River City Writer

I’m sure that many of you have been waiting for the Raving Poets to begin the 10th year of their infamous open stage reading series. Well, it’s started, and this year’s spring season has been dubbed Sofa King.

Raving Poets: Sofa King
April 1st to May 27th, 2009
The Kasbar Lounge below Yianni’s Taverna
10444 – Whyte Ave. Edmonton

I believe that emcee Michael Gravel has decided to take the year off, and that some-time host Jadon Rempel will step in to fill his rather large shoes. Jadon has always done a kick-ass job filling in for Mike in the past, so I have no doubt that he’ll slip into the role of full-time emcee with ease.

Other than that, the format that has become standard in the past few years is going to be in place this year, as well, as far as I know:

• Sign-up at 7:30pm; show at 8pm.
• 16 readers will be randomly draw from those who put their name in the hat; there is no special requirement to read (beyond signing-up).
• Give the band directions and they’ll improvise a soundtrack for your poem; keep the poem under 5 minutes or die.

That’s pretty much it. If you’ve never come down before, I highly recommend it. And, of course, you don’t have to be a poet hoping to read in order to enjoy the show.

Come out and see some of the best poets in Edmonton rock the stage every Wednesday from April through to the end of May.

The Raving Poets have announced their fall series. For the first time in a while, the series will begin in October, rather than November. It will also be 8 weeks long instead of a mere 5. I’m looking forward to it.

The Raving Poets Present

Born to Write

Open Stage Performance Poetry
with the Raving Poets Band and host Mike Gravel

Wednesdays, October 15th to December 3rd, 2008
Signup 7:30, Show at 8:00

The Kasbar Lounge
(below Yianni’s Taverna)
10444 – Whyte Ave. Edmonton

Eight weeks of musical and poetic symbiosis. Eight Wednesdays of camaraderie and poetic mayhem. Eight nights of beer, beats and E-Town’s finest versifiers. If you have never experienced a night with the Raving Poets, you don’t know what you’ve missing.

What is the Raving Poets Experience?
To quote our piano playerist Thomas Trofimuk, “It is akin to a ‘feeling’ and only hangs semi-translucent in the air on a Wednesday night when the band is ripping and the poet at the microphone is leaning back into the music and the two streams are in a gorgeous confluence.” There are certainly moments of ecstacy. Poets and poems that move to tears, elation, laughter or heart-wrenching sobriety. This is open stage performance at its best, where veterans bring their finely honed work and newcomers are welcomed with open arms.

You’ll find word-smiths of every stripe at the Kasbar. Come join your kindred spirits who were Born to Write.

I haven’t really pimped the Raving Poets as much as I usually do this season, but attendance has been a bit slim compared to past seasons, so I figured I’d dedicate some words to my boys and girls down at the Kasbar.

First, the W5 on the Raving Poets:

Who: Anyone and everyone. If you want to read a poem, just show up and add your name to the list. 16 readers are drawn from the hat. If your name is pulled, you are now a Raving Poet for the night. There are, of course, regulars, but everyone is welcome.

What: An open mic poetry night with live improvised music.

Where: Kasbar Lounge, in the basement of Yianni’s Taverna (10444 Whyte Avenue).

When: Every Wednesday until the end of May. Sign-up is at 7:30pm, readings start at 8pm.

Why: Because words matter, and they’re worth sharing. And because Edmonton has an incredible poetry scene. Even if you aren’t interested in sharing your work, there is always something worth watching.

And, on top of that, the Raving Poets will be selling “heart beat” pins this Wednesday—$5 for a pack of 4—with the proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Not only will you get to hear some great music, some great poetry, and drink a lot of good booze, you’ll also be able to donate money to a worthy charity and get some cool buttons in return.

As a dude with a heart condition, the Heart and Stroke Foundation is one of my favoured charities, so you can bet I’ll be shelling out my $5. Plus, I love buttons and pins, so it’s a win-win situation.

After being on hiatus since December, the Raving Poets are back with their 2008 Spring Season, titled Heart Beat.

For those who may not know about the Raving Poets, here’s a run down of what goes on at these things:

• People drink a lot of alcohol.
• People read poems—some are good, some are not-so-good, almost all are interesting in one way or another.
• The band rocks out (jazzes out?).

There is, of course, a bit more order and structure than I’m letting on, but the point is that the Raving Poets Experience is unlike anything else. It’s part spoken word, part live improvisational music, and part bacchanalian release.

If you’ve never experienced the Raving Poets, I highly recommend you come and check it out. It runs every Wednesday at 8:00pm for the next 13 weeks down at Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue, downstairs from Yianni’s). If you want to get on the reader list, you’ll have to arrive early: sign-up is at 7:30pm and closes promptly at 8pm.

For more information about Heart Beat, check out the Raving Poets website.

Just a brief round-up of some things that have happened, or will be happening soon, in the Edmonton literary scene.

