The A B Series

Joe Rosenblatt / Gallery 101 reading

Date:

Friday, November 13, 2009

Doors:

7:30pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

Gallery 101

Cost:

$5 admission at the door

Host:

Max Middle

Joe RosenblattThe A B Series presents two readings by Governor General's Award winning poet JOE ROSENBLATT. The first takes place at Gallery 101 on Friday, November 13th at Gallery 101 in Ottawa and the second takes place in the gallery Art-image in Gatineau's Maison de la culture on Saturday, November 14th. Please see below for more detail on the November 14th event.

At both events, books by Joe Rosenblatt will be available for sale and signature along with a cash bar service.

Over the course of a literary career spanning more than four decades, Joe Rosenblatt has authored twenty books and his poems have appeared in over thirty anthologies of Canadian poetry. He has received major awards such as the Governor General's Award and the BC Book Award.

Joe Rosenblatt was born in Toronto in 1933. He dropped out of trade school as a young adult and worked at a series of low-paying jobs until he started working as a laborer for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1956. He became interested in writing through his association with the worker poet Milton Acorn in the early sixties and the metaphysical poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen. By 1966 he had his first book of poetry published and he also received a Canada Council grant which allowed him to leave his job as a freight handler of the old Canadian Pacific Railway and devote the next year to writing and travelling.

He has traveled widely giving readings of his poems in Europe, Canada and the United States. Several bilingual volumes of his poetry have been published in Italian with translations by the late Prof. Alfredo Rizzardi of the University of Bologna, and Ada Donati of Rome. As well Rosenblatt's poems have also been also translated into French, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish . His most recent poetry volume, Dog was published by Toronto publisher, Mansfield Press. It is a collaborative book of sonnets between Joe Rosenblatt and poet Catherine Owen, utilizing the images of homeless dogs of inner Havana, taken by photographer, Karen Moe, when she was in Havana in the late nineties. Thirteen of her photographic canine images are prominently featured in this volume. The sonnets are tied in with those images. Exile Editions of Toronto recently published The Lunatic Muse, a prose work on the relationship between madness and the muse using Canadian literary sources. For the past 27 years he has been living in a beach resort community of Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island with his wife Faye and their three cats.

The A B Series acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

Margaret Christakos

Date:

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Doors:

7:30pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

Gallery 101

Cost:

Margaret ChristakosMargaret Christakos is a poet and fiction writer who has lived in Toronto since 1987. Originally from Sudbury, ON, she has published seven collections of poetry and a novel. Her books of poetry are Purple (Your Scrivener Press, forthcoming 2010), What Stirs (Coach House Books, 2008), Sooner (CHB, 2005, nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award), Excessive Love Prostheses (CHB, 2002, winner of the ReLit Award for Poetry), Wipe Under A Love (Mansfield, 2000), The Moment Coming (ECW, 1998), Other Words for Grace (Mercury, 1994) and Not Egypt (Coach House Press, 1989). Her novel Charisma, published in 2000 by Pedlar Press, was nominated for the Ontario Trillium Book Award. Margaret was Canada Council Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor in 2004-2005, and since 2006 has taught Creative Writing and Poetry at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. She developed and facilitates the lecture-reading series "Influency: A Toronto Poetry Salon" at the SCS.

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for this event.

The Be Blank Consort

Date:

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Doors:

7:00pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

Gallery 101

Cost:

$15 admission

Host:

Max Middle

The Be Blank ConsortTHE A B SERIES LAUNCHES ITS THIRD SEASON with a performance by American sound poetry ensemble THE BE BLANK CONSORT. It takes place in Ottawa's own and very dynamic artist-run centre, GALLERY 101. During the performance, The Be Blankers will call invited local artists to the stage for performance of select works from the Be Blank repertoire.

The Be Blank Consort was born in June 2001 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) when all of its core members were part of a literary residency convened by Richard Kostelanetz. Each member is a writer using language in greatly expanded and often completely new ways and contexts. THE CONSORT was formed to perform various kinds of texts and visual texts, many of them created collaboratively, in ways that would reveal new resonances and possibilities. Some pieces in their repertoire are poems written by an individual member and scored for multiple voices by another. A few are entirely written and scored by one person. Many more were written in collaboration between two or more of the performers + others. Scott Helmes, in January 2002, initiated the first poems specifically designed for performance by THE CONSORT and many have followed since, created by all the members. In 2003, they released a CD, SOUND MESS: + OTHER POEMS.

