
AUDIENCE
Funding
provided by Fresh Start and the Canada Council was essential to the successful
promotion of a hitherto unknown and untested art form in a rural area. The
Words Aloud committee had to create a market for spoken word poetry through
advance education and publicity. Media in Grey Bruce tend to provide
significant support for those events which have also paid for advertising.
Government support was essential to allowing Words Aloud to benefit from these
mutually supportive interactions.
Mosaic, the
monthly entertainment magazine for Grey and Bruce counties was a sponsor of
this event. Numerous advance articles were printed (copies enclosed) educating
readers about spoken word. In addition, the Sun Times, Owen Sound’s daily
newspaper, ran an impressive spread in advance of the event (enclosed), CFOS
Radio interviewed Liz Zetlin in advance and included numerous mentions.
Weeklies picked up various media releases. There was an article reporting on
the event in the Durham Chronicle.
ATTENDANCE
Over sixty
people attended each of the evening performances. (To put this into
perspective, a free poetry reading attended by friends and relatives of eight
local poets and featuring high calibre visiting artists might attract thirty
people tops in Owen Sound if the weather is good and there is nothing else
cultural taking place that week. On a bad night we have had as few as five
people at a reading, including the four poets!)
The financial
support of Fresh Start and The Canada Council enabled Words Aloud to present a
program of sufficient interest to entice visitors from throughout southern Ontario
to visit the town of Durham. Poets regaled the attributes of Durham from the
stage. There has been talk, since the success of the first Words Aloud
Festival, that down the road, Durham could become "The Eden Mills of
Spoken Word Poetry"!
WORKSHOPS
The funds
provided by Fresh Start and The Canada Council enabled Words Aloud to offer
workshops instructed by high calibre spoken word artists. As a result, local
poets have developed greater skill and confidence in presenting their work.
Three of the participants work with young people and intend to pass along the
skills they learned at the Words Aloud workshops.
Twenty five
people attended the spoken word workshops on Saturday. Responses to the
workshops were enthusiastic. Participants ranged from twenty-something to
seventy-something. At least three of the participants gave their debut
performances at the Sunday event. In total, nine workshop participants
performed at the Sunday event.
PROGRAMMING
The financial
support provided by Fresh Start!, the Canada Council and the League of Canadian
Poets allowed Words Aloud to present performers guaranteed to introduce our
fledgling spoken word audience to the best of this genre. Many people
complimented the diversity of styles, ages, approaches, content and cultures
represented by the various poets. All presenters were well received. One
committee member noted that "everyone was someone’s favourite".
TECHNICAL
PRODUCTION
The financial
support provided by Fresh Start! and the Canada Council ensured that the Words Aloud
Festival could afford a knowledgeable sound technician and equipment as well as
some modest lighting. The architecture of the Durham Art Gallery presents a
considerable challenge to providing good sound; by ensuring excellent sound,
the stature of the gallery as a performance venue was greatly enhanced.
YOUTH
OUTREACH
Volunteer Robyn
Smith, a student at Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton, organized a
series of workshops in Owen Sound High Schools featuring spoken word poet
Michael St. George from Toronto. A total of five workshops were held at the end
of May. These workshops were jointly funded by participating schools and The
League of Canadian Poets. Students and teachers participated enthusiastically
in the workshops. Although none of the teenagers signed up for the workshops
offered at the Words Aloud Festival, this is largely due to the festival being
held just following final exams. We hope to hold the next festival in October
2005 to encourage greater youth involvement.
RANDOM ACTS
OF POETRY
CKNX TV aired a
90-second segment of poet Wendy Morton performing Random Acts of Poetry at Tim
Horton’s in Durham! The Friday afternoon before her reading at the festival,
Wendy Morton stopped people in front of the post office, at the local health food
co-op and at Tim Horton’s in Durham, offering them free books of poetry if they
would listen to her first read a poem! (see photo accompanying Durham Chronicle
article)
NETWORKING:
Several
fledgling poets have joined a local writers group as a direct result of
attending the Words Aloud event.
There is one
new member of the Words Aloud Collective prepared to take on significant duties
to ensure that the festival continues in the future.
It was the
first time many people from surrounding communities and even people from Durham
attended an event at the Durham Art Gallery. The gallery garnered several new
members.
One workshop
participant had not heard of Mosaic magazine prior to this event and she has
subsequently had a poem published in this publication.
Two audience
members from the festival have subsequently had poems published on the topic of
the festival!
Local quilters
hung quilts on the gallery walls to provide an attractive visual setting but
also to enhance the sound!
David Barnard
from CBC radio attended the festival, participated in a workshop and recorded
the Saturday night performances. One poem by each of the three main performers
from that evening was featured on CBC Radio’s summer festival program the
following week.
The Metro
Toronto Libraries agreed to distribute our brochures and posters and the
Southern Ontario Libraries System provided an inexpensive courier system
facilitating the inexpensive distribution of brochures throughout the region.
Connections
were made with secondary schools throughout the region and Spoken Word
workshops were hosted by two Owen Sound high schools.
WHAT COULD
WE DO BETTER?
At the Words
Aloud Festival follow-up meeting, we agreed to the following changes for 2005:
By changing the
dates to October we hope to be able to attract more teens to the event.
Next year we
would like to expand the mandate to include storytellers and thereby further
expand our market.
We would like
to develop a standard contract for performers.
We would like
to hire someone to manage the finances, including devising a better system for
recording book and CD sales.
We may need a
larger venue for next year’s event.
We would like
to continue to expand our network of actively supportive organizations and
individuals.
We intend to
set up a more intensive lobby for municipal government for support.
NOTABLE
QUOTES:
"I just
got back from a poetry festival in Vancouver, which was way too big, poets who
went way over their time( twice the time) and delayed the schedule. I read in a
big dark hall at Simon Fraser University, couldn't see the audience, and had to
work hard to get a response. And I stayed for hours listening to the other
poets, got burned out, I think. I kept wishing it was Durham, which is my ideal
for festivals now." Wendy Morton, poet, B.C.
"I was
transformed this weekend...it was incredible. I feel so inspired...I just want
to dance out of the office and out into the street." Rhya Tamasauskas,
poet, book and fibre artist, Toronto
"Bravo! What a wonderful weekend! Thank you for all your hard work and commitment to an incredible opportunity. I loved it. And the chance to meet with some neat people too. Well done." Lynn Wyville, poet, Markdale
"It changed my life. I’m
prepared to do whatever it takes to bring this event back next year." Joan
Van Der Meer, Wingham
"I knew poetry could be
profound, but I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d laugh!" Katie
Rutledge-Taylor, Ottawa
"This was the best event of
any kind to ever take place anywhere at any time." Geoffrey Shea,
West-Grey Councillor, Durham
"We really needed something
like this here." Paul Neilsen, Durham
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Words Aloud poets published in the 2003 Dialogue Poetry –World Poetry Day Anthology: local copy PDF format e-book: http://www.dialoguepoetry.org/anthology_2003.htm |