Taking another step forward in his celebrated career, poet Frank Davey will launch a blog on the London Open Mic Poetry Night website April 30th. 

Now living in nearby Strathroy, Davey  grew up in BC and studied at UBC where in 1961 he co-founded with George Bowering and Fred Wah the influential and contentious poetry newsletter TISH. His first volume of poetry, in 1962, was described as ‘the act of the moment’ rather than poetry as the commonplace attempt 'to express ... feelings.' In 1965 he launched the avant-garde poetry and criticism journal Open Letter, and, with the assistance of  bpNichol, developed it into what many still see as Canada's most important forum for discussion and examination of innovative and experimental ideas and texts. 
Davey obtained his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1968. With the encouragement of George Woodcock, he began writing literary criticism, a body of work from the 1970s to the ‘90s which would be described as 'the most individual and influential ever written in Canada.' 

His most important early contribution was his withering 1974 critique, 'Surviving the Paraphrase,which discredited thematic criticism in Canada, including that of Northrop Frye, D.G. Jones and Margaret Atwood. 

The following is Stan Burfield’s introduction to Tom Cull at the special London Open Mic Poetry Night event at Landon Library on April 24th, 2013 in celebration of National Poetry Month. Cull was the 2nd featured poet that night, following the celebrated Canadian poet Frank Davey.

"For those of you who dont know me, I’m Organizer Stan. Some of you who do know me, know that I tend to get excited about something, jump in with both feet, and then think. Well, Ì’m going to tell you why I got excited about Tom Cull.

Our special reading/open mic celebrating National Poetry Month at the Landon Library really was special. All 45 attendees enjoyed it tremendously.

Bernie Koenig and Emma Wise opened the evening with their incredibly beautiful vibraphone/cello combination. Their last piece, Koenig’s tribute to George Gershwin, held the audience spellbound, opening slowly with the vibraphone, picking up tempo as the cello slowly emerged brom the background, and finally the vibraphone being overwhelmed by the powerful, vibrating strings of the cello. The audience members, who before that were milling around, taking their seats, chatting with their neighbours, were hushed into complete silence by the beauty of the music.  

Incredible timing! On the eve of Frank Davey’s starring role at London Open Mic Poetry Night’s special April 24th reading in celebration of National Poetry Month, the Ontario online literary journal Open Book has just published a great interview with Davey about ‘Open Letter’, his journal of poetry criticism, which he has edited since 1965.

From the introduction to the interview:
"Originally conceived as an open dialogue with fellow poets George Bowering, Fred Wah and David Dawson, Open Letter focused on the poetics of the Canadian avant-garde, providing a critical extension to previous work the four had done as part of the Vancouver newsletter TISH. The journal quickly expanded into lengthy explorations into various directions in literary and scholarly writing that simply weren’t being covered anywhere else, while retaining a strong foundation of modernism and postmodernism and an essential forum for the critical exploration of experimental Canadian writing. Over the years, various writers, poets and critics have contributed regularly to Open Letter, including the late Toronto poet bpNichol who regularly explored ideas through his Open Letter essays that might not otherwise have seen print, or possibly been composed. A whole series of collaborative essays between Nichol and Steve McCaffery under the name The Toronto Research Group were composed specifically for the journal. 

We are very pleased to feature 'THE LIGHT OF EAST ENSEMBLE' at our September 4th event, which will also feature poet Frank Beltrano, and will kick off our second season. This group has a Mediteranean/Middle Eastern feeling which should be very compatible with the Mykonos Restaurant. You can get an early taste of the ensemble this Saturday (Apr. 13th) at Wolf Performance Hall, Central Library. It has an incredibly beautiful sound by itself, but will be sharing the stage at 7:30 with the CCH String Ensemble and Ishra:  
 
The Light of East Ensemble Presents: East meets West: An Embrace of Musical Cultures with special guests the CCH String Ensemble and Ishra 7:30pm Saturday, April 13th, 2013, The Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas Street, Central Library, London, ON, Doors open at 7:00 pm, General Admission: $15 / Students $10 Tickets available at: Long & McQuade (North Location) (519.439.0101), Long & McQuade (South Location) (519.433.2434), Village Idiot (Wortley Village, 135 Wortley Road) (519.434.9594), Grooves Records Store (353 Clarence Street) (519.640.6714). Information also available at: www.lightofeastensemble.com 

London Open Mic Poetry Night is being sponsored by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). Both are supplying us with poetry books to give away in raffle prizes at our events.

