Poets & Friends
Christ Church Deer Park (Arthur Smith Room)
1570 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4T 1Z8, Canada
Ontario
43.6902524
-79.3959138
Description
WHAT: An intimate afternoon of poetry and community, featuring readings by six poets who work closely with other poets.
WHEN: Saturday, March 18, 2 to 4 p.m.
WHERE: Christ Church Deer Park (Arthur Smith Room)
1570 Yonge St, Toronto, ON (Use Heath St. W. entrance)
TTC: Yonge and St. Clair, one block north of the St. Clair TTC.
THE VENUE: This will be an in-person event, in a large, comfortable,
accessible room with good air circulation.
MASK POLICY: Masks are strongly encouraged.
BOOK SALES: Books will be sold at this event, on a cash-only basis.
Heather McHugh once defined poetry as “a suitcase that you can never stop unpacking.”
What if you had fellow travellers? Or even one dedicated friend/reader/collaborator who could commit to helping you sift through poetry’s bag of delights?
This unique event features six poets — five from Toronto, and one special guest from the U.S. — who have worked closely with other poets to hone their art, in some cases over many years. We’ll explore what it means to have a ready-made audience of one trusted reader, and share examples of how those poetry relationships have shaped our work and helped it, and us, evolve. Then we’ll launch into reading the poems.
In a delightful, last-minute development, we are also hoping to receive a special visit from Molly Peacock, who, if she is able to attend, will bring copies of her new book, A Friend Sails in on a Poem (Palimsest Press, 2023) and read one or two poems inspired by her longtime friendship with the poet Phillis Levin.
What to expect
Each poet will speak briefly about their collaborative arrangements with another poet or poets, then read for about fifteen minutes. There will be tea and cookies and opportunities to mingle (we have the room until 4:30). We’ll distribute physical copies of some poems and project others onto a screen during the readings, for ease of following along. This event will be recorded (but not livestreamed), and an edited version will be available upon request.
Venue
This is an in-person event, held in the beautiful Arthur Smith Room at Christ Church Deer Park, a lovely, high-ceilinged space with plenty of couches and comfortable armchairs. Additional seating will be available, and if you get there early enough, you’ll be able to get one of the plush seats.
COVID protocols
Masks are strongly encouraged. Please err on the side of caution when deciding whether to attend this event. If you have been in contact with anyone who has COVID, or if you have any COVID-like symptoms, please stay at home and get well!
Access and Accessibility
This is a fully accessible venue, with a ramp at the Heath St. W. entrance and an elevator that goes to the lower level, where the Arthur Smith room is located.
To enter the building
Christ Church Deer Park is located on Yonge St., one block north of St. Clair TTC station. Use the side doors on Heath St. W., then follow the signs to the Arthur Smith room.
Optional RSVP
All are welcome to this free event. No RSVP is required, although it would help us plan if you let us know you’re coming. Feel free to either email Lee Parpart (address below) or click on the big blue RSVP button on this site.
Questions? Prefer to RSVP by email? Email Lee Parpart at leeparpart@gmail.com.
MEET THE POETS
Poet Gavin Barrett is the author of Understan (Mawenzi House, 2020), a CBC Books recommendation. He has been published in Joao Roque Literary Journal, The Beacon, Fresh Voices, Ranjit Hoskoté’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging (Viking Penguin, India); The Pen India Journal; The Folio; The Independent; The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad; and Bombay Poetry Circle’s Poeisis and I to I. He curates the Tartan Turban Secret Readings, which promote IBPOC writers, serves on the Canadian Authors Association (Toronto) Advisory Board and is Board Chair for the immigrant journalism non-profit New Canadian Media. He is also a creative entrepreneur. He is the founder of Barrett and Welsh, a Toronto agency that uses branding and advertising to create inclusion and access for racialized Canadians and persons with disabilities. @ideawallah on Instagram and Twitter https://linktr.ee/gavinbarrett
Genevieve Chornenki strongly relates to Elizabeth Bishop’s George-Washington-handicap. “I can’t tell a lie,” Bishop said, “even for art, apparently; it takes an awful effort or a sudden jolt to make me alter facts.” Genevieve appreciates formal poetic forms and relishes the discipline that meter and rhyme impose on the poet. She tries to stay away from the word “I” but does use function words. Genevieve has studied under Canadian novelist Kim Echlin and poets Catherine Graham and Allan Briesmaster. Currently, she does not aspire to be published in literary journals or to win any poetry competitions but is working doggedly, under the editorial guidance of Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, on a combination of poetry and prose intended for people who find poetry opaque. Don’t Lose Sight, Genevieve’s contemplation on eyesight, was published in 2021.
