Black History in 1880s Vancouver
London Open Mic Poetry Archive
  • Home
  • Frank Davey Blog
  • Stan Burfield Blog
    • Fred Burfield's Homestead Memoirs
  • Our Events
  • News
  • PHOTOS & SUMMARIES
    • Season 5: 2016-2017 >
      • June 7th, 2017: Summary & Photos featuring Stan Burfield
      • May 3rd, 2017, Summary & Photos featuring Jason Dickson
      • April 5th, 2017 Summary & Photos, feeaturing James Deahl & Norma West Linder
      • Mar. 1st, 2017: Photos & Summary featuring Andy Verboom
      • Feb. 1st, 2017: Photos & Summary featuring Ron Stewart
      • Dec. 7th, 2016: Photos & Summary featuring David Stones
      • Nov. 2th, 2016: Photos and Summary featuring Don Gutteridge
      • Oct. 5th, 2016: Photos and Summary featuring David Huebert
    • Season 4: 2015-2016 >
      • June 1st, 2016: Photos and summaries: featuring Lynn Tait
      • May 4th, 2016 Photos and Summary: featuring indigenous poetry
      • April 6, 2016 Photos & Summary, featuring Steven McCabe
      • Mar. 2nd, 2016 photos, summary: featuring Andreas Gripp
      • Feb. 3rd, 2016 photos: 3 Western students.
      • Dec. 2, 2015 photos: featured reader Peggy Roffey
      • Nov. 7, 2015 photos: Our Words Fest open mic
      • Nov. 4, 2015 photos: featured reader Charles Mountford
      • Oct. 7th, 2015 photos: Madeline Bassnett featured
    • Season 3, 2014-15 >
      • Aug. 16, 2015 photos: The Ontario Poetry Society's "Sultry Summer Gathering"
      • June 3rd, 2015 photos: John B. Lee featured
      • May 6th, 2015 photos: Laurie D Graham featured
      • Apr. 1st, 2015 photos: John Nyman & Penn Kemp featured
      • Mar. 4th, 2015 photos: Patricia Black featured.
      • Feb. 4th, 2015 photos: feature Gary Barwin
      • Dec. 3rd, 2014 photos: Feature Debbie Okun Hill
      • Nov. 5th, 2014 photos: feature Julie Berry
      • Oct. 1st, 2014 photos: feature Roy MacDonald
    • Season 2, Sept. 2013 to June 2014. >
      • June 4th, 20114, featuring Monika Lee
      • May 7th 2014, featuring Susan McCaslin and Lee Johnson
      • Sept. 4th, 2013 featuring Frank Beltrano
      • April 16th, 2014, featuring Penn Kemp and Laurence Hutchman
      • March 5th, 2014, featuring Jacob Scheier
      • Feb. 5th, 2014: featuring four UWO students of poetry; music by Tim Woodcock
      • Jan. 2nd, 2014: featuring Carrie Lee Connel
      • Dec. 4th, 2013, featuring M. NourbeSe Philip
      • Nov. 6, 2013 , featuring Susan Downe
      • Oct. 2nd, 2013, featuring Jan Figurski
    • Season 1: Oct. 2012 to June 2013 >
      • June 4th, 2013 featuring David J. paul and the best-ever open mic
      • May 1st, 2013, featuring Sonia Halpern
      • Apr. 24, 2013 featuring Frank Davey & Tom Cull
      • Mar. 6th, 2013, featuring Christine Thorpe
      • Feb. 6th, 2013, featuring D'vorah Elias
      • Jan. 3rd. 2013: John Tyndall featured.
      • Dec. 5, 2012: RL Raymond featured
    • Dig These Hip Cats ... The Beats
  • Poet VIDEOS (open mic & featured readers)
    • 5th Season Videos (2016-2017)
    • 4th Season Videos (2015-16)
    • 3rd Season Videos (2014-2015)
    • 2nd Season (2013-2014) videos
  • BIOGRAPHIES - Featured poets & musicians
  • INTERVIEWS & POEMS (featured poets)
    • SEASON 6 - Interviews & Poems >
      • Kevin Shaw: Poem & Interview
      • David Janzen - Interview
    • SEASON 5 INTERVIEWS & POEMS
    • SEASON 4 INTERVIEWS AND POEMS
    • SEASON 3 INTERVIEWS AND POEMS
    • SEASON 2 INTERVIEWS & POEMS (only from Dec. 4th, 2013)
    • Season 1 INTERVIEWS & POEMS (& 1st half of Season 2) >
      • INTERVIEWS of Featured Poets
      • POEMS by Featured Poets (1st Season & to Nov. 2013)
  • Couplets: Poets in Dialogue
  • Future Events
  • Past Events
    • 5th Season: 2016-2017
    • Season 4: 2015-2016
    • Season 3: 2014-2015
    • Season Two: 2013-2014
    • Season One: 2012-2013
  • Who we Are
  • Testimonial
  • Our Mission
  • Links
  • Contact us
  • Frank Davey Blog
  • Frank Davey Blog
  • New Page

