Sunday June 16 3pm VMI Reading

Sunday June 16 3pm VMI Reading I will be reading (second on the reading order) from the  wry memoir a girl called brian I have been working on for the past 5 months intensively of stories written in the past 15 years or so. A long with a great line up of readers! Hosted by VMI facilitator and mentor Betsy Warland. See you there!

You are invited to join us for our Vancouver Manuscript Intensive 2013 Reading on June 16th at the Vancouver Film School Cafe, 392 West Hastings.

The reading begins at 3PM. 

Nine dynamically diverse and talented fiction and nonfiction writers will read excerpts from their manuscripts. The writers are :  

Jane Mortifee

Carol Cram

Lorraine Kiidumae

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham

Beth Hawkes

Meg Torwl

Margreet Dietz

Meaghan Rondeau

Yaana Dancer

This photo is me at age 17, and ends one of the excerpts I will be reading from the story The Power of the Suit which explores the power of a woman in a 'mens' suit. I will also be reading  'black and white' based on another photograph, which came second the New Zealand Society of Authors LGBT Flash Fiction writing competition.

2012 an Inviting Year!

( * many of the hyperlinks lead to blogposts and photo albums of the events ( : enjoy!)

2012 began with my being invited by Director Betsy Warland, along with a handful of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University alumni from different years, to speak to the 2012 students on their orientation day. About our experience with TWS, writing careers goals and plans for the future. That was fun!

In March and June I completed my elective paper for th TWS course, by attending Betsy Warland’s SFU classes The Reluctant Memoirist and Memoir of Inquiry. Both I found very liberating, and developed a better understanding of creative-nonfiction. If you don’t know things because you weren’t there, writing from another characters point of view, were too young, or weren’t born etc, use your imagination! This led me on some wild and interesting tangents!

June also saw the launch of chapbooks by members of The Independents (The Poetry and Lyric Prose TWS alumni 2011) at a wonderful reading we had at (the alas now closed) Cafe Montmartre, with Jen Currin being a great MC! A manuscript for my poetry chapbook Transit of Venus – about love, public transit, and life transitions, was short-listed for the Doire Press prize. A good time was had by all, lots of photos here.

I participated in 6 anthology book launches and/or readings throughout the year. Including in January an Exhibition of Caregivers Creativity. Leaf Press The Wild Weathers chocolatey love poem anthology launch in February at Historic Joy Kogawa House. March the lively Enpipe Line book launch of opposition to the Endbridge oil pipeline proposal. August I was invited by Poetry is Dead to represent them at a reading for MagScence on Main on a hot summer evening. The the standing room only Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine in November with a lively interactive launch. I was invited by curator Aileen Penner to participate in The Science of Poetry Vol. 1. An amazing collaboration between 5 poets and 5 scientists, resulting in 10 new poems and beautiful limited edition chapbook. A barely standing room only reading at which my working partner and I, Adrienne Drobnies read our work to the accompaniment of an audio mashup I designed, photos from my Views from Cancer Town series, and an installation of illuminated body casts used to immobilize people during radiation ‘treatment’.

 On the audio-visual front I was invited to present my water photography based new media installations aqwai, tiarika and going coastal in the July mixed media Homecoming Exhibition at Gibsons Public Art Gallery. In August I completed the video poems Jest or Malice and Freedom, which have been languishing on my hard drive for a number of years, without music and titles, and posted them online!

September I was invited to fly to Canmore, Alberta  as one of two professional artists representing the province of BC, at the BeyondAccess2012 gathering of 14 artists from across Canada who work inside and outside disability and arts and culture. Had a great time amongst my peers, worked really hard, met great artists across disciplines. We resolved to form DACAC – Disability Arts and Culture Canada. In preparation for this event and next 2013’s Retrospective Exhibition in NZ ( see below) I created a 90 slide power point presentation tracing my development across artistic disciplines in the past 20 + years. Using the themes of my arts practice: - collaboration, cross-cultural, mentorship, and interdisciplinary. It is interesting to observe your own work in that way and see how things and people come back around in different forms years later. 

The year was completed by my graduating from SFU, along with about 10 of my fellow 2011 graduates, our certificates presented by new TWS Director Wayde Compton. I especially enjoyed the speech by writer and publisher Mary Schendlinger whose very informative SFU course Getting Published: From Manuscript to Book I recently completed. She talked about the need for both amateurs and professionals in writing, the 10, 000 hours it takes to become a good writer, the importance to language to children’s development, and some very humorous asides!

