Ravenswing, October edition
Now Playing: still raining
Topic: craft and zine fairs
Went to the Ravenswing Craft and Zine Fair yesterday at the Jack Purcell Centre. I'm usually there with two different hats on - one selling handmade jewelry, with my friend Carolyn, as Gandalf's Granddaughter, and the other selling books at the Dusty Owl table. I share the Dusty Owl table with Urban Grove, Cathy MacDonald-Zytveld's mixed-media, linocut prints, and 'Naughty Soap For Your Dirty Body.' I think this is emblematic of Ravenswing's whole ethos, really - the longer I participate in the sale, the more people I start realizing are connected in ways I didn't know. I think it was the second or third Ravenswing that I came in and started setting up and realized that two tables down was the sister of one of my oldest friends (I met him, gleep, maybe 13 years ago back in Fredericton, NB.) I had no idea how she would have found Ravenswing, but she did. The next show found her daughter also manning a table - she knew another of the vendors and didn't know that I was involved. This week Aiyanna appeared at a table - we met her through Dusty Owl's participation in the Pride parade. The network of connections in this show are wonderful. I like to think it binds the crafting community in Ottawa tighter. Ravenswing really tries to be co-operative - although it's run largely by Uncle Zio and Festrell, we've set up an online group so the participants can help shoulder some of the work, and it's growing. I was particularly happy to see a table featuring gorgeous fused and dichroic glass - brought the feel of the whole show up a notch. Although, personally, I still like Queenie Tyrone's "Bondage Bitches" - Barbies which have been duct-taped, repainted and punctured into budget, back-alley "Living Dead Dolls". (Should probably add a '(tm)' or two there, shouldn't I?) One of those cool things about Ravenswing - you're not just going to find your usual craft sale wares.

The traffic was pretty good, too, considering the Jack Purcell Centre's under construction. Sales are still slow, though (I made a whopping $5 for one of my pendants all day) but that doesn't really bother me. I like the chance to talk to other crafters and writers and zinesters, and there's usually a DJ playing cool tunes and an open mike for poetry and music. Now we just need to get the word out there for the November show - try to snag the Christmas shoppers out there looking for original stuff.

Happy Birthday, Capital Slam!
Now Playing: Coffee, Dead can Dance, light rain
Topic: slam
Friday night was the first anniversary and the official opening bash for Capital Slam. It's astounding, heartening, and possibly just a little intimidating that a series that started just a year ago can pack a pub the size of the Gap of Dunloe on Bank so full that latecomers were stuck standing at the back by the merch table. On a Friday night. On Bank Street. An entire pub, packed to capacity, tuned in on a stage with a poet on it. It's a surprising achievement.

One of the great advantages of having the place packed was that by the time I got there, ten minutes before the show, there were no unoccupied tables. So you have to pick a table and sit at it, and you have a chance to meet people you might not otherwise have spoken to. And everyone had come out of the woodwork - with university back in session, and the fall season in full swing, there was a real sense of "hooray, slam's back!" Luckily, with the usual crowd of regulars at Capital Slam, your randomly selected tablemates are usually friendly. I was glad to get a chance to finally meet both Matt Peake and Owen Hewitt, who were both on the 2004 competitive team, and to talk to Eric Rosenhek, who hosts the Thursday Special Blend on CKCUfm.

For anyone who hasn't been to a poetry slam - these events are astounding. At least, I usually find them astounding. For one thing, having survived high school poetry class where they did their best to grind poetry into a dry, dusty pulp that sticks to the roof of the mouth, it's wonderful to see people - quite a few of them still in high school - having so much fun with it.

And it's fun poetry - not always technically interesting, but usually exciting. The slam works like this: there's an open mike with a handful of poets who want to read but not compete. Then there might be a featured reader, and a break, and then the slam, in which the poets who want to compete get up and have three minutes to strut their stuff. The time limit and the competitive spirit call for poems that are punchy, emotional, often incendiary or sexy or funny or all three at once if you can handle it. The judges have to be swayed to the high score, and generally the more fun they have the better. (Downers often don't score well, as Owen Hewitt found out in round one with his wake/elegy to his cousin Sandy.) Then there's a break, and maybe a second feature, and then the top-scoring five poets duke it out with a second poem. Then the prizes are handed out, everyone grabs a last pint, and the show's over.