THE CONSORT has performed numerous times with past engagements in Miami, New York, Columbus, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Roanoke, Prescott and elsewhere in The USA.

October 3rd, 2009 marks THE CONSORT'S first Canadian engagement!

John M Bennett

John M. Bennett has exhibited and performed his word art worldwide, and has published over 300 books of poetry; among the most recent are LA M AL (Blue Lion Press), CANTAR DEL HUFF (Luna Bisonte Prods), LENTES, (Blue Lion Press), and SPITTING DDREAMS (Blue Lion Press). He is Curator of the Avant Writing Collection at the Ohio State University Libraries.

Scott Helmes

Scott Helmes’ professional activities have been mainly in the fields of architecture and education. Starting in 1972, he began writing experimental poetry and pursuing mail art activities and artistic printmaking/drawings. His writing archive from 1972 to 1997 is in the Avant Writing Collection of the Ohio State University Libraries.

M Peters

Michael Peters is the author of Vaast Bin (Calamari 2007). Various manifestations of his written images have appeared in journals like SleepingFish, Word for/Word and Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, among others. With Poem Rocket and the Be Blank Consort, various manifestations of his recorded sounds have appeared on labels such as Atavistic and Luna Bisonte Prods. His visual-poetic manifestations can be found in various libraries and special collections, as well as appearing in both galleries and sound-image anthologies.

Watch The Be Blank Consort on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNsoQ6kkmHM

For audio and still images see http://www.johnmbennett.net & http://www.flickr.com/photos/beblank/sets/

Check out Geof Huth's report on a Be Blank performance earlier this year (with links to video clips) at http://dbqp.blogspot.com/2009/03/bbc-in-alb.html

Paul Dutton matinée

Date:

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Performance:

2:00pm / 14h

Venue:

Galerie Montcalm

Cost:

Free (a hat will be passed) / entrée libre

Host:

Max Middle

Galerie MontcalmThe second of the two Paul Dutton performances will take place of the afternoon of June 7th, at Galerie Montcalm in Gatineau.

Bilingual introduction / performance in English and sound poetry!

Introduction bilingue / performance en anglais et poésie sonore!

PAUL DUTTON est un poète, écrivain et artiste vocal reconnu internationalement tout autant pour ses performances littéraires que musicales. Durant les quarante dernières années, il a publié, enregistré et élaboré son travail de diverses façons : en solo ou en collaboration, en impression ou en film, à la télévision, à la radio et même sur le Web. Il a performé dans les festivals, les clubs, les salles de concerts et les salles de classes à travers le Canada, les États-Unis, l’Europe et l’Amérique du Sud. M. Dutton se concentre continuellement sur l’exploration de la conscience et de la perception par la création d’œuvres multisensorielles. De 1970 à 1988, il fut membre du légendaire quatuor de poésie auditive « Four Horsemen » et membre du groupe de musique CCMC depuis 1989. Son plus récent ouvrage publié sur six, est le livre Several Women Dancing (Mercury Press, 2002) et le plus récent album solo sur cinq est Oralizations (DAME Records, 2005).

Galerie Montcalm presents six exhibitions a year, covering a wide variety of artistic styles. Shows include works from national, international and upcoming artists, as well as many interdisciplinary and group works that push the limits of visual art. Paul Dutton's performance will be happening in the gallery surrounded by photographs by 11 contemporary artists from Japan. This will be the last day to view Counter-Photography: Japan's artists today, an international exhibition brought to Canada by The Japan Foundation and the Embassy of Japan in Canada.

Fondée en 1980, la galerie Montcalm présente six expositions par année portant sur la majorité des pratiques en arts visuels. Celles-ci mettent en vedette des artistes régionaux, des artistes canadiens de renom ainsi que des artistes venus d'ailleurs. Reconnue comme institution muséale, elle présente également des expositions de type didactique avec divers objets ou artefacts ayant un lien avec l'art.