2013 is already shaping up to be a good year! I applied to and was accepted into Betsy Warlands VMI program - Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. I will be working with her in the Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Mixed-genre group, (with fellow TWS Poetry and Lyric Prose alumni Yaana Dancer). Yay! On a manuscript of 33 plus auto-biographical stories in a girl called brian, (because my life is far stranger than anything I could make up!) Below an excerpt from a flash fiction opening premise. I am very much looking forward to shaping this manuscript with Betsy, especially given her current Oscar of Between project.

  “Black and White: A photo you will find when you are twenty-five years old. Two older women with babies on their knees’, everyone is laughing. It will defi(n)e everything you have been told. This is what you need to know: you will grow into something beautiful. Something in-between. When you are six your older sister will call this something, Brian. Even though your birth certificate says you are a girl.....”

I have been commissioned to complete a number of Video Poems for Stage Left’s 2013 performance festivals. I will likely work on 2-3 of my Views from Cancer Town video poems.

 The ultimate event for me in 2013, which I have been working on all this year in terms of logistics, funding, press, with curators Elizabeth Kerekere and Treason Seditio is Re-Tern: Hokinga Mahara – A Meg Torwl Retrospective. In association with the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2013 Wellington, and LAGANZ present an interdisciplinary exhibition of my video, new media, performance, photography, audio, writing. Thistle Hall Gallery March 5-10. It’s going to be a great experience, I hope to attend! I also received support with this project from the NZ Mix and Mash competition. Through which I applied for and received a Mentor for 2012, Elizabeth Vaneveld, ED of  The Big Idea, Aotearoa/NZ’s online arts community 

Let me know how your 2012 went and your plans for 2013?

Dec 14, 2013 Poetry and Science Reading Vol 1.

    

Meg Torwl photo. Views from Cancer Town series.

What happens when you have 5 scientists, and 5 poets, and ask them to write poems together? Creative chaos! Come and see! I have been having so much fun working on this project with my writing partner genome scientist and accomplished poet Adrienne Drobnies! We may collaborate in the future, so many possibilities! The project was facilitated by Aileen Penner, scientists, poet, environmental communications specialist. There will be a limited edition handmade chapbooks available at the event with a poem by each of the 10 scientists and poets, as well a a collaboratively written poem. We each wrote poems in response to discussion we had, and we will read them together verse for verse, they comment on each other in an interesting way. Adrienne Drobnies will read her new poem day in the lab, night in the cemetery, and I will be reading a new poem enviro-mental, part of a suite of poems I am working on in my Views from Cancer Town series. (see a sample poem below) We plan an audio mashup, a installation with body casts, and photos from my Views from Cancer Town series - photos taken from West 10th, and West Broadway. (see sample photo above) My poem enviro-mental explores health and the environment, references, Rachel Carson, and the movies Karate Kid, and Eat, Pray, Love! There is humor involved! Come check it out! It's gonna be one rockin evening!   Facebook Invite:

It was a GREEEAAAT evening! Checkout photos of the event on Facebook: Integrial Media

     Gallery 1965 Main St, Vancouver, BC. Wheelchair Accessible

    6:30pm doors open.

    7:30 pm – Welcome by Vancouver Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau

    7:35 pm – Introduction By Aileen Penner – Curator

    7:40 pm – Readings by first two poet-scientist pairings

stem cell researcher + poet & novelist
              Ben Paylor + Leanne Dunic

landscape architect + Métis/Icelandic poet
    Kelty McKinnon + Jonina Kirton

    * 10 min break *

    8:10 pm- Readings by last three poet-scientist pairings

          chemist-poet + poet & artist
Adrienne Drobnies + Meg Torwl

biochemist researcher + poet & personal coach
       (Pamela  Lincez) + Olive Dempsey

microbiologist + poet & anthropologist
Lynne Quarmby + Carol Shillibeer

  8:40 – Reception with DJ and Cash Bar

POEM: VIEWS FROM CANCER TOWN: 1

you think you know

the view from cancer town

fluorescent lit rooms

surgical scars

bald chemo heads

bodies

lie on a slab

people

live in cancer town

there are cigarette butts

and hand-knitted blankets

autumn leaves

sunshine

snow

the view from cancer town

 - the best in the city

north shore mountains

with their snow and wind turbine

burrard inlet

anchored oil tankers

compassed

by the tide. 

Meg Torwl.

D.A.C.A.C. - Disability Arts and Culture Association of Canada

The national BeyondAccess 2012 gathering in Canmore, Alberta was amazing! A week with professional colleagues with disabilities working across a range of artistic disciplines. Bliss! Lots of hard work. Learnt a lot. Great connections. The gathering was convened and facilitated by Stage-Left Artistic Director Michele Decottignies, along with Alan Shain. (Stage Left commissioned my solo interdisciplinary spoken word show That's so gay! in 2009).

