In Brenden McNally’s column he quoted Suzanne Buffam, who came up from Chicago to read. She said she thought VerseFest is fantastic, adding, “It’s nice to see a festival that’s not about networking, it’s just about poetry.”
And what poetry it is.
This picture could stand-in for any of the events. A blaze of energy from the stage and the full complement of audience lightly glowing.
Evan Thornton at Sneezers said by going to Versefest “You’ll gain a sense of scale: In one fell swoop, you’ll get a feel for the astounding level of poetry activity in Ottawa. Not just a one-time festival, VERSeFest is actually a confluence of what’s happening in Ottawa poetry every month of every year, all the time.”
Tim Lilburn applauded Ottawa for putting such a size of festival on and applauded the organizers for pulling it off and so smoothly.
It’s curious what happens in cross-pollination between events. He also read from a play’s script with the point of view of Louis Riel, although he used the traditional Canadian-government-victor-term of Rebellion not resistance. That got me bogged down for a while. Are both writers appropriating a historical voice, or is all writing a fabrication and appropriation and the term doesn’t apply? Did I just return to present to hear him diss Salvation Army clothes. Ah, well.
Rae Armantrout read from Money Shot as well as her new above/ground chapbook, Custom and new work. Such a clarity of vision and words and yet infused with that sense of play with the world.
She was one of the readers last night as, outside, a doozy of a storm blew thru, with horizontal winds and snow. Inside was lively in its own hot way. Sweet turns of phrases careening around corners of ideas.
Outside our intrepid ladies of posters directed pedestrian traffic to venues.
Over at Ottawa U last night there were spoken word events. Jenica Reid tweeted: “Mike McGee, OpenSecret and Ursula Rucker just blew my mind. I don’t think I have it anymore.” Danielle Gregoire said “Ursula Rucker went beyond my wildest dreams, Taqralik Partridge wrenched my heart with her beautiful words, and Mike Magee made me so damn happy!” (Ursula Rucker will be at the Mercury Lounge this afternoon. You might be able to squeak in if you go and hope on stand-by.)
(btw, there’s a post at Local Tourist Ottawa on VF.)
Between shows Kate was nailing down more last minute details behind the scenes.
Between performances, people mingled in the reception area. The built-in downtimes help let the brain digest.
Shane Rhodes (a reader sponsored by Plan 99) looked touched by an angel after giving his reading. Amanda Earl said he Erred and didn’t, because “all of Saturday’s readers were good readers, their words quiet & poignant or funny; imaginative, whimsical, subtle, powerful.”
To one side more t-shirts, chapbooks and CDs get sold at one table
or another. Collected Works said they were happy with sales. It was worthwhile for sure.
And today is the finale. Versefest welcomes Ursula Rucker to give a workshop at Mercury Lounge. (It’s full but there’s a slim chance of a spot if someone doesn’t show up to take their reserved tickets.)
At 4:30, also at the Mercury Lounge in the Byward Market, there’s Vermont poet and novelist Paige Ackerson-Kiely and west coast Canadian poet, Barry McKinnon. Can you believe it? This one is free(!)
At 8pm at the NAC: Mexico poet Pura López-Colomé’s, US poet Laureate Philip Levine Governor General award-winning poet Phil Hall do the summit reading. (Tickets are still available. $30 for one-shot or $10 for those with a pass or for volunteers.)
I’m really looking forward to all of these too.