Stationnement souterrain gratuit après 16 h et les week-ends. L'entrée est située sur la rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville.

Galerie Montcalm is located on the first floor in Gatineau's City Hall, right across from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Underground parking is free during the weekend as is street parking. Admission is free. On Sunday, the gallery is open from Noon to 5 p.m.

Visit their Web page at www.gatineau.ca/galeriemontcalm.

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for this event.

Paul Dutton

Date:

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Doors:

7:30pm

Performance:

9:00pm

Venue:

1848 - University of Ottawa Campus Bar

Cost:

$10 at the door (free for U of O English Dept students)

The A B Series is looking forward to hosting two performances by Paul Dutton. The first performance will take place on the evening of June 6th, and will be presented in association with The University of Ottawa English Department

Photo courtesy Eckehard DolinskiPaul Dutton is a poet, novelist, essayist, and oral sound artist who is internationally renowned for both his literary and musical performances. Throughout the last four decades he has published, recorded, and performed his work in various contexts, solo and collaborative, in print and film, on TV, radio, and the Web. He has taken his art to festivals, clubs, concert halls, and classrooms throughout Canada and across the United States, Europe, and South America. Dutton’s artistic focus continues to be the exploration of consciousness and perception through the creation of multisensory works, employing written poetry and prose, visual poetry, and the sonic dimensions of language and oral expression. He was a member of the legendary Four Horsemen sound poetry quartet (1970–1988), along with Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Steve McCaffery, and the late bpNichol. He joins his soundsinging oralities to John Oswald’s alto sax and Michael Snow’s piano and synthesizer in the free-improvisation band CCMC (1989 to the present). He recently formed Quintet à Bras in company with two French poets and two French instrumentalists. The most recent of his six books is a novel, Several Women Dancing (Mercury Press, 2002), the latest of his five solo recordings is the CD Oralizations (DAME Records, 2005).

For a taste of what they might expect of at the performance, the following Web sites provide samples of Paul's published writing and of his sound recordings, plus commentary on other of his published works:
http://www.chbooks.com/archives/online_books/aurealities/
http://www.ubu.com/sound/dutton.html
http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/dutton/ldutton1.htm
http://www.actuellecd.com/en/cat/am_130/
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Dutton.html
http://www.unlikelystories.org/dutton0107.shtml

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for this event.

bill bissett

Date:

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Doors:

7:00pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

The Mercury Lounge - Upstairs

Cost:

$10 at the door

Host:

Max Middle

bill bissettoriginalee from lunaria a far distant planet way past venus 312 bill came 2 eryh on th first childrns shuttul from ther ovr 400 yeers ago in lunarian space time kontsrukts hes bin sent as an impressyunist onlee altho he wud love 2 undrstand erthling wayze he askd wudint yu 2 ths end he has alwayze wantid 2 xploor langwage in all its wayze at leest in poetree n wantid alwayze 2 spell mor n mor closelee on th page how each word sounds in that pomes ear a life time at leest devosyun most recent book sublingual 2nd most recent book ths is erth thees ar peopul both from talonbooks n from red deer press deth interrupts th dansing a cd with pete dako followd by ths is erth thees ar peopul also with pete dako musician extraordinaire n luddites 86- 91 remix cd just releesd also a paintr most recent show upstares galleree toronto summr 09 now a doktor from tru universitee n resipient uv th george woodcock life time acheevment award hes working now on nu book n nu paintings evree 6 months or sew th lunarian assemblee remoovs th filld tapes uv impressyuns from bills hed n he starts agen emptee hedid 4 a whil

"I know who the great poets are. William Bissette of Vancouver. An Indian boy. Bill Bissette, or Bissonnette." (Jack Kerouac, 1967)

Margaret Atwood's "astral twin" and James Reaney's "one-man civilization", living legend bill bissett comes to Ottawa for a feature reading in The A B Series.

A POETIC TRIBUTE to bill follows the reading with VIDEO TO BE SCREENED and APPEARANCES BY SEVERAL SPECIAL GUESTS reading from bill's oeuvre and from the anthology, 'radiant danse uv being: A Poetic Portrait of bill bissett'.

'radiant danse uv being: A Poetic Portrait of bill bissett' and books by bill bissett (including the recently released 'griddle talk: a yeer uv bill n carol dewing brunch' co-authored by Carol Malyon) will be available for sale.

This event is made possible with financial assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers' Union of Canada.

Writers Union of Canada Logo

Christian Bök

Date:

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Performance:

5:00pm

Venue:

Festival Plaza at Ottawa City Hall - Mirror Tent

Cost:

Tickets: $16 General Seating ($12 for Students), $28 Reserved Section

Host:

Max Middle

Christian Bök gives a solo reading in Ottawa for the first time since 2002.

Bök is the author of Eunoia (Coach House Books, 2001), a bestselling work of experimental literature, which won the Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence. Last year, Eunoia was published in the UK where it quickly went to the top of best selling lists for poetry. His first book, Crystallography, was published by Coach House Press in 1994 and was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.

Bök has created artificial languages for two television shows: Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchley’s Amazon. Bök has also earned many accolades for his virtuoso performances of sound poetry (particularly the Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters). His conceptual artworks (which include books built out of Rubik’s cubes and Lego bricks) have appeared at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City as part of the exhibit Poetry Plastique. He is currently working on 'The Xenotext Experiment' with scientist, Stuart Kaufmann, to compose "living poetry". He intends to encode short verse in a sequence of DNA and implant it in a bacterium; the text once translated is "expressed" by the organism. Such an organism is intended to become both a mechanism for writing and storing a poem. He plans to document the progress of the publishing experiment and make related artwork for exhibition in galleries. Bök is Professor of English at the University of Calgary.

BÖK's reading will be followed by a brief Q&A.

Books and CDs by the author will be available for sale and signing.

TICKETS

Adult $16

Student $12

Reserved Section $28

---------------------------------

Tickets for Christian Bök can purchased in the following ways:

1) The Canadian Tulip Festival office
35 O’Connor Street, Suite 302
(613) 567-5757, ext “0”
info@tulipfestival.ca

2) Max Middle
director@abseries.org
(613) 237-4309
---------------------------------
3) Capital Tickets
www.capitaltickets.ca
(613) 599-3267
---------------------------------
4) Ticket Outlets
For Christian Bök

Nicholas Hoare Books
419 Sussex Drive
Ottawa,ON
K1N 9M6
613-562-2665
ddollin@nicholashoare.ca

Collected Works Bookstore
1242 Wellington Street West
Ottawa, ON K1Y 3A4
Tel 613.722.1265
info@collected-works.com

Compact Music (Downtown)
190 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON, K2P 1W8
613-233-7626
compact@bellnet.ca

Compact Music (Glebe)
7851⁄2 Bank Street, Ottawa, ON, K1S 3V5
613-233-8922
compact@sympatico.ca

Christian Bök online:

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for this event.

Clifton Joseph, John Sobol and Robert Priest

Date:

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Doors:

6:30pm

Performance:

7:30pm

Venue:

The Mercury Lounge - Upstairs

Cost:

$12 suggested or pay what you can

Host:

Max Middle

Clifton JosephClifton Joseph is a dub poet and performer who has appeared in various reggae and folk festivals.

He was an interviewer on TVOntario's literary programme, Imprint.

Working both individually and with fellow dub poets Lillian Allen and Devon Haughton, Clifton Joseph has been performing his poetry at clubs, universities, political and community events throughout Canada, and has appeared at international book fairs in London, England.

His poetry has its roots in the African/Black oral tradition, infused with reggae and other rhythms.

It appears in recorded and printed form, including the album De Dub Poets (VersetoVinyl, 1983), and the book Metropolitan Blues.

For more information on Clifton Joseph, see http://www.dubpoetscollective.com/cliftonjoseph.html

Photo courtesy of John SobolJohn Sobol is an interactivist working in oral, literate and digital media. He has played the sax for 30 years and performed poetry live for 20 years. He loves gigging. Over the years he has worked with many amazing poets and musicians and visual artists, whom he won't name-drop here, but whose wisdom he soaked up from the first. He started gigging steadily in 1979 at age 15 in Montreal, 4 late nights a week in a skid row parking lot off the Main, eventually leading to the inaugural gig at Les Foufounes Electriques. He has had many adventures since, far and wide, including the greatest - a family.