In the mornings we talked about the 40 year history of disability arts and culture practice in Canada, worked towards establishing common ground, and aesthetics.

In the afternoons, one or two people or groups each took turns to present our visual, media, dance, or theatre work. Our artistic decision making processes, and where possible practical workshops, like integrated dance. I presented on media with filmmaker and academic Danielle Peers.

The other participant from the province of BC was Dr. Kirsty Johnston who wrote the groundbreaking book Stage Turns - Canadian Disability Theatre. How Canadian theatre artists are challenging traditional theatre practices and re-imagining disability on stage.

You can see the list of participants online here. Along with the purpose of the event.

On Thursday night we each screened 10 minutes of work, or excerpts from our work in film, dance or theatre. That was a highlight for me to see the stunning professional solo and collaborative work we all do. I went back to my roots and operated as the projectionist as we sourced work from the web, DVD’s and our laptop computers. 

In the evenings, we often shared a meal in one of the lovely hotel suites we were accommodated in, got to know one another, networked and discussed possible future collaborations.

At the conclusion of the gathering we resolved to form D.A.C.A.C. - Disability Arts and Culture Association of Canada. Which will be launched publicly with an online presence in the spring of 2013.

I realized what a rare experience it was for me to have my knowledge, skills, and artistic practice in disability arts valued. Although of course I also work in the arts community generally. Having at times worked in mainstream media organizations as the lone ‘disability voice’ can be a very wearing and at times combative experience when working for policy change to be inclusive of artists with disabilities.

We talked about the importance of sharing our knowledge and skills as senior artists in our local, national, and international communities. To that end upon my return I joined the Board if Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture - who have been trying to entice me to join for some time. I worked for Kickstart 2009- 2010 on their festivals, workshops, Audio Description Program, (Vocal Eye formerly EarSighted) and BC Regional Inclusive Arts Network (BRIAN). Joining the Kickstart Board continues my commitment to a vibrant inclusive arts community in BC and providing professional development opportunities to artists.

Congratulations to Alan Shain who post conference was appointed to the position of Disability Arts Officer with the Canada Council for the Arts, in Ottawa.

We spent a few hours one afternoon in an improvisational dance workshop outside interacting with a standing stone sculpture by local artist Lucie Bause. I volunteered to document the gathering as much as possible in photographs and video, so you can see photos of dance, the gathering participants, and beautiful Canmore on my Integrial Media facebook page. I was particularly impressed by the collaborative dance work and choreography IDANCE, Propeller Dance, and Frank Hull are doing. You can see a short improvised dance playing with the Albertan wind on the BeyondAccess2012 Youtube channel.

With the rare free time we had I made the most of the great paved bike paths and zoomed along in my chairiot enjoying the fresh air, mountain and river views. 

The location of Canmore was stunning, with mountains all around us. We were treated to great hospitality, snow, rain, sunshine -  and the northern lights to welcome us on our first night.

I survived the long intense work days by the knowledge that come 10pm I could go to the hot tub and soak away the aches and pains of sitting all day, and quiet the whirling mind.

I wrote this poem while I was there which sums up the experience for me.

BeyondAccess

we scan the room

ensuring

everyone has

what they need

to be present

adjustments are made

smiles

across the table

eager to meet

know

share food

belong

disrobing

in the hotel

hot pool

to skin

and bone

bikini clad

spa patrons

chat

amongst themselves

  avert their eyes

in my dreams

we take over

the empty at night

kids water fountain

play area

behind the blue tiled wall

dancing

swirling circles

around one another

splashing

filming

laughing.

Poetry is Dead Magazine - Queer Issue November 2012

I was humbled and honoured to have my poem 'close encounters' included in the great Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine, guest edited by the wonderful Alex Leslie, who blogs about the issue. It has great art work by Alexandra Sebag, and Sarah Leavitt in a poetic collaboration with Jen Currin, which Sarah Leavitt Blogs about.

All in all it was a great experience!  I represented Poetry is Dead at a Magscene on Main reading in August ‘Write the body’ with Adrienne Gruber and others.

