| Calgary readers and book people of all kinds will have an opportunity to remember the late Cathy McKay of Pages on Kensington when Greg Gerrard accepts this year’s Freedom of Expression Award on her behalf.
The Calgary Freedom to Read Week committee will present the award at their 10th-anniversary event on Thursday, February 26 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.
The evening includes readings from both student essay-prize winners and former recipients of the Freedom of Expression Award. This is also a fundraiser for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. You can buy tickets in advance at McNally Robinson, Pages or the WGA, as well as at the door. For further information, call Jason Hammond at 265-2226 or e-mail writers@telusplanet.net.
From One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo to Alberta Theatre Projects’ playRites, theatre takes over Calgary in January and February, in case you hadn’t noticed. So why not get some performance poetry up there on stage, you might ask? Request granted, courtesy of WordFest and ATP. This Saturday, February 21, brings the initial instalment of Re: Verb, the first of two evenings of spoken word that make up an added attraction at this year’s Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays. Featured are author Nina Berkhout (Letters from Deadman’s Cay), award-winning poet Margaret Christakos and spoken-word artist Dwayne Morgan.
On Saturday, February 28, you can catch the second part, with poet Kimmy Beach (whose latest collection is the theatre-themed Alarum Within), rapper Joey Cappo and expatriate Yugoslavian writer Goran Simic. The performances both nights are at 9:30 p.m. in the Martha Cohen Theatre lobby. For tickets, call the ATP box office at 294-7402.
Words for the stage remain in the spotlight at Pages on Kensington this week, where ATP’s overflowing energies present Brief New Works, featuring dramatic readings of 10-minute plays. It takes place Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. from February 19 to March 4.
Perhaps the most dramatic way to enter the world of playwriting is through that flat-out compositional sprint known as the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition. For this year’s entrants – drawn by lottery from a pool of applicants on January 30 – the starting gun will sound at noon on Friday, February 20. Winners get their ribbons at the end of the Sunday, February 22 performance of the mainstage playRites show Down the Main Drag.
No one knows whether the CBC’s new Don Cherry Honorary Seven-Second Delay will be in effect for the five poets who "face off" at McNally Robinson on Tuesday, February 24 at 7 p.m. Or whether participants will benefit from any protective face wear. What is known is that, like last year, the local winners will compete to become national champion, and that the readings will be broadcast on CBC Radio One’s The Homestretch and Richardson’s Roundup. |
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