Guess Who Put the Nch Back in Launch?

Congratulations to dear friends and fellow dealers in smut Jason Christie, Jon Paul Fiorentino and angela rawlings on their wild and fun joint book launch at the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival! Their books of wonder and fabulousness, Canada Post, The Theory of the Loser Class, and Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists are a trio of excellence in the pool of awesomeness that is Canadian poetry these days! I smell book awards! Mmmm... smells sort of chemically...

Jason read first, tickling the crowd's collective sweet spot with his gently sad poems about capitalism, nationalism and language. Example--

GALLOP POLL
Fuck off!

Canada Post's "I" puns and disjuncts language, sentences and lifts headlines to urge the listener/reader in the gentlest way possible to shift their paradigm and join a quiet revolution... or maybe eat some pancakes--...West Hillhurst will separate if our demands are not met...

angela rawlings read next, treating us to a hoosh and a ha. Check out the fluttery action of her hand in the photo! Her reading from WSfL was seductive and disturbing, a perfect performance of the text's treatment of sleepy innocence and the violence of aquisitiveness. The juxtaposition of angela's text with her live performance is the ideal demonstration of the difference between a live moth and one pinned, between in silk nests caterpillars in silk... larva is a cage where moths bleed silk and Collect, kill, and mount specimen. WSfL cries out for its flipside whether you are reading the text (beautifully treated and visually stunning) or listening and watching angela's performance. I feel so lucky to have experienced both.

Tino FM brought the scheduled part of the evening to a close with his energetic greeting to Moosejawians. Er Moosejawers. Um Moosejavans. Micejaw? A confused Fiorentino read work that fitted nicely with Christie's (We don't have much time left/ so please don't touch me) interspersing poems with banter that can only be described as witty. The Elton John of Canadian Letters (someone in Ottawa called him that and we're never going to let Jonny forget it!) is a crowd-pleasing bundle of fun, and his newest book is a snappy mix of playful ("Binary Code Sonnet 1.0"-- ...01001001001...) and lovely (a trail of loosestrife led me/ home // always maintained a semblance of balance/ the challenge to temporality // That is to say/ I'm lonely or lonesome or both). His performance was a fun wrap-up to the trio of launches--Jon Paul is always a hoot. A ha.

The charismatic and gracious host Paul Kennett brought us back for the second part of the evening, the OPEN MIC. I believe there were eight eager beavers who signed up for their two minutes of glory, and the ensuing oral happening was varied and on the whole, AWSORM. No one had to be herded off the stage and there were many styles, many styles, ranging from spoken word and spoken word/hip hop to avant garde language poetry and Bok beat box. I expect nothing less from our talent pool of readers/listeners, and our community is lucky to have so many poets who know how to listen and so many listeners who know how to poet. Well done open mikers!

Next? The NoD launch at Ye Olde Carpenters' Union Hall... There will be readings, oh yes, there will be readings, and happy faces. Tune in again and maybe I will have more to say and more importantly, more fun photos! Here area few for the road-- open mikers Emily Elder, X Box, and Fiddy, Laurie Fuhr and Ryan Fitzpatrick, the mess of paper and text and drink on our tiny table-- oh, the writing life! A hoosh!