Gave an online interview on the Poetry is Dead website in September, along with many of the other contributors to the Queer Issue, on the topic of failure as success. Queers Fail Better: ‘In her book ‘The Queer Art of Failure’ Judith Halberstam offers alternative ways of knowing and becoming. Instead of valuing the conventional paths of belonging, achievement and completion, she thinks about and champions the ways of “failure”: losing your way, giving in, being excluded, forgetting, awkwardness, coming apart. Not just rejecting the “normal,” Halberstam shows alternatives to success as paths that have always been there, moving away from mastery and coherence. In this series of Q&A’s with contributors to our upcoming Queer issue, we play with these ideas. When we aren’t trying to finish first (or finish anything) where do we end up?’

The Queer Issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine launch and reading November 14^th 2012 at Project Space Gallery went really well! An appreciative crowd packed the space for a lively multimedia presentation! Check out the photos I took of the event here, or the photos Rachel Bauman took here.

I decided to make people laugh more than cry for my reading, so turned to some older work, and took a stroll through the misunderstandings that can happen on androgyny lane. Got some great feedback besides the laughter. Fellow contributor Amber Dawn said I have perfect timing. It’s true I do like to really look at the audience and play with the energy in the room, hold them in the palm of your hand, and then release them. Fellow writer Adrienne Gruber said her partner is not always fond of poetry readings but is still raving about my performance at the Magscene on Main event. Good to know! I do like to think I can make anyone like poetry! I really enjoyed the other contributors readings too! It was a great night to be a part of.

Get your issue of Poetry is Dead here

or at Chapters or other bookstores

Fri Aug 17, 6.30pm MagScene on Main Reading: Write the Body

Photo from Lost in Translation

Add caption

I will be one of 6 emerging poets reading at the below event, representing Poetry is Dead.
More info at MagScene on Main

 Sparkly sandals, wheelchairs, Cindi Lauper, and Joan Armatrading will appear in my poems!

$10 at the door gets you in to three MagScene on Main events happening on Georgia and Union Streets that night.

  Fri Aug 17, 6.30pm MagScene on Main Reading

 Feeling it out: Emerging Poets Write the Body

 Time: 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Host Magazine(s): PRISM International, Poetry Is Dead

In collaboration with: Wolf Mountain Writing Collective

Venue: 221A Artist Run Centre 221A E Georgia Street

 Six emerging poets delve into the world of arms, legs, torsos, breasts and knees, and from that turn their focus outward to eating, breathing and sexing. When poets take on the body beauty and/or raunch are sure to follow.

Video Poem: freedom

A poem about escaping violence.

Video Poem: Jest or Malice

This poem is about how people from a  dominant culture in society respond to differences in accent, language, spirituality, culture, appearance, etc.

The Poet and The Cleaner: NZ National Poetry Day

 

The Poet and The Cleaner

                                                           while the cleaner

                                                           scrubbed the toilets

the poet spoke loudly

in meter

about truth

                                                           

                                                           as the cleaner   

                                                           polished the mirror

                                                           in swirling circles

the poet leant close

to it’s sheen

and whispered

about justice

her breath

making

a small patch

of condensation

the poet repeated

to remember

her poems

                                                        to the rhythm

                                                        of the cleaners mop

musing on difference

        or identity

standing back

to finish

her poem

in the mirror

with a flourish

                                                       the cleaner

                                                       slowly clapped

                                                       her hands

the poet bowed low

                    one hand still holding the mop.

Above is the re-imagining of a poem I wrote when I was 17 and working cleaning a school, after my school day. I don't have the original it's in an archive far away...It's in honour of National Poetry Day in NZ July 27. People are going crazy for poetry all over the country! Read a poem aloud! It would be 15 more years after the above poem, before I finally started saying my poems out loud in public! I am celebrating 30 years of writing poetry myself, by re-joining the New Zealand Society of Authors.

 I am reminded of teaching a poetry class a few years back. On instinct, on my way out the door, along with my books by Canadian poets, notes, and weblinks, I picked up photocopies of some poems I had published anonymously in the school magazine around the same time as the above poem. In a break in the class a man asked me what was the purpose of poetry, we chatted some and then I handed him the poems from aged 17 and told him to read as few or as many as he liked, 2 of the 8 poems were about writing poetry. After the break he was still studying the poems, closely. We wrote, and then who ever wanted to, read their work aloud. He like me, was an immigrant to Canada, and read  about what he had left behind, what he found when he arrived, what he hoped for. It was a class in which people often shared their struggles, but later the tutor told me that in two years, this was the first time he had ever shared anything personal. I marveled that the words of a teenage white girl from the other side of the world, from 25 years ago, could inspire a middle aged black man to reveal himself in words. As I too have been inspired by so many poets from so many backgrounds. 

