| Art and poetry on the move
Ad creep – it's not a type of person ("hey, it's that ad creep at the door again"), it's the tendency of advertising to contaminate all available public space. A bit of relief from the billboarding (and boring) of the universe is art countercreep: the expansion of art, including literature, into the territory of advertising. For the third year now, the spirits of weary straphangers on Calgary transit will be lifted by Poetry in Motion. And for the second year, Art in Motion will offer welcome relief from ad creep. Both initiatives got their 2002 launch last week at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Emma laRocque, Karen Connelly, Earle Birney, Sharon Drummond, Monty Reid, Sid Marty and Sheri-D Wilson are this year's featured poets.
Wilson is also the Calgary winner of CBC Radio's Poetry Face-Off. National winners of that event will be announced on Richardson's Round-Up on April 17. Voting will be closed by the time you read this, but for more info see http://artscanada.cbc.ca/faceoff.
It's a busy week at Pages on Kensington. Thursday, April 11 sees Calgary poets Scott Alderson and Brian W. Erickson reading from published and new works. Then on April 17, Warren Cariou reads from the memoir Lake of the Prairies: A Story of Belonging. Alistair MacLeod likes it (and he doesn't write a lot of book blurbs, either). On Friday, April 18, Penguin books presents Kevin Armstrong (this year's Journey Prize winner for his short story "The Cane Field"), with his new short story collection Night Watch. All of these events are at 7:30 p.m., upstairs at Pages.
It's not until next week, but plan ahead for that annual poetry rite known as (W)rites of Spring. This year the group reading is entitled "Hopscotch and Marbles," and it takes place at Annie's Book Company (912 - 16 Ave. N.W.). Wilson, Bob Stallworthy and Walter Hildebrandt will all read, while emcee Rajinderpal S.Pal presides over the poetic proceedings. New this year: open mic readings, door prizes and a small admission fee. And at Annie's there's always cappuccino. (W)rites of Spring is on Sunday, April 21 at 2 p.m. For more information phone 282-7190 or 640-0566.
Calgary writers, readers and literary organizations owe a debt of gratitude to Kathy Hanson, who has been putting together a monthly e-mail newsletter of literary events for about 18 months. That newsletter is being reborn in a sense (a larger sense), in the form of a new Writers Guild of Alberta Web site to be launched by the end of April. More details on the new Web site will follow shortly, but the draft version I looked at was impressive: attractive, clearly organized and uncluttered, yet comprehensive. |
