Paula and I have been going to poetry readings this fall. Lots of the poets in the Avantgarden series are Paula's friends from Margaret Christakos 'Influency' class at U of T. They are experimental poets. Liz Howard and Shannon Maguire are the co-cultivators of Avantgarden, and classmates of Paula. Cara Benson's performance was breath-taking. She brought deep spirituality to the room and her emotional vulnerability was moving. I found it easy to connect to her work. Sometimes she repeated sounds and words, chant-like. Cara did some really funny stuff like when for example a new visitor arrived, and as they clomped up the stairs, she would repeat with each clomp, "step", "step", "step"... like it was right out of her book. Really got us!
Sonia Greckol read her rapier-witty poems with such charm. Her work has an endearing blend of innocence and cynicism. The peices were comical and sharp. She seemed to find something new in every turn of phrase to amuse herself as she read on. It was a privelage to be in the same room as her as she invoked fresh interpretations of her material. She seemed to be reinventing herself on the spot, as if reading her own material for the first time, and really getting a kick out of discovering herself. How many times did I say that? Well it really impressed me.
Joan was the best storyteller of the night. She jammed up snippets of news reports and other media ephemera into a vast tragic-comic kaleidescope of epic proportions. Everyone loves this woman.
The Mansfield Press Launch was jam packed full of people and they were celebrating Mansfield's 10th anniversary. Many of their first published authors took a turn at the mike.
We're enjoying the This Is Not A Reading Series put on by Mark Glassman, with Charlie Huisken and his son Jesse, formerly of This Ain't the Rosedale Library. Much less reading and lots more of getting to know the authors. Eileen Myles at the Gladstone wowed the crowd. She is a dynamo. Very funny. So open and honest.
At this TINARS at Clinton's Joe Pernice sang and played guitar between insights into his life and work process during an interview with Stuart Ross, an editor at Mansfield Press and a prolific author himself. This is a drawing of Karl, our friend from a long time ago. We just ran into him this night after about 15 years. He's a therapist. He's out at 2 or 3 events every night! He found this one boring.
I was disappointed too.
The Descant 'Hear Hear' this summer was fun. Lots of accessible writing with punch. Mark Laliberte wears more than one hat editing at both Descant and Carousel. And he also wears some pretty cool hats. The guy has some style going.
The last time Paula and I were in the Free Times Cafe was on the way back to her old place on Euclid, on our first date. We stopped for cider in November. We walked arm in arm for hours. It was the start of something big.