Then we looked at video poems on the web, by young and old, performance poets, in American Sign Language, all kinds of formats. The tutor was so enthused she made a video poem right then and there with a poem she had previously written and some photos she had in her laptop. 

Be enthused about poetry!

June 2 2012 The Independents Reading and Chapbook Launch

 Saturday June 2 2012
6pm to 8pm
Montmarte Cafe
4362 Main St (at 27th)
Vancouver

The Independents writing collective will be reading new work, poetry and prose and launching our handmade chapbooks, should be a fun evening!

Hosted by award winning poet and raconteur Jen Currin, The Writers Studio at SFU poetry and lyric prose mentor.

Readings by:

Yaana Dancer
Dhana Musil
Meg Torwl
Leanne Dunic
Cole Nowicki
Katie Quakenbush
Jaime-Lee Kirtz

I will be reading from my new chapbook, Transit of Venus, which explores themes of love, public transit and life transitions. It was short listed for the poetry chapbook publishing prize by Doire Press Ireland. Come celebrate early the transit of venus (which is occurring on June 5th 2012,  won't happen again until 2117, and has only been noted 6 times in recorded history!) - when the planet venus passes in front of earth's sun.

Checkout photos of the event on Integrial Media Facebook

Feb 12 3pm Love Poems Book Launch

Romance is in the air at Historic Joy Kogawa House. Come celebrate Valentine’s Day with love poems, chocolate and vino, and help launch Leaf Press’s anthology The Wild Weathers with readings from Peter Trower, Daniela Elza, Susan McCaslin, Elsie Neufeld, Berenice Freedome, Jocelyn Pitsch, Meg Torwl, Leanne Dunic, Lenore Rowntree, and Robin Susanto. Vancouver’s poet laureate Evelyn Lau has been invited and the Kogawa House writer-in-residence, Deborah Willis, will attend.

When: 3 to 5 pm, Sunday, February 12

Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House is located at 1450 West 64th Avenue (2 blocks east of Granville)

Cost: Tickets are $15 and include a glass of the best vino and all the chocolate in the house

Please rsvp to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca. See you there!

This anthology features my recent poem Sheldon.

For more info and to order from Leaf Press 

Photos of the launch on Facebook 

Jan 24 2012 Exhibition of Creativity by Caregivers

Two of my poems, Remote  and acts considering caregiving from those receiving and giving it, will be on display in an exhibition celebrating creativity by caregivers.

Tuesday January 24 2012. Garden Room. West Vancouver Community Health Centre.
2121 Marine Drive
West Vancouver
6.30pm to 8.30pm


North Shore Caregivers Resources

2011 A Great CREATIVE Year!

Meg Torwl reading July 2011 at the SFU Writing and Publishing Graduation with Trish Webb, Karen Lee

2011 was a good year for me creatively! I got to work or exhibit in several disciplines - writing, performance, audio, video, new media and curate.

I wrote an audio Podplay in a workshop with Jan Derbyshire with Neworld Theatre. About dealing with cancer while going to university. How depression holds hands with illness behind your back and tries to convince you every day is the same. Meanwhile your creativity tries to see the sun and remember everyday is new and full of possibility - even as Fukushima burns.

Two of my films screened. Act Your Age!? with the Generations Project Local Docs Series. Where have all the lesbians gone? with an Out On Screen Retrospective Vancouver Visionaries screening.

I curated and exhibited a new media exhibition in Sechelt for  a month - PORTAL/PORTAGE. A wonderful collaboration with meditations on nature with three other women artists whose work I admire very much, Claudia Medina-Culos, Lilianna Kleiner and Diane Tanchak. With the Sunshine Coast Arts Council.

I completed The Writers Studio 2011 at Simon Fraser University, with the wonderful Poetry and Lyric Prose mentor Jen Currin. Such a great group of fellow students too! My work grew and expanded so much in the fecund environment! I submitted 60+ pages for work-shopping and polished  and shaped my final manuscript of 25 pages for deadline, with the help of Betsy Warland’s excellent Minding Your Manuscript class. My final poetry manuscript is a narrative arc through an intimate relationship, illness, to life transitions of all types. There are three inter-related sections 1. The Synesthete and the Kinesthete (intimate relationships, aging, illness). 2. The Autistic Rheumatologist (disability, illness) 3. Transit of Venus (things thought while traveling – family, disability, spirituality, bliss, happiness, mortality).