• Raving Poets & CBC announce winner of the Raving Poets/CBC Face-off Contest: Wednesday night was the final night of the competition for a spot in CBC’s Edmonton Poetry Face-off. The winner does not win the Edmonton Poetry Face-off, but is guaranteed a spot in the competition. All of the competitors gave truly incredible performances, and I’m sure the judges had a tough time coming to a decision. Ultimately, Laurie MacFayden won the spot in the Face-off, so congratulations to Laurie.

• Mark Kozub launches The Uptown Browns: Edmonton literary icon and Raving Poets bassist, Mark Kozub, launched his new novel—The Uptown Browns—on Thursday night at Greenwoods’ Bookshoppe. Based on Mark’s reading at the launch, and the few short chapters I’ve read so far, it’s a damn fine novel. Having been privy to a good amount of Mark’s poetry, this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

• Anton Capri launches 2 physics books: Physicist and poet Anton (Tony) Z Capri will be launching 2 new books on Monday, December 10, 2007. Tony tells me that the books contain various anecdotes about famous physicists, as well as explanations—in layman’s terms—of what these men and women accomplished in their careers. As someone who is fascinated by all things scientific, but who often has trouble understanding higher level concepts, the notion behind these 2 books really appeals to me. The books—Quips, Quotes and Quanta: An Anecdotal History of Physics, and From Quanta to Quarks: More Anecdotal History of Physics—will be launched at the Stanley A Milner Library (7 Sir Winston Churchill Square) in the Centennial Room (downstairs) at 6:00pm on December 10.

• Raving Poets & Writers Guild of Alberta join forces for holiday poetry jam: The Raving Poets and the Writers Guild of Alberta are teaming up to throw a bit of a holiday party for the Edmonton literary community on Wednesday, December 12, 2007. The party will take place at Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue, downstairs), with readings from members of both the Writers Guild, and the Raving Poets (as much as one can be a “member” of the amorphous group that is the Raving Poets). The Writers Guild will be generously providing food from Yianni’s Taverna (upstairs from Kasbar) and, as usual, our good friend Travis will be pouring drinks.

The Raving Poets‘ latest series—Space Monkey: The Series—started last night. As I mentioned yesterday, this series will include a chance to win a rather grand prize.

I am now able to reveal exactly what the prize is.

According to Raving Poets Founding Father Thomas Trofimuk, the Raving Poets have teamed up with Canada’s national broadcaster.

On the table, a guaranteed spot in the 2008 CBC Poetry Face-off Edmonton.

The Raving Poets are going hard for the next six weeks….And we’ve done a deal with the Mother Corp. Up for grabs is a coveted, guaranteed spot in CBC’s 2008 Poetry Face Off Edmonton final. That’s right, come December 5th, one of our Raving Poets will be going to the “show.” Details will be forthcoming but round one, the first preliminary round, will be November 21st. Oh it’ll still be a 16-spot open stage, but the top three favourite poets (details on this will follow) will automatically get a spot in the December 5th final. On December 5th, we’ll run an abbreviated night of Raving Poets, and then brilliant poets will step up in the second half and duke it out for a guaranteed spot in the Edmonton round of the 2008 CBC Face Off. Stay tuned….for more details. In the meantime, if you’re in Edmonton, come on out tomorrow night….10444 – 82nd Ave. 7:30 p.m

Those are pretty big stakes, and that’s a pretty big prize. If you’re interested in winning it, or just watching a bunch of publicity-crazed poets duking it out, come down to Kasbar (10444 Whyte Avenue) every Wednesday until December 12.

Space Monkey: The Series runs every Wednesday until December 12, 2007 at Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue) below Yianni’s Taverna. Sign-up for the open mic is at 7:30pm; show starts at 8pm.

For full details about the CBC Poetry Face-off Prize, visit: http://ravingpoets.com.

The Raving Poets‘ latest series—Space Monkey: The Series—starts tonight.

Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue) will once again be home to the mix of spoken word poetry and improvised musical accompaniment.

There is a pretty big prize that will be given away as part of this series, which I’m not at liberty to reveal quite yet. (If you read the site earlier today, you already know what it is.)

While I can’t tell you what the prize is, I can tell you this: it’s huge. It’s probably the biggest prize ever awarded at the Raving Poets.

Of course, even without a prize, the Raving Poets stage is still the best place in the city to see high energy spoken word poetry.

If you’re interested in performing, or just watching a bunch of booze-fuelled poets spit verse, come down to Kasbar every Wednesday until December 12.

Space Monkey: The Series runs every Wednesday until December 12, 2007 at Kasbar Lounge (10444 Whyte Avenue) below Yianni’s Taverna. Sign-up for the open mic is at 7:30pm; show starts at 8pm.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Because I’m a little bit insane, I’ve decided to take part. It’s only Day 2, and I’m already starting to regret my decision, but I’m sure that feeling will pass, once I really get into it.

The goal of NaNoWriMo, as you may be aware, is write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. It’s a bit of a crazy goal, one that requires turning off the inner editor. This is a difficult task for a lot of people, myself included, but it can be done.

