bill bissett and MLA Chernoff performed live on Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the Chapel of St. Bede, Renison University College, University of Waterloo. This event was co-sponsored by the University of Waterloo and the Elora Poetry Centre & Gallery, with support from the Arts First Pedagogical Enhancement Fund at University of Waterloo, the League of Canadian Poets, and Canada Council for the Arts. It was linked to the annual 100 Thousand Poets for Change global poetry initiative organized by Michael Rothenberg, held in over 700 international locations. Sadly, Michael died immediately after the event, so we were unable to send him the link to view it.

Described by Jack Kerouac as “one of the great poets,” bill bissett is an internationally acclaimed language poet, artist, and musician. He is the author of more than 60 books of poetry. Safia Southey observes, “bissett dispenses with standard written English (initial capitals, spelling, and punctuation), connecting with language on an elemental level that some reviewers have considered shaman-like.” Frank Davey has described him as “rejecting the conventional or ‘straight’ world . . . not only in lifestyle but in ruthless alterations to conventional syntax.” bill is a spellbinding performance artist who had delighted audiences at the Elora Poetry Centre on two previous occasions coordinated with 100 Thousand Poets for Change. This time bill was accompanied by Metroland Media 2021 Urban Hero winner Honey Novick, poet and singer, as well as writer, director & producer Wesley Rickert, who gave virtuosic performances of sound poetry.

Gordon Hill Press, publisher of MLA Chernoff’s recent collection [Squelch Procedures], notes on its website that “MLA Chernoff (they/ them/@citation_bb) was born at Women’s College Hospital in December of 1991–oops. They are a six-hundred-year-old Jewish, non-binary pome machine, a Postmodern Neo-Marxist, and (somehow) a PhD Candidate of the Neoliberal University of York University, where they once held a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship–no kidding.” MLA had delivered a stunning virtual performance for students at Renison University College and friends of the Elora Poetry Centre back in January 2022, but seeing him perform live was truly memorable. He was introduced by Jeremy Luke Hill, his publisher, who recollected how bowled over he had been the first time he heard MLA give a live reading, and everybody in the audience soon understood why.

Although staged for ARTS 130 at University of Waterloo, the event was open to the Renison and University of Waterloo communities, friends of the Elora Poetry Centre, and general public. It was filmed by Robert Laurin of Waterloo Studio and can be viewed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Ppud6GPQw&list=PLxaW0IcKekckyGxSmT2K0mfVi-5n3_R3j

We were very excited to have Rae Crossman , well known poet on both radio and stage, and Tilly Kooyman, distinguished clarinetist of international acclaim, perform at the Elora Poetry Centre. 

Confluence of Words and Music

Poetry of Rae Crossman with Music Performed by Clarinetist Tilly Kooyman

Featuring Compositions by R. Murray Schafer

In this presentation, language and music flow together to evoke misty dawns, forest hikes, and river passages. Listen to bird song, cataract chants, and wind wail. Touch the tip of a young spruce. Read the rough calligraphy of bear marks. See an amber bead of sap lanced with light. Marvel morning.

Living in Kitchener, Rae Crossman writes poetry both for the page and for oral performance. His poems have been published in literary magazines, broadcast on CBC Radio, dramatized on stage, performed and recorded as vocal music, and displayed on transit systems across Canada. Collaborative projects include storytelling, choral compositions, and theatrical pieces set in natural environments.For more than twenty-five years, in canoes and along forest trails, Rae has lived the roles of several mythological characters in R. Murray Schafer’s Theatre of Confluence. He has served as a short story editor for The New Quarterly and has received a Waterloo Region Arts Award for his artistic endeavours across disciplines.

https://raecrossman.com/

Guelph clarinetist Tilly Kooyman is an active solo, chamber and orchestral musician, with particular interests in contemporary music, interdisciplinary works and sound ecology. She has performed across Canada and toured Japan with the Higashi-Hiroshima Clarinet Ensemble. An advocate for Canadian music, Tilly has premiered many works by Canadian composers at the World Bass Clarinet Convention in the Netherlands, the International Bohlen-Pierce Symposium in Boston, and with various ensembles broadcast on CBC Radio.

Tilly and Rae have frequently collaborated as members of the performance group SlanT, and have appeared together at the Open Ears Festival, Stratford Summer Music Festival, International Clarinetfest, Narrative Matters Conference, Soundstreams, and other events. For three decades they have participated in R. Murray Schafer’s Patria works and drawn inspiration from his call for art to be transformational. “What is the purpose of art? First, exaltation. Let us speak of that.”

28 July 3.30 p.m.

A perfect summer afternoon was the setting of a double-bill of two esteemed poets, Asa Boxer and Max Layton, both sons of poets who emerged from Montreal in the 1950’s.  Asa read from his new chap book Field Notes From the Undead (published by the Elora Poetry Centre & Gallery/Interludes) and earlier publications The Mechanical Bird and Skullduggery, along with some wonderful new material composed since his last visit.  Tilly Kooyman provided a creative accompaniment to parts of the reading on her clarinet.  Max, eldest son of Irving Layton, read from several of his works, including his latest book of poems LIKE, which has just been published by Guernica Editions, after opening with three of his songs, on which he accompanied himself on the guitar.  A short discussion followed in the house and garden, with a buffet and drinks. Tom Althouse of Silk Purse Recordings, Elora, has agreed to assist us in archiving this and future events.

25 August 4.00 p.m.

croc E Moses, whom several of you may have met here last year, read from a wide range of poems and songs from his thirty years in South Africa.  He topped it off with some new material written since he returned to Canada, where he has been living in rural Ontario.