I took a fabulous elective paper at SFU - The Poems Story and Silence – with Betsy Warland, the out-going Program Director of the Writers Studio. I wanted to write about a magical childhood encounter with a flock of moths, and ended up writing a new suite of 13 poems on the joys and tensions of the great NZ extended family summer holiday! The diversity and talent of the other women in the class was inspiring when we all gave a 10 minute presentation at the last class, each of us with visual elements to our work. It is always wondrous as a mentor what Betsy is able to draw out of us.

I read my poetry at 5 public reading events, and had 9 poems accepted for publication. With Emerge, The Writers Caravan, Enpipe and The Wild Weathers.

I am looking forward to what 2012 brings, so far in the works seeking a publisher for a poetry book, a collaborative performance commission from Calgary, a Mentorship from NZ, and possibly a retrospective exhibition.

Namaste and gratitude.

The Writers Caravan 5th Chapbook Launch Nov 18 2011

Thursdays Writing Collective launches its 5th Chapbook

Friday Nov 18, 8:15pm at the Memory Festival at the Roundhouse Community Centre

Thursdays Writing Collective and guest editor Michael Turner invite you to a reading and launch of
"The Writers Caravan Anthology," a cross-community publication with UBC Law, The 2011 Writer's Studio and Write Club!

Please join us to celebrate the authors, including TWS's Rua Mercier, Dhana Musil, Yaana Dancer and Meg Torwl, at this free event.

Read more about The Writers Caravan here

- I'll be reading from my prose poem in the chapbook 'eight doors to happiness' about Buddhist lessons learned while taking transit.

Come on out and listen the the authors read their work, buy a copy of the chapbook, celebrate inter-community writing.

Photos of The Writers Caravan Anthology Launch on facebook

Buy a copy of the The Writers Caravan Anthology 2011 here

PodPlay Workshop October 2011

For two weekends in October I went on a fabulous PodPlay Workshop, facilitated by the wonderful Jan Derbyshire. A collaboration between Neworld Theatre and Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture.

 'PodPlays is a hybrid of technology and performance and combines sound, story and text. Load PodPlays onto your portable media player, then step outside where the plays become a soundtrack to life on the streets of Vancouver.' (Neworld Theatre).

Playwrights choose a location and use cues from the urban or natural environment to write a play, often musing on life's large or small questions.

Six of us participated in the workshop, recording first draft readings of our short plays, and then we all went on the PodPlays route to check out the results. Marvelous! We wrote on topics as varied as a missing cat, lost love,  life and death, justice and judgment and two a collaborative poem inspired by Occupy Vancouver. Photos here.

You can check out Jan Derbyshire's Westend PodPlay Dog of your understanding, and other PodPlays commissioned for Vancouver's 125 year anniversary on the Neworld Theatre PodPlay site.

Oct 22 2011 8pm Emerge Book Launch

Sat Oct 22 8pm - 10.30pm , Emerge Book Launch and Reading

Room 2555, World Art Centre
 SFU WOODWARDS

149 West Hastings (enter of Cordova St.)


The Writer's Studio at SFU presents the 2011 student anthology, Emerge, edited by Hiromi Goto.

Students will read from their new work, fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Meg will read verse and prose poetry on relationships in a writers life.

Doors Open 7:30pm

Suggested Donation $10
Door Prize*

Special Launch Price for the Book
This event will be followed by a cash bar reception.

*Free Creative Writing Course from the Writing and Communications Program at SFU

Read more about what I and others have to say about  The Writer's Studio course at SFU, at the blog of SmarttNet who kindly sponsored the printing of the book launch program and video of the event.

Register online if you can for catering purposes.
http://www.thewritersstudio.ca/emerge-2011-student-anthology.html

Featured on The Writers Studio Blog

 My tips on reading your writing is featured on The Writers Studio Blog, for that and more tips each week by the local writers community. check it out.

June 22 Reading New Work at the Roundhouse

Hi Folks! I will be reading new poems at the Roundhouse Tuesday June 21 2011 7pm to 9pm with The Writers Caravan. See you there! This is a free event. Fellow The Writers Studio readers will be Yaana Dancer, Dhana Musil, and Rua Mercier. More details below. Spread the word ( :

'Thursdays Writing Collective is hosting an evening celebration and reading for the culmination of its pilot project: The Writers Caravan. The project was designed to foster creative contact between city writing groups that might not otherwise intersect, by writing together on common themes and reading together in local venues. Members of three Vancouver writing communities participated: UBC Law students, The Writer’s Studio 2011, and Write Club! Literary Mamas. The connections were electric! You are invited to join us from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Tuesday June 21 at the Roundhouse, 81 Roundhouse Mews (Davie and Pacific).  Find The Writers Caravan on facebook and online at: Thursdayspoems.wordpress.com'

check out photos from the event here

Reading with the Writers Caravan April 15

I will be reading with the Writers Caravan, a collaboration between the Thursdays Collective and The Writers Studio.

