Very excited to be featuring tonight at Hot Sauced Words, hosted by James Dewar at Blackswan Tavern (Danforth & Broadview)! 8PM onward, hope to see you there…!

A mother’s love liberates.
– Maya Angelou

At the 2012 TPS Finals, hosted at Royal Cinema Theatre, a goregeous live theatre in Toronto’s Little Italy, Toronto Poetry Project decided to create an artefact that would do the night proud; a two CD compilation, in an effort to capture the best and brightest of our beloved spoken word scene. The fine folks at Canadian Review of Literature in Performance have reviewed the Toronto Poetry Slam Finals CD, and we are very proud to hear it! Read all about it! Better yet, get your copy at our upcoming 2013 Finals Night!! Check out the Toronto Poetry Project website for ticket details…!

Enjoy!
Lara

Just a note to highlight the amazing Record a Poem Project, put on by the ever amazing Poetry Foundation (which is also home to Poetry, the oldest monthly dedicated to verse in the English speaking world). This project aims to celebrate and spread poems from around the world, and from all corners of taste. The premise is simple: choose on e of your favourite poems, record it on the website, and share it with the world. I think this project is especially timely in an era of hyper self-promotion (as in, written by someone on a website she paid to secure her own name on…). It’s an incredible experience to colloaborate with other artists, and the sharing of others work is a beautiful cost of admission; at the launch for The Cartographers Skin, my publishers had several of my poems selected and read by fellow poets and it was an incredibly awakening experience for me; not because esteemed peers were reading my words (although that was probably the highest compliment) but because I learned about my own choices, by having others reinterperet them. The same goes for collaborating with artists from other realms; my recent work with Made in Toronto production company had me listening to my own poetry set to images, something I’d never done before. It was, again, a pretty surreal feeling and I know it has informed the structure of my upcoming collection of poems; after ten years of becoming fluent in language, I’m starting to write with my eyes and ears again. So, the opportunity is to share but the message is to grow. And anyway, it is Spring, so feel free to grow in all directions (and please get rid of some of this snow…).

Thanks for listening,
LB

~ BEST OF TORONTO~

Came home to a note from my publisher yesterday, alerting me to the amazing fact of my   recent nomination in NOW Mazgazine’s Best of Toronto Edition. This annual survey is created (and voted upon) by you, Toronto’s finest, and is a huge honour for those of us who strive to entertain you with artistry, be it culinary, musical, poetic or politic. I was shocked to see my name, and then proud to be alongside incredibly impressive poets (on page and stage). That being said, I’m also honoured to be regularly included in a community brims with talent in every corner ~ a special shout out to all of the series and festivals that keep giving us opportunites to shine. So, thank you NOW Magazine for taking the time, and thank you to all of the readers who are taking part in the edition. The honour is mine.

Voting takes place soon, so  please keep an eye on this space ~ your support is truly appreciated!!!

Thanks for listening!
LB

“We may feel bitterly how little our poems can do in the face of seemingly out of control technological power and seemingly limitless corporate greed, yet it has always been true that poetry can break isolation, show us to ourselves when we are outlawed or made invisible, remind us of beauty where no beauty seems possible, remind us kinship where all is represented as separation.” ~ Adrienne Rich

In my first year as Head of English at Markville Secondary School, I was teaching a Writer’s Craft class and realized the value of giving my students an opportunity to perform their poems in a public sphere. So began the Be Heard Festival, which started out in our school library (and was actually an assignment for that first group of students ). The day was so powerful, fueled by the voices and bravery of that first class that we decided to host the event every year. By we, I mean me, but over the years the Be Heard Festivalhas become such a collective effort of donated time, courage, and poetry that I can’t help but feel hundreds of people have been responsible for its success. We went from 30, to 70, to 100 students, to hundreds of students on the waiting list! Last year, the York Region District School Board encouraged me to take it to the next level; two days, new space, and double the amount of students!

Did I mention that this is a free event? Free for everybody who wants to attend! Free for everybody who loves poetry! Each year we also live stream the event so that students who weren’t able to attend could watch the powerful performances of their peers and become inspired. This year we decided to make a mini documentary and hired an artist in residence to create a painting based on the powerful student voices of Be Heard 2013.

And so, for the last few days I have had the honour and pleasure of hosting the sixth annual Be Heard Festival, a celebration of student voices from across York Region. Over 300 young writers joined acclaimed spoken word artists Tanya Neumeyer, Alessandra Nacarratto, Patrick de Belen and internationally celebrated artist in residence Amrita Singh for a two day writing and performance extravanganza that paired the young with experienced and broke open the doors to excellence. Speaking of international, Tokyo/London darlings Abdominal & The Obliques (Andy Bernstein, Roman Tome and Andrew Frost) kicked off the festival on Wednesday March 27th with an incredible fusion of rhthym and lyricism (for which they are known) and the brilliant Robbie Q.Telfer anchored today’s showcase with an incredible range of insight, brilliance, humour and grace.

