It had been a very long three years since we had held a live event in Elora, and as enjoyable as the remote performances and panel discussion had been–even the wonderful co-sponsored live sound poetry event at Renison University College featuring bill bissett, Honey Novick, Wesley Rickert, and MLA Chernoff!–these had not been quite the same, removed from the natural setting of the Elora Poetry Centre & Gallery.  We were therefore very excited when, on 8 July, Karen Houle (who delivered a memorable virtual reading from The Grand River Watershed: A Folk Ecology during the pandemic) inspired a large audience with readings from her Governor General’s Award-nominated book, accompanied by Tilly Kooyman playing Vaughan Williams on the clarinet–including Tilly’s own adaption of “The Lark Ascending”!

This was truly one of the most memorable events in the twelve-year existence of the Elora Poetry Centre, with an enthusiastic crowd spellbound by Karen’s passionate delivery of her poems, laced with fascinating narratives about their creation, and Tilly’s sensitive and beautifully complementary performance of “The Lark Ascending” as well as impressionistic melodies from Vaughan Williams’ “Six Studies in English Folk Song.”

Our thanks go to Mike Kruk for putting together the program, Max and Maureen McIntyre, Susan Thorning and Eric Oakley, and Janice Ferri for their financial contributions, the Elora & Fergus Arts Council for support, and Silk Purse Recording. The light buffet supper was supported by donations from Zehrs Fergus, Dar’s Country Market in Elora, and Angelino’s in Guelph, to say nothing of the generous, elegant contributions brought by friends of the Elora Poetry Centre.

Here are bios of Karen and Tilly:

Dr. Karen Houle is a recently retired Philosophy Professor at the University of Guelph.  At this point in her life, she’s hellbent on using her immense caffeinated chaotic energy, her acquired social capital and her well-honed pragmatic attitude of “not giving a shit what people [think] anymore” to create and inspire joyful art and artful local socioecological post-humanist projects that are, as the poet Anna Bowen wrote, “tiny but everything”. Houle has 5 or maybe 6 of these projects bubbling on the proverbial stove at this very moment and would love to share the stove with others. No cooking experience necessary. 

All of Houle’s projects fall under the umbrella of “The Art of Soil Collective” ART + SOIL + COLLECTIVE (where “collective” does not mean just humans in a bunch, doing human-stuff for humans). In the best of all possible worlds – which is a refrain we say in academic Philosophy all the time, but really, what we should say is: In the best possible state of the one & only world and life we have –– these efforts will combine & make good use of their solid and varied political and ethical principles, their many acquired and diverse practical skills and, most of all, the unruly passions that rule Houle including:  food security, grandmothering wisdoms, plant philosophy, ecology, bush knowledge, environmental protection, organic farming, wordsmithing, crafting stuff from stuff, soil remediation, biodiversity, chopping wood, seed saving, pollinator support, composting, mental health gymnastics, bio-cultural diversity and lake swimming. 

Tilly Kooyman is an active solo, chamber and orchestral musician, with interests in contemporary music, interdisciplinary works and acoustic ecology. An advocate for Canadian music, Tilly has premiered many new works by Canadian composers at the World Bass Clarinet Convention in the Netherlands, the International Bohlen-Pierce Symposium in Boston, ClarinetFest in Vancouver, NUMUS Concerts and the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo. The most significant influence in Tilly’s life has been the over three decades of collaboration with celebrated Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer on his Patria Cycle, a series of monumental works often staged in unique settings.

Tilly’s education includes a Master of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario, an Associateship from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and advanced studies at the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts. A former student of James Campbell and Robert Riseling, Tilly has also studied ‘Deep Listening’ with Pauline Oliveros and free improvisation with Casey Sokol.