Frozen communication

An international festival,
poets who rock and a fistful of readings

WORD EXPLORER:
Stanton (R) and the Capital of Plastic Daffodils

by VINCENT TINGUELY

Winter-bluesing Montrealers fiending for some spoken word solace can look forward to an invasion by friendly Aussies, a dreamy Nuit Blanche and a lot of spirited slamming.

Our flagship spoken word festival, Voix d’Amériques (Feb. 6–13) features a stunning series of shows as envisioned by director D. Kimm, including MEL Versus YUL, showcasing Alicia Sometimes, Emilie Zoey Baker, Justin Ashworth and Sean M Whelan, four major talents from Melbourne, Australia.

They’ll hit the stage in a friendly melange with three Montreal acts: poets-gone-garage-rockers David McGimpsey and Jason Camlot (as Puggy Hammer), New York-based spoken word icon Corey Frost and Victoria Stanton, who’ll perform a set of quirky story-songs with her new ensemble, The Capital of Plastic Daffodils.

“I love the fact that I can explore these songs in a whole different way, and they’re really evolving as pieces because of it,” says Stanton. She’s performed twice in Melbourne, notably at the Overload poetry festival, and has firsthand experience of Australian spoken word. “There’s as much the texture of how they speak as what they’re saying,” Stanton explains. “Not only is the texture of our language different, but our expressions are different too. Still, all of those kids grew up on Degrassi High like we did—and they loved it!”

Matrix magazine’s Pilot Series showcases Toronto-based wordsmiths Daccia Bloomfield and Jenny Sampirisi (Jan. 25) at Blizzarts (3956A St-Laurent), and the Yellow Door Poetry and Prose Reading series includes Bluenoser Johanna Skibsrud (Jan. 29). Concordia’s department of English hosts Harvard-based poet Jorie Graham (Feb. 6) and GG-winning playwright John Mighton (March 30). The Blue Metropolis foundation presents Reading Lolita in Tehran author Azar Nafisi at Concordia’s J.A. de Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve W.), Feb. 11 and the Canadian Authors Association presents Australian author Ann Benjamin at the Westmount Library (4574 Sherbrooke W.) on March 5 while the Atwater Poetry Project (1200 Atwater) is bringing in both M. Nourbese Philip (March 12) and Christian Bök (May 12).

Ultimate throwdown

Local luminaries grace stages at numerous reading series around town. The Throw Collective launches 3, 2, 1, Throw! a CD of slam-style spoken word at Words and Music at the Casa on Jan.18 at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent). The fun continues at Parc des Princes (5293 Parc) with the monthly Throw Slam series, Feb. to June. The next Noches de poesia (Feb. 4) presents Geneviève Letarte, Erin Mouré and Angela Carr, and the line-up of WIRE’s anniversary show (March 24) includes Stephanie Bolster, Jeffrey Mackie, Julie Mahfood and Carmine Starnino.

Tableau d’Hôte and the Segal present the world premiere of Haunted House (Feb. 18 to March 5). Written by the prolific poet and playwright Endre Farkas, the play explores the life of Montreal poet A.M. Klein. As part of Nuit Blanche (Feb. 28), Daniel Canty has cooked up an event based on Le Livre de Chevet, a hallucinatory and beautifully designed collective book of fiction, poetry and images. The evening’s readers include Oana Avasilichioaei, Salvador Alanis Luebbert, Mathieu Arsenault, Desavage, Renée Gagnon and Annie Lafleur.

Finally, Jan. 17 is Art’s Birthday and it’s being celebrated at l’Envers (185 Van Horne) with a re-creation of Robert Filiou’s “birth of art” by Oboro artist-in-resident and performance art pioneer Glenn Lewis.