I have a confession to make, I haven’t been writing much at all. I was, once again, making progress on my novel re-write after my last writing lull. I even had a moment of epiphany on how to make a nice transition between scenes. This is why it’s important to always make note of your scene ideas, or any ideas: You never know when life will happen and you can’t get back to it as soon as you’d like. Which is me, I’m in the gap and I hope I can pick-up where I left off.
I’ve had a few life events to deal with, like we all do, but my two major distractions have been politics and Words Aloud. Politics has just kept growing in intensity as every moment feels like history is being made. It’s like a big story unfolding in front of us. The only good thing I have to say is, at least it’s all being laid to bare. And it’s pretty darn ugly. And I can’t look away. Somehow I feel I have to bear witness to what is happening. And a part of me always longs to understand–so I read more.
Then there’s Words Aloud, a spoken word and story-telling festival in Grey County. For fifteen years, it’s fallen on the first weekend in November. Not a bad feat for a little poetry festival based in the small town of Durham, Ontario. (No, not that Durham, but the one northwest of Toronto, south of Owen Sound on Hwy 6.) Our home base has been the Durham Art Gallery, a perfect venue as we cosy in amongst the art to listen to poetry and story, performed.
It’s the perfect antidote to politics, to our times that breed divisiveness and fear. Poetry connects. As my poet friend Liz Zetlin says, poetry is the shortest distance between two hearts. Coming from a multi-cultural city like Toronto, it was a different feel moving to a more homogeneous community. Words Aloud has sought out the best in Canadian spoken word with an aim to bringing a diverse range of voices. I haven’t missed a main-stage performance in 14 years.
It’s like travelling the world while sitting in my chair. It is laughing and crying all in the same poem. (Thank you—Shane Koyzcan), it is feeling my heart bleed for poets fleeing war-torn countries, and being uplifted in the beauty of words, it is hearing more than words can say, it is feeling them—with your heart. It is being pushed past the envelope and back. And all these people are speaking about the beauty and awfulness that is humanity, the joy and sadness that is a human life.
This year, we celebrate some of the best of the past 15 years with some thoughts to the future. Returning performers this year are: CR Avery, Steven Heighton, Tanya Evanson, and Cat Kidd. We’re bringing our Friday night to Owen Sound with CR, Wes Ryan and Rebecca Thomas. Saturday evening will be at the Durham Art Gallery, and Sunday afternoon david sereda and Anne Michaels will be our matinee performers.
Saturday morning and afternoon have workshops by Steven Heighton and Tanya Evanson. And Sunday morning, a think tank to envision the future of the festival. If you’ve never been to Words Aloud and are close enough to drive to Grey County, check out some of the links below. And if you’re reading from further afield, get out in your community, attend an arts festival, whether is music or poetry or visual arts, it’s all food for the human soul, the writing soul.
The Words Aloud festival has been a labour of love of many of us, for many years. I look forward to connecting with my writing friends, poet-friends and making new friends, to see people devoted to speaking their truth, to telling their story, a story that unites us all–a perfect antidote–and a great inspiration to bring back to my novel-writing. Stories shape who we are as humans. Words Aloud showcases the voices of contemporary Canada, some of our finest storytellers. They give me courage by showing me their own own, so that I can go home again and write my own story and know that I’m not alone.
if you want to know more about Spoke Word, visit this trailer for the Words Aloud documentary: http://ezetlin.com/videocategory/trailer/
If you want to know more about the festival, visit our website at: http://wordsaloud.ca/
If you’d like to watch past performances, visit our YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmlIdSd-9lS1TJsS0zCC6Xw
