November 4, 5, 6

The 2011 Words Aloud Spoken Word and Storytelling Festival is over for this year, but its energy and impact linger on. Words Aloud 8 was a captivating mix of the familiar and the fresh, on both the performance and technical fronts.

BAM! The Toronto Youth Slam Team returned to wow audiences at Grey Highlands Secondary School and Great Books and Café in Williamsford, and an octet of diverse poetic talent visited for the first time: Steven Heighton, Lillian Allen, John Giorno, Ariel Gordon, Anne Simpson, Ayub Nuri, Marilyn Dumont, and James Gordon. Ronna Bloom, a favorite of last year’s festival, came back to assist us with a Words Aloud first – an onstage interview with spoken word legend John Giorno, who charmed everyone with his high-energy performance, his wonderful stories, and his joie de vivre. (You can catch the interview on http://www.youtube.com/user/WordsAloud2)

In addition to our regular performances, Marilyn Dumont and John Giorno also delighted audiences in other communities: Marilyn in Toronto and Waterloo, and John in Toronto. And while the Durham Art Gallery continued to serve as our fine festival venue, a new sound system contributed to an even better audience experience. Add to all that our personable and informative MCs (David Sugarman, Linette Keating-Jones, Hazel Lyder and Steve Morel), our entertaining festival opener Mayor Kevin Eccles, a quartet of fabulous workshops given by Steven Heighton, Marilyn Dumont, James Gordon and Anne Simpson,and delicious snacks and nibblies, and you have what amounted to a truly crowd-pleasing weekend.

Oh, yes, and there was cake!  This was in honour of John Giorno’s 75th Birthday Tour – James Gordon led the singing, everyone in the house got to have a piece of the lovely gateau, and John was very touched and pleased by the gesture.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

We’re happy to report that the festival wasn’t only pleasing to our audiences. Here’s what some of our performers had to say about their experience:

“What I loved best is the community, and what a mayor you have. Can we borrow him for Toronto(?)” Lillian Allen, dub poet

“. . .this (event) I liked for its diversity of poets and writers who had been invited to speak and read.” Ayub Nuri, journalist

“Words Aloud is the festival to which I will compare all other festivals. . .it was the most fun I’ve ever had on stage.” Ariel Gordon, poet

“It is a gift to me as a writer to be treated so royally. Food, rest, amazing company. And as always an audience that WANTS us.” Ronna Bloom, poet, interviewer

“I loved the SCALE of it. . .intimate and welcoming, and I loved the community aspect of it. . .the fest seemed to grow out of those rocks and that river. . .very well organized. . .we were all certainly looked after very well. . .” James Gordon, singer-songwriter

“Wonderful Festival. I can tell you sincerely that that was one of the best audiences I’ve ever read to. . .the sound system was superb, the volunteers were delightful, Alison did a great job selling our books. . .the art gallery was a perfect space.” Steven Heighton, poet, novelist

So to all those who contributed to making the festival such a success, and to one of the best literary festival audiences around, a big THANK YOU. Thanks also to all those who voted in our West Grey Library poll: based on your responses, the library has added five books to their collection.  They are Steven Heighton's Patient Frame and Shadow Boxer, Marilyn Dumont's A Really Good Brown Girl, Anne Simpson's Falling, and, in a nod to a previous visitor to Words Aloud, Don McKay's Vis a Vis.  We’ll keep you posted on other spoken word news (like the airdate of John Giorno’s taped interview with George Stroumboloupoulos and our YouTube archive of this year’s performances, now being edited), and if you have any comments or suggestions for us, just send us a note through the Words Aloud website contact page: http://www.wordsaloud.ca/contact.
 

(First published in Mosaic, September 2011)

What an exceptional way to celebrate children’s literature – featuring the story as an exciting stage production. The Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival cultivates audiences of all ages, and each year pairs with the South Grey Bruce Youth Literacy Council to bring the brightest and best family theatre opportunity to the elegant Victoria Jubilee Hall in Walkerton. The word is out – this year’s well-anticipated production is The Wind in the Willows, one of the most revered children's books of all time.

The New York based poet, performer, painter, and activist John Giorno, will be Words Aloud’s special guest this November 4-6, as part of his 75th Birthday Tour.

So why is he legendary? you might ask.

