| As so many things do, it all began with a dream. Sheri-D Wilson, one of Calgary’s leading poets, was inspired to start a new spoken word festival about a year and a half ago.
"I had been rejected for something I really wanted to do (in my writing life)," she says. "That night, I went to sleep and had this dream that I had to do a spoken word festival. I know it sounds kind of like St. Joan, but it really was a vision."
Wilson, who has travelled around the world performing her poetry at other arts and spoken word festivals, realized that Calgary could support a festival of this type just as easily as the other cities she’d visited.
"Why did I have to go to Boulder, Colorado or Seattle or Africa, or all these other places, when we have this great place called Calgary in the middle of a beautiful landscape with an amazing community of writers and poets and artists?" she says.
After her inspirational dream, she began planning. She incorporated as a not-for-profit society and started lining up volunteers. Local up-and-coming writers Andrea Dupuis and Emily Elder are both assisting with the planning. They have official titles but, as is often the case with grassroots efforts of this kind, I get the impression that their titles are more accurately described as "do whatever needs to be done." For instance, on the Sunday afternoon when I interviewed Wilson, Dupuis was doing a final proof of the festival program, handling phones and sorting out ticket inquiries.
Wilson also set up a diverse board of directors consisting of writers, professors, lawyers, former politicians turned social workers, and businesspeople. Applications were made to government funding agencies and invitations went out to a number of well-known artists in the spoken word community, both in Canada and the United States.
Over the past year, the lineup for the festival has come together, with a stellar group of artists encompassing a diversity of cultures, ages, voices and styles agreeing to appear. Presenters at the festival will range from emerging hip-hop artists Dwayne Morgan and The Motion to such grand masters of the Canadian literary scene as Lorna Crozier and George Elliott Clarke.
Wilson is excited about all of the people who will help set the bar high for this inaugural festival, but she holds a special place in her heart for Diane di Prima (see the interview in this issue). "Diane has been my teacher and my mentor, and I am completely jazzed to have her coming," says Wilson. "She’s one of the original beatniks, a personal correspondent with Ezra Pound – her list of accomplishments just goes on and on. I don’t impress easy, but the first time I heard her read, she moved me so deeply, I literally fell off my chair. She’s that good."
The dream that inspired this festival isn’t the only dream Wilson has. Although the focus is on spoken word in the inaugural year, she sees no limits to how big this festival could become.
"Bumbershoot in Seattle started as a bunch of hippies running a small-press festival," she points out. "Now it’s the largest arts festival in the United States. So who knows what we could become over time?"
The kickoff for the festival is on Wednesday, July 7 at Knox United Church with readings by Lillian Allen, di Prima and Wilson. Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling 686-4292 or by e-mailing CISWFtix@hotmail.com. Tickets are also available at the door for all events.
For more details on the festival, including dates, presenters and information about volunteering, visit the festival’s official website at www.randomaccuracy.com/spokenwordfestival. |
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