LONDON OPEN MIC'S FUTURE

5/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Future seasons of London Open Mic Poetry will be led by two organizers: Mary Dowds and Kevin Heslop. They will be backed up by an organizing committee.

As co-organizers, Dowds and Heslop will each specialize in specific aspects of organizing, and will share others.

Mary Dowds will be responsible for most of the internet work and for keeping everything chugging forward as it should, making sure every aspect of the series takes place at it’s designated time. She has already carved out a very new job for herself as well, using her accurate reporting skills to write detailed summaries of the Q&As by the featured readers. Watch for her first one in her summary of Jason Dickson’s feature, to be posted shortly.

Kevin Heslop will put most of his energy into the community, into all the ways London Open Mic can promote poetry outside of its traditional venue. Of course, he will also continue to do what he is most known for, interviewing the featured poets.

Mary Dowds recently moved to London from Victoria, where she was involved in the local poetry scene. Luckily, she responded to our ad for help in carrying London Open Mic forward when current organizer/founder Stan Burfield retires this season. (June 7th at Mykonos Restaurant is his last event, at which he will also be the featured poet.)

From Mary’s bio: “Mary Dowds was previously a Court Reporter. Having written millions of other people's words, she now enjoys writing many of her own. Mary was also a live TV broadcast captioner "and always some kid's mom."

Kevin Heslop has been a member of London Open Mic’s organizing committee since near the beginning and has specialized in interviewing featured poets, researching them massively before posing his famously-appropriate questions. Within the organization, Kevin is known and highly valued for his ability to solve complex problems with finesse and subtlety. He also knows the community, not only the poetry community but also the institutions of the city and the proper ways of approaching them when trying to accomplish things. Kevin has been known to the public for his sometimes-astonishing poetry, but lately has been taking a break while he gets his acting career off the ground. He has just finished his third role on the stage, a starring role in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew at The Grand. See our review.
​

Kevin’s (earlier) bio: “Kevin Heslop is a twenty year old writer-in-the-making, currently attending Western University as an English major. He is heavily influenced by the poetry and prose of Charles Bukowski and Ernest Hemingway, the philosophical works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Neitzsche, the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso and the music of J.S. Bach and Miles Davis. When not reading or writing, Kevin is either playing the drums, drawing with an 8B pencil and/or feeling distressed about not writing.”

----Stan Burfield, fulfilling one of my last duties.
0 Comments

Our interviewer, Kevin Heslop, is also an actor.

4/16/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
​The Taming of the Shrew
Presented by Funeral Pyre Theatre in association with Squirrel Suit Productions

April 26 to May 6, 2017

McManus Stage

Director: Liam Grunté
Stage Manager Julia McCarthy
Producers Liam Grunté and Carlyn Rhamey
Starring Kevin Heslop and Ashley Fage
Also featuring Neva Gunther, Tristan Watts, Irene Paibulsirijit, Andrea Avila, Mya Matos, Gareth Ross, Holly Holden, Lyndsey Burns, Olivia Little and Kendall Robertson

“The Taming of the Shrew” is renowned as Shakespeare's most controversial play. It is a tale of mistaken identity, deception and complicated love triangles.  The plot thickens as suitors of the fair Bianca convince a visiting stranger to marry her older sister Katherina in order to allow Bianca to be eligible to be wed.  However, Katherina is not a willing participant in their plans.

Reversing the roles in this production brings a fresh perspective to an old yarn, allowing the audience to experience the story from alternative points of view.

FP Theatre is proud to announce that a portion of the proceeds from this production are being donated in support of the London Abused Women's Centre #ShinetheLight on Women's Abuse campaign.  
​
Recommended for ages 14+

0 Comments

True North

4/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Last night I went to my friend John Nyman's launch for his book, Players, (along with launches by two other authors, one from Toronto, Mark Sampson, and Dorothy Mahoney from Windsor). 

The venue was a magically spacious old loft, the large room above Brown and Dickson Antiquarian Booksellers (which used to be Novacks travel gear) on King St. down-town. My friends and I were dreaming about living in that space -- so much room, such a high ceiling, the old brick walls, those tall windows. I worked out where the kitchen area would be, the bathroom, the big sofas, my writing desk. And before the poetry began we were checking out what had already been installed, for instance a WW2 submarine's periscope. It pokes up through the roof. With our eyes to the lens, we could turn it around and see down Clarence Street.

The readings were wonderful. I could fully relax and listen because for once I wasn't organizing anything there. And afterwards some of us headed for a nearby cafe. Kevin Heslop was in one of his big-question moods, which is not rare when he's out with others, but now the Trump march was in the political air, and the Sanders wind down. Political anxiety led to social questions, then philosophical, scientific and so on.

At the night's next cafe, one of Kevin's questions was, "What is the true north of morality?" For some reason we didn't get around to tackling it. (There are so many ways of being distracted in a busy bar with interesting friends and beers on the table.) But as I wandered off on my hour-long walk home, my mind found its way back to that question via other things I had heard from the mouths of the youths I was following around, things about amazing people, about the astonishing things they've done. 

At my age, 66 now, one of the most interesting discoveries I've made lately is that many of the seemingly ordinary things I did long ago, seem to many people here and now quite amazing. I can tell an ordinary little story from those days and people are astonished by it. So, as I flowed along over the sidewalks in the cool night air, I thought that every one of us is living a unique life, an astonishing one to others, if not now then later, by it's sheer uniqueness. Or it would or could be astonishing if people could really see it for what it is. The implication being that everyone is unique, equally, to everyone else. 

Which answered, for me, the question of what true north is in terms of morality. It's equality. It's the acknowledgement that no one can be a superior person to any other. Or an inferior person. And that any other view  is akin to a religious belief. Things can certainly be done better by one person than by some others, but that doesn't affect the person's absolute equality with them. Even if one person is not better at anything than other people, that person is still equal. Our political system delivers this lesson by giving everyone one vote. Science arrives at the same conclusion by understanding that each living thing, not just each person, is a separate object in the universe. It's only in the subjective world of our individual minds, housed separately inside our skulls, that we manage to see a superiority or inferiority of individuals. 


And life makes it very difficult for us to see beyond those false ideas. When we were babies we had to look up to adults as gods or we wouldn't survive. As children we had to accept what they told us in order to get by in the world. As youths we spent all our time and energies, whether we believed it or not, in training to fit into the wonderful world of adults, a world still predicated on our parent's ideas of reality. And finally, at some point, we did become adults, usually after being suddenly buried in responsibilities. I think many new adults try for a long time to be accepted by others, if not as equals, then at least as inferior members of the group. Then, finally, they decide that they've had it with being put down, and with putting ourselves down. They just want to be equal members of our society. They've continually found their own feeble attempts to be superior to others ignored or scoffed at. Which is how they react to those who try to be superior to them. Eventually, as they see the new reality of equality clearly, they find that their last task is to reteach ourselves, to reteach their own bad mental habits, and their unconscious minds, which like to drag the past into the future.

Equality is the true north. 

Actually, I take it one step further yet. The very truest north to me doesn't even allow for equality. Everyone, and every thing, just is. We only use the term equality as a reaction against those other more-obviously unwanted, untrue and artificial terms.
0 Comments

Saturday's Guerrilla Poetry event through Stan's eyes, and ears.

4/25/2016

0 Comments

 
Eight of us poets read in rounds for an hour indoors and then we went out on the street for an outdoor session. In the library, about fifteen people stopped and listened to us. For me and others I talked to, not only was it fun, but it was great to read and hear some of the best poems ever written once again. At the open mic, we only get to read our own poetry. So this was a wonderful, unique experience. I read, for instance, Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, Edger Allan Poe's Annabel Lee, and D. H. Lawrence's The Snake. Since it was the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death, some of his sonnets and selections from his plays were read, including one memorized and recited with perfect annunciation by Kevin Heslop, along with, in the same manner, Do Not Go Gentle into this Good Night (amen), and that last paragraph from Kerouac's On the Road, "So in America when the sun goes down..." which I've hear him recite just as beautifully as did Kerouac himself many times, but each time is just so good, and then Shelly Harder, who read, among others, her favourite poem, Keat's Ode to a Nightingale, just as she describes the experience of reading in her contemplation below, the poem bursting from her in all its myriad ways. Near the end of our hour indoors, a young man we hadn't met before took the stand (the crates) and recited a couple of fast, intricate, and profound performance pieces of his own, then asked us for a word or phrase. Joan said "ecstasy", and he immediately, and without pause anywhere, composed and recited an amazing piece not only with long and rhyming lines, entangled but perfect grammar, with profundity built upon profundity into a whole that took our breath away. How could he do that? But he had. I was lucky to get his name: Clint Ruttan. And so the afternoon went. Those who missed it, missed it. Those who were there, revelled.
0 Comments

Roundhouse Poetry Reading and Open Mic ... Mon. Sept. 14th

9/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
 Featuring  John B. Lee, Julie Berry and Kevin Heslop

Your $5 entry fee for this charity poetry reading will help finance the restoration of that classic 1872 train station in St. Thomas. It badly needs help. AND the reading takes place inside the station!

5:30 - 10:00: Writers & publishers discuss and display their work.
6:00 - 7:30: 
Workshop 
7:30: Reading & open mic follow

Poet Laureate LEE and Saint Thomas' BERRY are both former featured poets of London Open Mic, both favourites with the audience. 

Do not miss the pre-reading workshop. You don't need to take part. It's exhilarating just to sit and listen to others critique poems. You can sink into them more deeply than you could just reading them by yourself. Pre-registration is required. Call 519-633-2535.


PHOTO GALLERY and 1877 description below.

The Canada Southern Station (CASO Station) in St Thomas Ontario was the largest of 31 railway stations built in Ontario during the 1870s by Canada Southern Railway Company (CSR). The station was constructed between June 1871 and April 1873.
.
CASO Station was remarkably large for a town the size of St Thomas (the community didn’t become a city until 1881). However, the building needed to be big enough to accommodate both the town’s passenger station (ground floor) and the corporate headquarters of CSR (upper floor).

The building’s grandeur was impressive. The 1882 publication Picturesque Canada reported that the station was “one of the finest in the Dominion, and reminds one of the large structures in Chicago and New York.”

The North America Hall of Fame owns the Canadian Southern Railway Station (CASO Station), a building of historical significance. Fundraisers are regularly held to support maintenance and continued restoration of the building. The building is becoming more of a focal point for many private, corporate and charitable events in St. Thomas and for the surrounding region. Its architecture, size and interior grandeur lend themselves to various occasions from weddings to game nights. All proceeds go to toward supporting the Station and the Hall of Fame.


For a beautifully detailed history of the station, and of St. Thomas and the entire region, but most of all for what life was like for the residents as far back as the 1700s, you can do far worse than to check out a wonderful historical study which began as a simple family genealogy, written by Arnold Raymond Firby, whose ancestors were very early pioneers of St. Thomas: http://www.execulink.com/~firby/history.html#Introduction

Concerning the Canadian Southern Station, Firby quotes a certain A. F. Butler who described it as he saw it at the time, in 1877. (If you read this slowly, it's better than a movie of the building, the people and the times.):

"Building operation began extensively in 1872 have continued without cessation until the present (1877). The station is 354 feet long and two stories high above the basement. It is constructed with a view to durability, solid comfort, convenience of internal arrangement, and adaptation to purpose. The ground floor is planned for the reception and accommodation of the traveling public: beginning at the west end, we come first to the reading room for the employees and others who have sufficient literary inclinations to avail themselves of the privileges; next, the gentlemen’s waiting room, lofty, spacious and well lighted, 31 by 33; next the ticket office, 14 x 19, and retiring room, 14 x 14, for the officer in charge; next, the ladies waiting room, of the same size as that for the gentlemen; next a spacious passage 15 feet wide, by which one may pass from front platform to the train, and from which by heavy oaken staircase access may be had to the second story; on the east side of this passage is the barber shop and wash rooms, west the refreshment room, and next, a magnificent dinning room 33 x 79, with kitchen, 31 x 33, pantries, sculleries and other kindred conveniences, next, another passage of 15 feet in width, arched at either entrance, and next, the baggage room, station master's room, telegraph office and conductor's’ room. The office of company are upon the second floor, and to reach these we may take either of the broad oaken stairways and we land in a long corridor, 5 feet wide, and running two-thirds of the length of the building. This, on the south side, is lighted with numerous windows, and from it access is had to the different offices. Above each door is a fan light on which is painted in green and gold the number of the office, with the name upon the door itself. The effect of this is at once tasteful and very convenient. The offices are those of the General Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Paymaster, Purchasing Agent, Chief Engineer, Secretary, Solicitor, Resident Engineer, Draughtsman, with their numerous subordinates.