Tickets for raffle prizes are given to everyone who donates to Open Mic Night.  Three prizes are given to winning tickets, each including poetry books and, when possible, a book by the featured poet and a frameable ‘broadsheet’ of one of the featured poet’s poems.

Donations are our only source of income to offset our expenses. 

London’s Brick Books is the only press in Canada that specializes in publishing poetry books.  It was founded by Stan Dragland and Don McKay in 1975 to publish chapbooks, but now publishes full-length volumes.

Brick Books has a national reputation for both production values and content. It publishes, distributes and promotes beautifully designed books by new and established poets, producing seven new books and an average of nine reprints every year.

Brick Books is a national press, with authors and editors scattered across the country (Quadra Island, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland), with production, printing and distribution in Toronto, and with administration in London, Ontario.

At Brick’s website, you can hear podcasts by the poets Brick has published, reading nearly one hundred of their poems. Books can also be ordered there. 

Kitty Lewis, Brick’s general manager, attends many London poetry events. 

Brick’s Spring 2013 collection: 

When This World Comes to an End by Kate Cayley
Afloat by John Reibetanz
Placeholder by Charmaine Cadeau
The Family China by Ann Shin

See Brick Book’s website.

The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS) is a province-wide society of between 200 and 300 poets. It hosts poetry-reading events around the province, contests, poetry-anthology projects and creates many opportunities for poets to meet and socialize. It also publishes Verse Afire, a tri-annual newsletter that includes members’ poems, articles on writing poetry, contests, markets, member news, chapbook reviews, and event information.

The London TOPS chapter manager is Stan Burfield, who created London Open Mic Poetry Night after attending a similar TOPS event in Sarnia.

TOPS' leadership is Bunny Iskov and Debbie Okun-Hill. 

See TOPS website.

This month's special reading event for National Poetry Month demands an equally special musical introduction. Vibraphonist Bernie Koenig and cellist Emma Wise, who opened our inaugural event on October 2nd, 2012, are returning with their special brand of acoustic magic.

Koenig and Wise will begin playing at 6:30 in the large basement hall at Landon Library in Wortley Village (167 Wortley Rd.), as well as during the intermission.

Note: This event is on April 24 at Landon Library, NOT on the first Wednesday of the month at the Mykonos Restaurant, which is our usual time and venue, and to which we will return in May.

For those who have not heard them before, either at our inaugural event or at our March 6th one, the Koenig-Wise duo produces an incredible combination of sounds. Imagine: Bernie hovers over his vibraphone with a yarn-covered mallet in each hand, sometimes two. They bounce off the metal bars producing bright, room-filling notes that vibrate, slowly dissipate and tremble out into each other. Sitting in a chair to one side, Emma touches the bow to her strings and, from the depths of the cello, draws up into that lightness the most exquisitely melancholy vibrations. 

Many of their pieces are compositions by Bernie Koenig, who has long taught music and philosophy at Fanshawe and is the author of two books of philosophy, one on the philosophy of art. Emma Wise is a graduate student in sociology at Western and a teaching assistant. She has studied cello formally.

Listen to Koenig's composition 'Melancholy'. This version, however, doesn't include Emma Wise's cello. 

On April 24th, Koenig and Wise will be followed by readings by Canadian legend Frank Davey, now living in Strathroy, and a relatively new poet on the London scene, Tom Cull from Poetry London.

OPEN MIC:   If we have time after Tom Cull's reading, we will have a few readings at our traditional open mic. As usual, they will be five minutes maximum, and will be randomly chosen. They will end at 8:45. Put your name in the Ballot Bowl as you enter if you would like a chance to read.

RAFFLE PRIZES:   Donate for a raffle ticket. Three prizes include books by the best Canadian poets donated by Brick Books and the two top prizes include one by Frank Davey, as well as a frameable 'broadsheet' by Frank Davey. Donations are our only source of income to offset expenses. They are much appreciated.

WHERE: The event will be held in the Landon Library in Wortley Village (167 Wortley Rd.), in the large basement hall where Poetry London holds its readings. (We return to the Mykonos Restaurant in May, on our usual first Wednesday.)

WHEN: 6:30 to 9:00 pm on Wed. April 24th, 2013.

Afterwards, many of us retire to the Roadhouse Pub across the street to wet our whistles.