Friday April 15 2011
Take 5 Cafe
7pm to 9.30pm
429 Granville St (at Hastings)
Vancouver
Wheelchair access is at the back on Hastings St (604 697 9090)

Co hosted by Elee Kraljii Gardiner of Thursdays Collective and  Fiona Scott of The Writers Studio Reading Series. Featuring writers from the lively Carnegie Centre based Thursdays Collective, and The Writers Studio. Including my compatriot Rua Mercier, and my fellow Poetry and Lyric Prose students Dhana Musil and Yaana Dancer.

I will read a prose poem '8 Doors to Happiness' loosely based on a Buddhist poem '8 Steps to happiness'. In my disability friendly version, a journey via transit reveals the interconnectedness of all beings.

The Writers Caravan will feature more collaborative readings and a publication later in the year.

EarSighted Live Audio Description - a first in Canada!

It was the dream of Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture Artistic Director Geoff McMurchy, and Executive Director Rina Fraticelli to introduce Audio Description to theatres in Vancouver, and Canada. Which has resulted in EarSighted Live Audio Description first full season - 15 shows October 2010 - June 2011 with 6 greater Vancouver theatres.

What is Audio Description?

'Audio description brings the sets, lighting, costumes, and action of a theatre performance alive for blind and visually impaired audience members. Kickstart has trained a team of professionals who provide key action and other visual information, between the actor’s lines, through a wireless transmitter to a single earpiece worn by the recipient. Description begins 15 minutes prior to curtain, with an introduction to the overall production and design concept, and other programme notes'. Audio Describers preview the show 2-3 times and write succinct yet descriptive notes.

How it all began

Audio Description for live events has been available in the USA for 3 decades, and began in Washington DC, and San Francisco, CA. You can read a brief history at the Audio Description Coalition website. It was one of the co-founders of the coalition, Deborah Lewis who would become the trainer for EarSighted. The Audio Description Coalition provides, training and professional development, guiding principles and codes of conduct throughout the USA, and now also Canada.

In 2009 I was employed by Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture to coordinate audio description and quite a journey it has been for all of us! In the spring of 2009 we put out a call for auditions, and received over 40 applications, from this talented pool we auditioned 15 people, and chose 8 for the training. Auditions were recorded to assess for natural aptitude and feedback was taken not only from those of us conducting the interviews, but also from trainer Deborah Lewis, and a representative from locally based Access for Sight Impaired Consumer, Tamara Tedesco. Tamara and other people who are blind or sight impaired provided feedback to the audio describers throughout our training sessions also.

From the training a dedicated core of 4 Audio Describers has emerged, Khaira Ledeyo, Rick Waines, Teri Snelgrove, and Stephane Kirkland, who are all experienced in delivering live audio description in a variety of settings. At the time of the first training in Vancouver in late spring 2009, while Deborah Lewis was in the city, Kickstart took the opportunity to invite theatres to a meeting to learn more about audio description- from which may developments progressed.

The First Audio Described show in Vancouver

 Kickstart's first show was a partnership with the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in the fall of 2009, with a performance of the early life of blind and Deaf person Helen Keller, as told in The Miracle Worker. Feedback from the audience was very positive:

‘I attended the Vancouver Playhouse's performance of The Miracle Worker. I was extremely impressed with the live AD.  Not only was the service beneficial for me as a blind patron, but it was also beneficial for my sighted companion.  Without the AD, my companion would be trying to provide the description.  This is distracting to him, since he is not able to fully focus on and enjoy the play himself, but it can also be annoying to other patrons sitting nearby.  In addition, my companion would never be able to provide as much detail about the set design, costumes, and physical attributes of the actors. Most importantly, the AD allows me the independence and choice to attend a live theatre production without having to rely on a sighted companion. I would be interested in attending more live theatre presentations that were accompanied by AD, and to pass on information to my sight impaired friends and acquaintances’  Linda Weber - BC CNIB Board Co-Chair.

Audio describer Teri Snelgrove with her script, in the technical booth, with a view of the stage at the Vancouver Playhouse. Photo courtesy of Meg Torwl, and EarSighted.        

Equipment

 Audio Description is able to use the same technology provided for hearing enhanced performances which many modern theatres already have. After some research Kickstart settled on purchasing a portable FM wireless transmitter and 20 headset and receiver system to give EarSighted the flexibility of being able to audio describe in any setting, indoors or outdoors, and with the option of adding more headsets. With funding from the City of Vancouver, and Canadian Heritage, EarSighted was under way.