How does this apply to River City Writer? There are 2 things. The first is that I may not be publishing as regularly as I usually do. I’ll try not to let things slide, but because I’m going to be working on a novel-length project all month long, I’ll have less time to blog.

The second way that this applies to River City Writer’s main focus—the city of Edmonton—is that there is a fairly large group of Edmontonians who are participating in NaNoWriMo.

You might see this crazy group of people sitting in coffee shops, pounding away on their laptops. If you see them, don’t try to talk to them. They will ignore you. Don’t take it personally, most of them will be ignoring family and friends for the next month, too.

Perhaps the place you’re most likely to see the EdmoWriMo crew is at the library. This is partly because the Edmonton Public Library is holding writing sessions at several locations this month.

• November 6, 6 PM – Jasper Place Library, program room
• November 18, 1:30 PM – Mill Woods Library, program room
• November 25, 1:30 PM – Londonderry Library, program room
• November 30, 4PM – Stanley A. Milner Library, Edmonton Room

For more information about EPL’s NaNoWriMo events, check out http://epl.ca/EPLNaNoWriMo.cfm. For more about NaNoWriMo, visit http://www.nanowrimo.org.

Those of you in the know might be vaguely amused by the title of this post. Those of you who aren’t will probably be wondering exactly what it is that I’m talking about. “That damn Snider, he’s gone nuts-o again,” you may be thinking. While you’re probably correct, the title is less cryptic than you might imagine.

One week from tonight, the Raving Poets will be back at the Kasbar (10444 Whyte Avenue), with the new fall series: Space Monkey.

Remember the old days of the CCCP and their crazy space program? Well, Space Monkey is nothing like that. Space Monkey is more like drinking 2 bottles of wine, dropping a tab of acid, and then wondering what it would be like if you were a sock puppet who was also an astronaut. Actually, it’s nothing like that either.

To be honest, it’s indescribable. The Raving Poets’ open mic series are always incredible, but they’re always unique. Because it is an open mic stage, every week is different than the last, and it’s completely unpredictable.

Among the few things that you can count on at the Raving Poets are that there will be improvised music, there will be poetry, and there will be copious amounts of alcohol. Poets like to drink. The people at Kasbar treat us well, in that regard. They keep the drinks flowing all night long (and, more importantly, they provide us with a venue). And, Travis slings a mean Manhattan.

If you’ve never been witness to the Raving Poets Experience, I highly recommend it. Whether you want to perform, or just sit in the audience and take in the words, it’s an experience not to be missed.

It’s a tough life, being the editor of a semi-legitimate Internet publication. Sometimes, you receive a press release at 8pm on a Friday night. When you’re the editor and sole writer for a semi-legitimate Internet publication, this means that you’ve got to put down the vodka and get some work done.

But, this isn’t supposed to be about me, is it? As you may have guessed from the title, this post is supposed to be about Amber Hayward’s reading at Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II on Monday, October 29 at 7:30pm.

Amber is a sci-fi/fantasy writer who lives and writes in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Her latest novel, Darkness of the God, is in bookstores now, and she’s doing a reading here in Edmonton to help promote it.

According to the press release, Darkness of the God involves psychic powers, religious cults, and murder:

He had the jungle, now he wants the world…

In front of the television cameras, international cult leader Caldos Moriera is all goodness and light – a man in white who “heals” the people of the world. But behind the scenes he is a dark and despicable man who will do anything to anyone to get what he wants.

But Ana and her handicapped uncle know the truth.

To them Caldos Moriera is a murderer, the one who killed Ana’s father, and the one responsible for brutally butchering Ana’s mother! In fear for their own lives, Ana and her uncle flee their Brazilian home to hide in the safety of the vast Sonoran Desert. But Caldos is greater threat than they first imagined. He has learned of Ana’s own psychic healing abilities, and realizes that she may be the path to his ultimate power.

Ana, realizing that she is the only one strong enough to confront his dark force, vows to do whatever it takes to stop him; and begins to prepare for the spectacular and deadly psychic battle that is about to take place.

While I’m not really a huge sci-fi or fantasy fan myself, this actually sounds like it might be an interesting novel. If you’re into fantasy, you should check out the reading. If you like what you hear, consider picking up a copy of the book. It’s important to support Canadian artists if they’re doing something worthwhile.

Is Amber Hayward doing something worthwhile? I don’t know, I haven’t read the book. You’ll have to check it out for yourself to find out.

Amber Hayward is an internationally published author and poet. Somehow she finds time to write despite the demands of managing the Black Cat Guest Ranch in the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies.

Darkness of the God is the second novel in the “Children of the Panther” trilogy. The first in the series, The Healer, was published in 2002. Amber is now hard at work on Stolen Children, the third and final novel.

Amber Hayward will be reading from her novel, Darkness of the God, at Laurie Greenwood’s Volume II (12433-102 Avenue) on Monday, October 29 @ 7:30pm. For more information about Amber and her books, visit http://www.edgewebsite.com/.