River City Writer

It is officially Edmonton Poetry Week. This means that I’m going to be busier than usual, as I’m going to be attending events, and also performing in one, and producing/hosting another. I will try to blog about the Festival as much as possible, but my posts might be sporadic, and may not be published at the usual 10:00am (Mountain Time) publishing time.

In the meantime, here’s a brief listing of some of the events that I’m hoping to check out. There are a few that I probably won’t get out to, just because of the time and location at which they’re occurring, but hopefully those constraints won’t stop you from checking things out.

CORTEX - Cortex is a multidisciplinary event, featuring poetry, visual & video art, music, and dance. I know a few of the people involved, and they’re all insane geniuses (some more insane than others, but all artistic geniuses, in my opinion). Cortex occurs today at Latitude 53 (2nd Floor, 10248 – 106 Street), from 7-9:30pm. Admission is $5.

Poets Across Borders - Showcasing the incredible cultural and ethnic diversity that exists in Edmonton, Poets Across Borders teams poets from Sudan, Pakistan, Croatia, the Phillipines, Chile, Kurdistan, India, and the Caribbean with English-speaking poets to perform collaborative works. I believe that the writers who have come from non-English countries will be performing in their native languages, but I’m not 100% sure about that. Poets Across Borders will be performing daily, at noon on CBC Centre Stage in City Centre Mall.

The Roar Spoken Word Festival - On Friday, September 21, the dynamo of spoken word and performance poetry in Edmonton is back for a 3rd year. A 3 hour literary pub crawl across the downtown core, the Roar features the best and brightest poets from Edmonton, and beyond. A blowout finale party featuring the Raving Poets Band follows the pub crawl. The finale will be held at Axis Cafe (10349 Jasper Avenue).

Small Words, Big Moments - Edmonton-based DailyHaiku launches it’s first ever print edition on Saturday, September 22. Current editors, and poetic power couple, Patrick Pilarski and Nicole Pakan host a Zen-like afternoon of tea and haiku at Cafe Select (8404 109th Street). A haiku workshop will follow the readings.

Coffee Lines Stroll - 40 readers, 4 coffee shops, 2 hours. Some of Edmonton’s most prolific poets will be out in full force on Sunday, September 23 from 2-4pm. Check the event web page for locations and a full list of readers.

For a full listing of Edmonton Poetry Week events, visit the www.edmontonpoetryfestival.com.