So much to say

A look back at an ultra-productive year in spoken word

by VINCENT TINGUELY

2001 might well be remembered as the “Year of Product” in Montreal’s spoken word scene. In March, Peter Harris, with musical backing by Whisky Child, introduced spoken word fans to his folk-tinged CD and book Black Ink, and May saw the launch of the Running With Scissors anthology of young poets, which included local spoken word performers like Paula Belina and Larissa Andrusyshyn. David Neudorfer’s latest chapbook Rough Earth appeared this spring, and Kaie Kellough and nah-ee-lah launched their new chapbooks (Fire Escapes and time to let go, respectively) in August.

This fall saw the debut of Alexis O’Hara’s first “real” book, (more than) Filthy Lies, and former Véhicule poet Ken Norris toured across Canada to promote Hotel Montreal: New and Selected Poems. Autumn also saw the unleashing of L’Amour au fond de la gorge, the second CD by Les Abdigradationnistes; the massive launch of nah-ee-lah’s spoken word and dub poetry disc Free Dome; and the first anniversary party of Belina’s funky lit-zine Streeteaters.

Spoken word artists were also producing their own videos in 2001. Atif Y. Siddiqi’s M! Mom, Madonna & Me and Dayna McLeod’s Watching Lesbian Porn were shown at this year’s Image&Nation film festival, and Victoria Stanton’s Salt in the Wound was selected for screening by the 2001 Vancouver Video Poetry Festival.

The foundations were laid for Spoken Word Theory 101, with Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language, a CD/book edited by Brandon LaBelle and Christof Migone, and the Conundrum Press opus Impure: Reinventing the Word, a book about Montreal’s spoken word scene. The Impure launch packed Sala Rossa to capacity, as did the launches for You and Your Bright Ideas, the latest anthology of Montreal writers from Véhicule Press, and Ribsauce, the CD and book anthology of Canadian women wordsmiths from Véhicule and Wired on Words.

Back to live

The live stage scene showed more signs of life this year. After shifting venues from Jello Bar to Swimming last summer, Coco Café continues its monthly spoken word extravaganza. Ferrier’s Wired on Words and Music happens monthly at the Casa del Popolo, as does Ilona Martonfi’s Poetry and Prose series at the Yellow Door. Two shows went weekly this fall: Grimey Windows at Hurley’s Irish Pub, and Wednesday’s Child at Yesterday’s. New series have been cropping up, including Madly Made, hosted by Thoth Harris at Café Pi, and Delivrance, hosted by Robin Akimbo at Elle Corazon. Karen Stewart continues to produce the Soul Shack shows, and has started two monthly series, Women Who Write and Poetically Speaking, at the Je Suis Bookstore in NDG.

Out-of-towners who dropped in this year include Winnipegger Clive Holden and Calgary’s manically inspired Sheri-D Wilson, who played at Wired on Words and Music. Soul Shack brought in Toronto spoken word icon Dwayne Morgan twice and sound poet Paul Dutton while Vancouver poet and storyteller Sakurako Tanaka appeared at the UNEQ-sponsored Howls and Whispers. Toronto-based Montreal ex-pat Zoë Whittall hit the stage this fall to launch her first book of poetry, The Best 10 Minutes of Your Life, along with fellow queer Torontonian scribe Mariko Tamaki. Another former Montrealer, Vancouver-based Tanya Evanson dropped into Coco Café last summer on a rare visit home.

Alexis O’Hara hit Jailhouse Rock Café last July with four American slam poets. San Francisco poets Tarin Towers and Daphne Gottlieb, Eitan Kadosh from L.A. and Phoenix’s Eirein Bradley barnstormed with O’Hara through 35 U.S. cities over the summer.

Also taking it to the next level, Véhicule alumnus Endre Farkas mounted Surviving Wor(l)ds, a performance based on a series of poems, at the Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival in February. Catherine Kidd and Jack Beets created a series of pieces based on her novel, performed them all over the city, and recorded them for Downward Facing Dog, a CD to be released by Wired on Words. Norman Nawrocki toured his third one-man cabaret act, Sex Toys, on campuses across Canada and the States this spring. Corey Frost, voted Best Spoken Word Act in the Mirror this year, could be spotted test-driving pieces from his upcoming CD-Rom, Bits World, all over town; and fresh from launching her new CD, nah-ee-lah appeared in Stuck, a solo Black Theatre Workshop production directed by dub poetry legend Ahdri Zhina Mandiela.

There was a strong spoken word presence at last winter’s Blue Metropolis international literary festival, and this fall’s HOWL festival showcased top Montreal performers here, in Toronto and New York. Events we can look forward to in the New Year include the Wild Side Festival Spoken Cabaret in January, and the major Voix d’Amérique festival in February 2002. <<