David Epstein holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where he specialized in 19th and 20th century poetry and fiction, and divides his time between West Hartford, Connecticut and Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Despite living in different places, he often wakes up in the middle of the night in the imaginary town of Sonnetville. This is a place where, just to prove one’s self-worth, one has to write some kind of a sonnet before going back to sleep. You can read about his personalized sonnet form, the “fifteener,” here. He has reviewed for Harvard Review and Shofar, as well as recent reviews for Tupelo Press appearing in Heavy Feather and elsewhere. His poems have appeared in such venues as The Bellingham Review, Authora Australis, Marsh Hawk Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, CV2, New Square, and Coastal Shelf. Recently, David appeared in Thomas Whyte’s Poetry Mini-Interviews: https://t.co/vIXNdSwxKu. David is most proud of winning the “Editor’s Mother’s Choice Award” in CV2’s 2021 48-hour contest, for his poem, “Gloss.” www.davidaepsteinpoetry.com/
Lee Parpart has worked as a visual arts columnist, a film studies lecturer, and a book editor. A defender of both plain language and the semicolon, she currently edits poetry and fiction for Iguana Books in Toronto. Lee holds an MFA in film studies from York University and completed most of her PhD in Social and Political Thought before pivoting into book publishing and returning to her first love, creative writing. After so long away, she’s grateful it took her back. Her poetry, essays, and short fiction have appeared in venues such as Arc Poetry Magazine, Marsh Hawk Review, Silver Birch Press, Open Book: Ontario’s What’s Your Story anthology, Negative Capability Press, Tupelo Press, and periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics. Lee won Arc’s first Award of Awesomeness and an emerging writer award for fiction from Open Book: Ontario, and has won or placed in contests by Eden Mills Writer’s Festival, Negative Capability Press, The Nasiona, and #NotALitMag. She thrives on coffee-and-wine-fueled debates and exchanges with other writers, and has developed a host of unique writing and editing events through her work with Editors Toronto and Canadian Authors Association (Toronto), where she serves as co-President. Find her online at www.leeparpart.com/ and on Twitter @LeeParpart.
Renée Sgroi (she/her) holds a PhD in Education from OISE/University of Toronto and is a professor of Humanities at Centennial College. Both a poet and an academic, she is on sabbatical completing studies in the Creativity and Change Leadership Program at SUNY Buffalo State. She recently published a blog post on participatory creativity for Creativity and Education, and has an academic article on creativity in higher education set to be published this spring. A member of the League of Canadian Poets, The Writers Union of Canada, the Ontario Poetry Society, an executive member of the Canadian Authors Association – Toronto Branch, and a contributing editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, Renée has published book reviews, academic articles on reality TV, and her poetry can be found in Pinhole Poetry, The Windsor Review, The /tƐmz/ Review, The Prairie Journal, Poetry Pause, Lummox, and numerous anthologies. In 2018, she edited the poetry anthology, Written Tenfold (Poetry Friendly Press), and in 2020, she won runner-up in the UK’s erbacce poetry prize. Her debut poetry collection, life print, in points was published that year by erbacce-press, and a second collection is due out in 2024. You can find her online at: https://www.reneemsgroi.com
Jenny Sorensen was born and raised in Bramalea, Ontario, and now lives in St. Catharines. She started writing poetry at the age of eight and it has been her compass ever since. Jenny received the Judges Choice Award for “If” from The Ontario Poetry Society, and her work was included in the Ultra Best Short Verse Anthology. Don Junkins (scholar, writer, and winner of three National Endowment for the Arts awards in poetry) has praised Jenny for her “obvious talent,” while Paul Mariani, author of seven poetry collections and winner of many poetry awards, has remarked on the immediate attractiveness of the “beautiful lines in [her] poems.” Jenny has been a member of the Brooklin Poetry Society, The Niagara Poetry Guild, and the Tower Poetry Society. She also started a writing club in St. Catharines, Writers Next Door, and has performed readings in numerous venues with the Wild Nellies in the Durham region, and in Guelph, Ontario.
Poets & Friends are grateful to be working on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples, on Treaty 13 and Williams Treaties lands.
This listing has no upcoming events
Start:
2023-03-18T14:00:00-04:00
End:
2023-03-18T16:00:00-04:00
Category
Other
Tickets