Cultural Olympiad

The Cultural Olympiad of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Vancouver in the winter 2010 provided opportunities for partnerships and showcasing EarSighted Live Audio Description, with the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodwards, and HIVE3. Three intriguing shows provided their own unique challenges. At the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Robert LePage's The Blue Dragon/ Le Dragon Bleu and SPINE by Kevin Kerr, James Sanders, and Bob Frazer were both very visual shows,  making use of frequent projections, so there was a lot to describe, and much crucial to the show that would have be missed by visually impaired audience members if not for the audio description. The Madama Butterfly-like story of The Blue Dragon set in China included  scenes such as a projection of a giant hand tattooing on to the back of main character Pierre Lamontagne; the sights seen from a bicycle tour, trains; inside a revolving bar lounge; an art gallery show; and paintings of Vincent van Gogh appearing one after the other on blank canvases stacked against a warehouse wall.  With SPINE, there are 12 characters, and at least half of them play their alter egos or  avatar in a online video game.

While with HIVE3, where 12 theatres perform short scenes throughout the night, EarSighted audio described 4 shows the audio describers had prepared, including one with Touchstone Theatre which involved sitting in pairs listening to music  while the actors told stories with pieces of cooking dough on chopping boards on the audiences knees. So enthused were the team and audience we tried a couple of off the cuff shows unprepared, one of which involved been towed around the car park in a bicycle drawn 4 person cart, with actors running beside, and some of the action happening via puppets seen through a periscope in the roof. Now that was a lot of fun for all! Funding to provide audio description for these shows was generously provided by 2010 Legacies Now. You can hear a great CBC interview recorded by Jen Moss, with myself as coordinator, audio describers Rick and Khaira, and audience members, during a performance of SPINE. The interview which was broadcast August 22 on North by North West starts about 30 minutes in to the 60 minute audio file.

Audio Description for Exhibitions

Also during the Cultural Olympiad, Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture partnered with the University of British Columbia and Ryersen University to bring the groundbreaking exhibition Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember, to the heart of the action, UBC Robson Square. right next to the free Zipline across the square. Audio describer Teri Snelgrove, and 2 local actors worked with the exhibition to provide pre-recorded  full audio descriptive, and plain language audio tours of the exhibit. American Sign Language, Touch Displays, and print, large print, and braille formats were also available. All formats are available online with the exhibit under Access, and offer a gold standard in exhibition accessibility. EarSighted plans to develop live and/or pre-recorded audio description tours with major local art galleries.

Training

Kickstart provided advanced training and certification for the 4 EarSighted audio describers with Deborah Lewis in the spring of 2010, and again met with theatres.  In the fall 2010 we partnered with Access for Sight Impaired Consumers to provided training to theatres on how to appropriately accommodate visually impaired audiences in a theatre setting, the training by Rob Sleath was very well received. ASIC provide on their website homepage a whole range of useful resources including 'Proper Etiquette when you meet a person who is blind or sight impaired,' and 'Proper Etiquette when you meet a guide dog team'. Also providing a consideration of other factors, such as economic - ticket pricing is as much a disability access issue as any other due to the high rate in unemployment and under-employment of people with disabilities. EarSighted has built relationships with ASIC, CNIB and other organizations serving people who are blind and visually impaired and continues outreach in these communities. 

EarSighted Live Audio Description Logo

EarSighted Season

In October 2010 EarSighted launched a full season of 15 shows with theatres in the greater Vancouver area. The three theatres who are all offering several shows launched their first shows in October, the Stanley Theatre and Vancouver Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver, and the Gateway Theatre in Richmond. In November the three theatres who are offering single shows will be launching at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver with Touchstone Theatre and Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver. EarSighted has also partnered with the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, offering a workshop on audio description at their fall 2009 Making a Scene conference, and currently in introducing audio description to theatre going audiences through a page on their online theatre guide. I have stepped down from the coordinating role after 2 years and a successful launch to pursue my own writing and artwork. Afuwa Granger has taken on the role of coordinator with EarSighted.

Kickstart Disbility Arts and Culture has been guiding a sister organization in Toronto, Picasso Pro through the process of introducing live audio description which they hope will be launched in 2011. It is our dream that eventually audio description will be offered in all theatres across Canada.

Trainer Deborah Lewis, members of the EarSighted Team, audience members, and staff at the Vancouver Playhouse.          Photo courtesy of Teri Snelgrove, the Vancouver Playhouse, and EarSighted