April 9 saw “Celebrating Poetry Month in the Beach”, a multi-media event at the Beach branch of Toronto Public Library that I designed, organized and publicized to mark The League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Month with poetry, music and song, sculpture and painting.
Allan Briesmaster, poet and editor, artist Holly Briesmaster, Kent Bouman, musician and singer/songwriter and Julie McNeil, poet joined me in a 2½-hour program of four segments and breaks for a capacity audience.
The audience was engaged from the start as we read and/or performed a wide variety of poems/songs on the Poetry Month theme of “Nurture.” Kent led off with The Garden Song, to introduce our dialogue of poetry which finished with another song. Next came Allan reading from his new book in his own inimitable style. Holly talked about her beautiful fan paintings and filed us in with a history of fans. There was a book –browsing break and then Julie dramatized her poems and told us about her three Easter bonnets on display. We look forward to the new one she will wear in this years Easter parade on Queen St.. Kent and I wove our poems, my sculptures and his music together for the finale. As well, four brave souls read at the open-mic session that concluded the program.
Publicity for the event included flyers printed by the Beach Library and distributed in readers’ neighbourhoods, information about the event and the participants for the TPL blog and the LCP blog, posts on Patchy Squirrel, Facebook, Twitter, and e-blasts from all participants. A “blast” of publicity for sure which resulted in a hall full to bursting.
The recently renovated Beach Library (Eden Smith) is beautiful, intimate, audience friendly, and accessible by wheel chair and public transit. It hosts many literary events, including those of the Shakespeare Readers, a book club and Poetry Outloud (all monthly).
Gatherings like these are a cornerstone of the Beach community and it was a great pleasure to perform with professional writers, musicians and artists for such an enthusiastic audience. All of us grateful to the Toronto Public Library, the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts for their support.
Coming up- piece of literary history in the making on May 12, 7-9 pm. Dorothy Rath and John Rammell will read selected passages form Dorothy’s book “An Unlikely Affair,” selected letters from her 30 year correspondence with Irving Layton. I am honoured to read the closing poem.