Partly for the people he worked with, was influenced by, and loved. In 1962 he met Andy Warhol. They became lovers and Giorno was the subject of Warhol’s first film, “Sleep.” Inspired by Warhol, and friendships with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Giorno began applying Pop Art techniques of appropriation of found imagery to his poetry, producing The American Book of the Dead in 1964.

(An abridged version of this article appeared in the August issue of Mosaic.)

No, this isn’t Words Aloud Spoken Word and Storytelling Festival’s version of a recruiting poster, but now that I’ve got your attention, let’s talk poetry. ..and I mean literally. Because that is what spoken word is all about, poetry and stories coming to you not just by the printed page, but via the bodies and voices of their creators, onstage and in person, immediate, visceral, and fresh. Before the printed word became ubiquitous, this is the way it had always been, a dynamic, embodied relationship between bard and listener.

To give you an idea of this dynamism and embodiment, we need to get a little audience participation going, and this is where the talking comes in. Several of the remarkable spoken word artists who will be joining Words Aloud in November have provided us with some choice pieces of work as festival “spoilers”, and that makes a great opportunity to begin to get some idea of the vitality of spoken word. As we take a look at the pieces, you need to do only one thing: read them aloud. Roll the words around on your tongue, listen for the rhymes, feel the rhythms and syllabic stresses like tides surging and ebbing, experience the way your lips and tongue navigate their way around consonant repetitions. Read the work to others, by all means, or read them when you are alone, with only your dog sitting at your feet thinking you’re talking to her.

‘Spoken Word’ is a catch-all phrase coined in the 1980s for word-based performance arts that did not fit into the established genres of music, theatre and dance. This capsule history touches on its diverse practices, a number of which will be showcased by notable performers from Canada and beyond at the 8th Words Aloud Spoken Word and Storytelling Festival this November.

Today, Spoken Word includes a wide range of performance genres. Just to mention a few from this year’s Words Aloud Festival, upcoming presentations include: readings of written lyric poetry (Nova Scotian Anne Simpson, winner of the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize); dub performance (Lillian Allen, Canada’s foremost dub poet): performance competitions (the Toronto Youth Slam Team): and storytelling (Ayub Nuri, Iraqi-Kurd writer, reporter and TV journalist sponsored by PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile program).

(Published in Mosaic, June 2011)

Where is poetry ‘at’ today? Is it more than the least-bought, longest-browsed section of your local bookstore?  Do you see it as the domain or a few insiders who get it? Content for fringe hipsters who are ‘in’ on it?   

(First published in Mosaic, May 2011)

We only just said goodbye to the 2010 Words Aloud Festival in the March issue of Mosaic in which Ruth Mittelholtz reviewed a toe-tapping, ear-snapping encore performance by C.R. Avery, and we’re already back pawing at the gates eager to usher in the eighth festival this November. Are we putting the coffee on too early? Certainly not, since the preparations have been percolating for at least seven months. We’re bubbling over with enthusiasm and information to relay.

Words Aloud remains loyal to its tradition of showcasing a diverse assortment of unique talents, genres and performance styles, gathering together voices from regions across Canada and beyond. And although the festival bills itself as a ‘spoken word’ event, there is a lot more than just speaking that goes on!

Leonard Cohen once said to the CBC’s Shelagh Rogers: “I think my opinions are second-rate, but when you submit yourself to a (poetic) form, then something happens and you’re invited to dig deeper into the language and to discard the slogans by which you live, the easy alibis of language and of opinion.” This remark is somewhat paradoxical: he seems to be saying that by embracing form (literary structure), the poet frees himself from form (custom, convention, cliché). Most of us are not conscious of how aspects of form impact us, but writers are among those who think about it a lot.

(Published in Mosaic, March 2011)

Spoken-word artist C.R. Avery’s dynamic mix of blues, poetry and rock and roll, backed by local blues/jazz band Big Bad Wolf, delighted an appreciative crowd at the Williamsford Mill Great Books and Café Saturday evening, January 22. Having enjoyed his performance last November at the Words Aloud 7 Festival at the Durham Art Gallery, in which he sang poetic verse while simultaneously beatboxing, pounding the piano and adding wild harmonica, I was pleased to learn that Words Aloud artistic director Liz Zetlin had arranged to bring him back for an extra performance as a thank you to their loyal audiences and supporters. C.R. has been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop, colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg.