Welcome! The Poetry Gabriola Society hosts the Poetry Gabriola Festival each November, the Words and Music Concert Series, and has initiated a national commissioning project called Canada Speaks: New Literary Performance Works By Twelve Canadian Artists.
Upcoming Events
Don McKay - Award-Winning Poet
Saturday February 13 at 7:30 pm
at The Roxy on Gabriola Island (North Road next to Suzy's)
Tickets: by donation at the door
Don Mckay also reads Sunday, February 14, at 3pm for ArtSpring on Saltspring Island, and Monday, February 15 at 4:00pm at the VIU Library Writing Centre.
Don McKay’s books of poetry include Birding, or desire (1983), Night Field (1991), Apparatus (1997), Another Gravity (2000) and Strike/Slip (2006). Camber, a selected poetry, appeared in 2004. Five of his books have been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, and two of them—Night Fields and Another Gravity—received that award. He has been nominated for the Griffin award three times, and received it for Strike/Slip in 2007. Since 1975 he has been connected with Brick Books as an editor and publisher. After teaching English and Creative Writing at the universities of Western Ontario and New Brunswick for twenty seven years, he now writes and edits fulltime. From 1991 to 1997 he edited The Fiddlehead, and he has served as a workshop leader for institutions and writers’ groups. At present he is the Associate Director for poetry at the Banff Centre. His abiding interest in natural history and the environment has led to two books on the poetics of wilderness—Vis a Vis (2001) and Deactivated West 100 (2005)
Don Mckay has lived all over Canada, and currently makes his home in St. John’s Newfoundland. In 2009 he was named to the Order of Canada.
This is the second in a series of readings curated by Marilyn Bowering and produced in partnership with the Poets On Campus Series. This readings series was made possible by the support of the Canada Council for The Arts.
Red Chamber
Friday, February 19 2010 at 7:00pm
At the Phoenix Auditorium at the Haven, 240 Davis Rd
Tickets $20 available at Artworks or online (see below)
One of the leading Chinese string ensembles in North America—or anywhere, really—Red Chamber is marked by serious scholarship and an equally intense sense of joie de vivre. Led by Vancouver resident Mei Han—a virtuosic performer on the harp-like zheng and an authority on early Taoist music—the group also includes Guilian Liu, Zhimin Yu, and Geling Jiang on an assortment of plucked string instruments including the pipa, ruan, and sanxian. Together, their repertoire spans centuries, encompassing transcriptions from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), modern compositions that reflect China's ancient heritage, and new cross-cultural forms that touch on bluegrass and jazz. The four members of Red Chamber play historic instruments, but their approach is contemporary—and captivating.
Only $20.00 * The Phoenix Auditorium at the Haven *
Upcoming Events
Words and Music 2010
With the support of the Province of British Columbia and the Hamber Foundation, Poetry Gabriola is launching a new concert series called Words & Music. This series consists of four concerts featuring innovative, diverse musicians and ensembles at their very, very best.
- Veda Hille and Her Band: “Do You Want What I Have Got?” [JAN 9]
- Red Chamber [FEB 19]
- The NOW Orchestra with Kedrick James [APR 17]
- Celso Machado [MAY 22]
In acknowledgement of the tough times we are weathering, Poetry Gabriola is offering each of these concerts for the low ticket price of $20. More information and online ticket sales here.
Poetry Gabriola Receives Arts Partners Commissioning Grant
Canada Speaks! New Literary Performance Works by Twelve Canadian Artists
The Poetry Gabriola Society is very pleased to announce the receipt of an award from Arts Partners in Creative Development (APCD) to create Canada Speaks: New Literary Performance Works by Twelve Canadian Artists. The award of $24,000 will be used to commission twelve of the nation’s preeminent poets, spoken word and storytelling artists to create new works that will be presented from coast to coast. One of only 17 recipients from coast to coast, Poetry Gabriola is working hard on this national project and is looking forward to an exciting year! The artists who will be commissioned for this project are:
- Fortner Anderson, Montreal
- David Bateman, Vancouver/Toronto
- bill bissett, Vancouver and Toronto
- Ivan Coyote, Vancouver
- Drek Daa, Winnipeg
- Ian Ferrier, Montreal
- Kaie Kellough, Montreal
- Cheryl l'Hirondelle, Vancouver
- Evalyn Parry, Toronto
- Robert Priest, Toronto
- Richard Van Camp, Vancouver/Ft Smith, NWT
- Sheri-D Wilson, Calgary
Canada Speaks will be curated by Poetry Gabriola Artistic Director Hilary Peach, and the pieces will premiere on Gabriola Island in 2010. All of the commissioned artists are alumni of the Poetry Gabriola Festival. We think it’s extraordinary that a rural organization can create a national initiative that will impact artists across the country and influence the direction of an emerging genre. Twelve Gabriola artists will also be invited to perform their work at the 2010 event.
Festival 2009
NEW! festival photos in our gallery.
NOVember 12 - 15
We did it again – another fabulous festival!!
Spoken word folks, storytellers, and performance artists are nomads and orphans. We practice outside of institutions, are without a grand, national headquarters, have no dedicated schools. We rove, we land, we fly, we install ourselves where we happen to be, or where we can get a gig. We travel light. Our set, props, costumes, and tech requirements can usually fit in one suitcase, and sometimes we carry instruments. We bring ourselves to the work, the work to the audience, our art to each other, and we move on.
How great it was to have a real home for the four days of the 2009 Poetry Gabriola Festival! Usually the festival roves all over the island – that nomadic instinct kicking in. But this year we set up at the Surf Lodge and were blessed with a theatre space, a reception room and wine bar, a dining room, the late night pub venue for our open mics, all in one place – the 1930’s heritage resort called the Surf Lodge. For the festival weekend there was a sense of the place belonging to the poets, who were all able to take deep breaths, and deliver their best work.
It was a phenomenal weekend, the result of many folk in the Poetry Gabriola family working hard to put it together. If you didn’t make it in person you can still have a taste of the festival in pictures. Please go to our GALLERY and take a look at the beautiful photographs by Victor Anthony, Don Denton, and Penny White. Video clips will be posted soon.
See you at our Words & Music Concert Series!
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