by VINCENT TINGUELY

Winter has always been the time to gather around the fire and spin a few yarns—hence the abundance of upcoming spoken word events. The centrepiece of the season is the second annual Voices of the Americas festival in February. Three gala shows hosted by Alexis O’Hara take place at la Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent) with an anglo show on the 14th, a bilingual show on the 15th and an homage to Patrice Desbiens on the 17th—including an appearance by Desbiens himself. The theme of the whole festival is “In Their Own Words.” Co-organizer Ian Ferrier explains, “How we made the cut for what ‘spoken word’ was, was that the performers had to have written the work they were performing.” There’s also a slam poetry event on the 14th where the winner gets 50 bucks and a slot in that night’s gala. Streeteaters lit zine hosts an open mic on the 15th. Info: www.fva.ca.

In the realm of recorded material, Ferrier is producing a new series of mini-CD releases for Wired on Words, including work by poets Larissa Andrusyshyn, Paula Belina, Kaie Kellough, and Fringe Fest co-ordinator and maverick actor Patrick Goddard. Leon Guy Dupuis has produced the bilingual CD-ROM poetry project Du Bref, the first of a series featuring Catherine Kidd, Anthony Bansfield, Doug Simms, Neale McDevitt, Julie Mahfood, Yannick B. Gelinas, Jean-Marc Massie and others. It’s being launched on Feb. 17, 5 p.m., at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent).

Shock therapy

Long-time Coco Café stage manager Buttaphly will unleash a record as half of punk duo Visceral (with guitarist Face) some time in May or June, but to get a good dose of her live thing, check out her one-woman show Welcome to Electric Ladyland at the Coco Café cabaret. “People have been calling me the Electric Lady forever,” says Buttaphly. “I’m inviting a DJ to come down to throw something on the decks and I’m gonna throw out a freestyle. That’s been my mainstay, ask the audience to give me words about anything and throw out something. It’s kind of like plugging into an electric socket—just come and have your mind blown!” With guests, Jan. 26 at Quartier Latin (318 Ontario E.), doors open at 8 p.m., $6.

O’Hara’s been tapping her slam poetry circuit contacts, setting up a big promo tour for her CD In Abulia. According to O’Hara, “In mid-March I’ve got shows in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then in the following week in California: San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, the Bay area, a show in Seattle… All of this West Coast thing came about after Trish Kelly invited me to be in Crash, an indie writers’ festival in Vancouver this April.” To warm up for the tour, O’Hara will be gigging around town—catch this dynamo at the Maids in Cyberspace cabaret in early February.

Peter Harris of spoken word band Whiskychild has set up a free monthly poetry series called Broken Spoke. It’s at Grumpy’s (1242 Bishop), Mordecai Richler’s fave haunt, starting Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. Harris envisions a mellow mix of poets and musicians, and invites anyone interested in performing to contact him at peter@whiskychild.com. Estelle Rosen cracks a new venue with Words @ Café Perk Avenue (4872 Park) on Jan. 25 at 8 p.m., featuring storytelling, monologues, and more. Streeteaters lit zine launches its latest issue, all about Sleep, at Zeke’s Gallery (3955 St-Laurent) on Jan. 26, 8:30 p.m., $2. Finally, the Wired on Words and Music show makes its 2003 debut on Jan. 19 featuring Vancouver performance poet John Sobol, Casa del Popolo, 8 p.m., 5$. :

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