John has only performed in Ottawa a couple of times. Once in 1986 at Barrymore's with a band called Condition, which had the #1 album on Canadian campus radio at the time. Then in 1997 (also at the Mercury Lounge) with his poet-trio AWOL Love Vibe. That group was a pioneering ensemble in Canadian spoken word history, performing extensively between 1993 and 1997 in Europe, Canada and the USA.

John now lives in Ottawa.

For more information on John Sobol, see http://www.johnsobol.com

Photo courtesy of Robert PriestRobert Priest is the author of fifteen books of poetry, 3 plays, 2 novels, lots of musical CDS, one hit song and many columns for Now Magazine . His words have been debated in the legislature, posted in the Transit system, quoted by politicians, and sung on Sesame street. AKA Dr. Poetry HIs latest book is: Reading the Bible Backwards (ECW)

For more information on Robert Priest, see http://www.poempainter.com

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council and The League of Canadian Poets for this event.

Penn Kemp

Date:

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Doors:

7:00pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

Gallery 101

Cost:

Photo Courtesy of Creighton StudioPoet Penn Kemp performs in arts festivals around the world, as well as reading and giving writing workshops throughout Ontario. Since Coach House published her first book (1972), Penn has pushed text and aural boundaries, often in participatory performance.

Among her publications are twenty-five books (poetry and drama), ten CDs (Sound Opera and Sound Poetry), Canada's first poetry CD-ROM and six award-winning videopoems: sample hmytown.ca/pendas, myspace.com/pennkemp, ditchpoetry.com/pennkemp.htm and mytown.ca/poemforpeace. The League of Poets proclaimed her a foremother of Canadian poetry. Through Pendas Productions, Penn edits and publishes poetry book/cd combinations: kywingpress.com/bookstore.html, mytown.ca/twelfth/. Monthly muse/news is posted on mytown.ca/pennletters.

Penn Kemp has received numerous arts award grants over several decades, most recently from Media Arts (OAC, 2008) to perform "Communication Breakdown" at McManus Theatre, London ON for the London Fringe, August, 2008.

Her poem "Crossing the Light" is the Poet Laureate's poem of the week (July 2008)

The A B Series gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council and The League of Canadian Poets for this event.

Gary Barwin and Gregory Betts

Date:

Friday, February 20, 2009

Doors:

7:30pm

Performance:

8:00pm

Venue:

The Mercury Lounge - Upstairs

Cost:

$7 at the door

Photo courtesy of Gary BarwinGregory Betts is the author of If Language (2005), Haikube (2006), and The Others Raisd in Me (forthcoming, Fall 2009). He is the Co-Editor of PRECIPICe literary magazine and curates the Grey Borders Reading Series in St. Catharines. His poetry, essays, and manifestos have appeared in books, journals, and anthologies across Canada and in six countries besides. He currently lives in St. Catharines where he teaches Canadian and Avant-Garde Literature at Brock University.

Poet, writer, composer, and performer, Gary Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario. His work has been performed and published internationally. His books include frogments from the frag pool (poetry; with derek beaulieu), Doctor Weep and Other Strange Teeth (fiction), Raising Eyebrows (poetry) and Outside the Hat (poetry). A new book of poetry, is forthcoming from Coach House. His PhD thesis was a composition combining live computer processing, spoken text, and electronics. He can be found at garybarwin.com and serifofnottingham.blogspot.com.

On February 20th, Barwin and Betts read from The Obvious Flap, a performance text in progress that includes dialogue, mixed-media, and sound poetry.

Recordings of past performances by Barwin & Betts can be heard here:
http://www.aslongasittakes.org/Issue2/fromTheObviousFlap.mp3
http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_download_shared_file&file_id=f_20025...
http://greyborders.blogspot.com/2008/08/audio-files-of-grey-borders-read...

Image courtesy of Gary Barwin