It was truly the greatest in a long line of great festivals, and I am so thankful for our new space, the Aurora Cultural Centre, which provided us with ample amounts of support staff (Carlos, Jane & Carol, to name a few), sunlight, artistry, pencils, and smiling faces. I would also like to acknowledge the many talented poets of Canada and The United States who have contributed their time, voices, and verses over the years, in order to ensure the life and success of Be Heard 2013. Six years and nine hundred students later, we have come to expect a wait list of two hundred names every year (no small testament to the talent and inspiration these artists have offered). In an era of (alleged) apathy, this reaction speaks to the great significance of arts education, and the particular importance it has in the lives of young people.

Thank you to Abdominal, Roman Tome, Andrew Frost, Amrita Singh, Alessandra Nacaratto, Tanya Neumeyer, Parick de Belen, Stephanie Luong (YRDSB) and Robbie Q. Telfer and ALL of the students and teachers who attended Be Heard 2013. You are the greatest, I am certain of it (all the poems told me so).

Until next year,
Lara

Great thanks to Words Aloud 9 for recording and sharing the performances from Words Aloud 9. Always a pleasure and an honour to be a part of! Check out my contribution (below) as well as other excellent performances on the Words Aloud You Tube Channel…

TORONTO POETRY PROJECT

After last nights incredible slam, featuring none other than Toronto’s newly minted poet laureate George Elliot Clarke, I feel the need to reflect on the incredible entity that is Toronto Poetry Project (the bees behind the knees of Toronto Poetry Slam). Sprung from the inspriation and hard work of David Silverberg, TPP began as a series called Suburban Poetry Slam which was located at Steeles and Yonge from 1999-2002. Many of the original performers became a community of artistic allies (including yours truly) and went on to form the Toronto Poetry Project, which runs the ever sold out Toronto Poetry Slam (Drake Undergound), nation wide poetry festivals (2011 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word), and brings internationally acclaimed artists to the stage, for the love of over 150 cheering, jeering, howling audience members.

Toronto Poetry Slam is regularly celebrated for the fact that each  month,  TWICE a month, over 200 people line up at the door of Toronto’s    storied Drake Hotel ~ up the stairs, and out into the (at times, bitter) cold  to get into an event that almost  exclusively  hosts poetry spoken aloud.  Indeed, if you are one of those hoping to grace the stage, you’ll  know  that  even that fate is not guaranteed; every  slam, eager particiants  line up  for  the chance ot have their names drawn  for one of 12 spots on the  stage.  Even the open mic is a lottery. Sick.

So, why now? Why am I  writing about a collective  that is seven years in the making? Because last night, surrounded by many of my founding partners, we watched George Elliot Clark choose to stand on our stage, in his first official appearance as Toronto’s poet laureate and celebrate spoken word poetry. And soon we will be giving away $1500 in grant money to 2 lucky poets, for
a project that celebrates poetry and helps to spread the collective word(s). We run BAM, one of the country’s most active youth poetry slams, in order to foster opportunities for emerging writers and collaborations among artists. This has always been our goal; the singular celebration of infinite variations ~ style, rhythm, impact and grace ~ everything that is poetry, that needs to be shared,
that jumps off of pages and out of mouths, that involves eyebrow arches, racing pulses, graceful hand gestures, and so much more… Maybe this is bragging, but maybe it is time to step out from behind the stage area and celebrate the successes of a collective that lives and breathes community, in all it’s kaleidoscopic forms. It’s an incredible architecture to be a part of.

Please take a moment to  raise your glass to Toronto’s poetry scene, as TPP  does every other  weekend. Come down, line up, read a poem, listen with  your eyes wide  open. Thank you Toronto, for doing so, for the last seven  years. Thank you  Toronto Poetry Project, in all it’s revolving members. We  are proud to be a  strong collective, and we are proud to serve you, poetry  lovers. It’s been a  wild ride of beauty.

Thanks for listening.
LB

Over the last five years, I have worked alongside fellow poets to build up Toronto Poetry Project into the amazing event series many of you attend today. We have had huge learning curves, and many successes, including being awarded host city of the 2011 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, a national competition that features world class poets round-robining their art.

Tonight, as always, we have a great show for you, featuring Abdominal, a loyal local (and internationally acclaimed) artist. Read his impressive bio below (courtesy of Toronto Poetry Slam) and consider putting your Saturday night to amazing use; hope to see you at the Drake Hotel! As always, come early ~ capacity is usually reached by 7pm!

Abdominal (aka Andy Bernstein) a local hip-hop artist, who has been involved in Toronto’s music scene for over 15 years. What began as a passionate hobby for him, eventually became a career. He’s now been working as a professional musician for ten years. Abs has worked with many celebrated local musicians (DJ Fase, D-Sisive, Elizabeth Shepherd, Ivana Santilli, etc.), as well as many internationally acclaimed artists (the UK’s DJ Format, Cut Chemist from Jurassic 5, Young Einstein from Ugly Duckling, etc.). He’ll be joined on stage at TPS with his band The Obliques, and they just released their debut album last month.

Doors 7. Signup 7:30. Show 8. $5.

Hosted by Yours Truly!
Slammastered by Amanda Hiebert!

Abdominal & The Obliques, \'Broken\'