This evening's first feature was a poet called Katalyst, a member of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a group of artists creating "live organic improv" in Montreal (they look really interesting). She brought along a trumpet player, Jason "Blackbird" Selman, and as far as I can tell, most of their set was, if not completely improvised, then formed and framed on stage. I think that the most improv part was the more 'talky' segments between poems, but even those were rhythmic and aware of the sound. The connection between music and poetry is made absolutely clear when you bring a musician up there to perform, and Katalyst and Blackbird did some really neat trading off of rhythms, picking up on each other and doing counterpoints. It starts really bringing home that parallel I thought of when I first discovered slam, between spoken word poetry and jazz. (I also really enjoyed the spoken piece that Blackbird performed - a very angry poem spoken in a voice like a quiet grave.)

The slam was as fun as ever - a lot of new poets who hadn't been up before. Like I said, often slam poetry isn't technically interesting, and falls more into the category of dramatic monologue - which isn't a negative observation, by the way. And sometimes the technical stuff is so intricate and speeds by so fast that you wish you could learn to listen faster. The slam had the usual wild range of styles, from Steve Sauve's humourous monologues to a classically hip-hop piece by Toronto's Tommy Buick, to Ritallin's rhythmic virtuosity (is that an unspoken samba beat he's usually got playing under the words?) and Owen Hewitt's toast to his cousin. I think the nicest surprise was Jim Thomas, a poet from the UK who's apparently going to be moving to Ottawa this winter - keep an eye out for him. Big guy, looks just a little like Tim Currie, British accent. Going to be a really interesting new voice in the mix - I loved his piece in which he confessed that he was an (insert deep and ominous voice here) android - and has apparently been hosting slams in Oxford with a group called Hammer and Tongues, who look a little like the Ottawa crowd.

The second feature of the night was Brendan McLeod, from Vancouver, who was a lot of fun. Definitely a contrast to Katalyst, in that he wasn't as much focussed on rhythm and more on surprising images and impact of his performance; he bent his voice and gestured and moved around the stage and ranted and speedtalked, and got wholly wrapped up in passionate delivery. (In particular, I couldn't tell if he really got choked up at the end of his furious poem about high school shootings, but the emotion in his voice certainly locked me in.)

And then there was the final slam - in which I was pretty happy to see the top marks taken by Festrell, a young and original writer. I've known her for a year or so, and both her writing and her presence in the scene have just been skyrocketing. Her performances are usually much quieter than most of the others, and yet when she started her first poem, the whole bar shut up to listen. It was eerie. Festrell also runs Nekusis Press and co-runs the Ravenswing Craft and Zine Fair.

And after that there was nothing for it but to eat the last of the delicious Capital Slam birthday cake, and start slowly trickling out (when I left around 1:00 a small core of the Capital Slam collective was still in the corner with a pitcher... but I had a bus to catch.)

If, on a Friday night, you see a huge crowd of people spilled out onto the sidewalk outside the Gap of Dunloe, rivalling the crowds standing outside Barrymore's Music Hall, then it's probably Capital Slam between rounds. Walk in, grab a drink, and find a seat. You won't regret it.

And Now For A Brief Introduction, Handshakes All Around
I suppose an introductory entry is in order. . .

This is meant to be sort of a foray for me into criticism, community, support for my local lit and art scene, and also hopefully a means of developing my own personal poetics. I am a poet, and editor, living in Ottawa and slowly but surely carving myself a niche in the amazing scene here. I run an indie press, Dusty Owl Press, and help organize and run the Dusty Owl Reading Series. I also maintain their website.

Ottawa's lit scene is booming, especially of late. One of the things I have noticed and been really pleased by is the fact that the new, young, zinesters, poets, artists and writers seem to be working for community, mutual support and encouragement, and eclecticism. The page poets and spoken word poets go to the same events and listen to each other, the prose writers and the sound experimentalists rub shoulders on student radio, post-goth queer erotica and Ian-Fleming-drenched neomedievalism (not kidding, true story, really) wind up at the same small press fair table. At least, that's been my experience so far, helped along by the fact that Dusty Owl as a group just love that kind of stuff and encourage it as much as we can - and so we meet and collaborate with people who share that opinion.

And - I want to do my part to help share this great scene with people, let them know what I see happening. We'll see how it goes.