"The floors of all the offices are covered with the finest Kidderminster carpets, and the furniture is rich and comfortable. The whole is heated with steam and lighted with gas. The external is pleasing and conveys the impression of solid durability. A platform 20 feet wide covered with a fireproof verandah, supported with cast iron pillars, and surrounds the whole building. The cornice is bold and heavy in its outline, and is supported by ornamental modillions and brackets. The upper story is lighted by 94 windows with circular heads, each shaded by a blind of blue and gold, and bearing on its center the letters "C. S. R." in monogram. Every expenditure of the company had been marked by enterprise and liberality, and they have now a road running through the Province 229 miles, from Amerstburg to Fort Erie, and 63 miles from Courtright to St.Thomas, with superior equipment, and 94 per cent of which is as straight as a line. "

The last two photos in the gallery below are from Firby's history, the last one being downtown St. Thomas in 1875.


About The North America Railway Hall of Fame: It is a not-for-profit charitable organization housed in the recently restored Canada Southern Railway Station in St.Thomas, Ontario. Once known as the Railway Capital of Canada, St.Thomas is rich with historical significance for both the locals as well as for Canada and North America as a whole. The Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 to maintain, preserve and honor this railway history through the induction into the Hall of Fame of people, events, structures, railway art forms, rolling stock, technical innovations, railway workers and trains, and inventions in the railway industry. Induction ceremonies have taken place in 1999, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Our goal is to educate the public about the impact of railway transportation on North America as a whole as well as on Canada specifically, and on St.Thomas in particular. The Hall of Fame, which is located on the 2nd floor of the station, was officially opened in September 2013.


0 Comments

A Non-Mykonos Summer's Night Poetry Reading and Open Mic

8/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Here are digital photos and a covetous little vignette intended to affirm and articulate the location of our 2nd open mic event this month. The event’s being hosted by Allen Cook on August 19th at 6:30PM at Summer’s Dream*, a stunningly furbished backyard/stage area at 244 Hyman Street. The evening’s layout and a lineup of musicians/featured readers follow, if time is feral. 
So inside there’s a large open square centered by a high willow whose fronds hang a few meters above the dun-coloured floorboards which run to the edge of each of four adjoining, thematically-distinct alcoves. (It’s actually more of a rhombus inside one of the obtuse angles of which you’d find yourself standing at the entrance, across from the other obtuse side where the alcoves are, but you get the idea.) There’s a statue of Shakespeare’s Shylock to your left; its back is to the pale pine fence which abuts the house’s rear façade of gray brick bedecked with candleabra, an enscribed mahogany panel, and shelving upon which stand bronze statuettes so polished and liquescent you’d think 


Read More
0 Comments

Poetry Workshop Started by London Open Mic

9/27/2014

0 Comments

 
A series of monthly poetry workshops open to anyone will commence on Wed., Oct. 8th, at the Landon Library in London’s Wortley Village.

The facilitator will be Kevin Heslop. 

Each workshopped poem will be read silently, then aloud by the poet, and will then be followed by a discussion. The workshoppers will try to see the intention of the poet, will comment on the poem’s strengths, and, with appropriate tact, on its weaknesses. The workshop should help the poet see the poem through the eyes of its audience. 

Since there is no way to predict how many people will attend, and there won’t be time to workshop more than six poems in the two hours, if more people arrive at the Oct. 8th workshop, a second room will be opened. The two simultaneous workshops could then hold a maximum of twelve participants. On the unlikely chance that more than twelve arrive, each workshop will select its six poets by random ballot selection. The second room will be facilitated by Stan Burfield. 

If you want to have a poem workshopped, bring ten copies: six for the participants, and four for others to read in case more than the six participants come.

Time: Arrive before 6:30.

Location: In Landon Library, the room immediately past the large hall at the base of the stairs.
0 Comments

A little Kerouac last night

9/25/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureHeslop
Last night I attended a great Poetry London reading, but for me as an organizer the after-reading bar scene was even more productive. We decided London Open Mic's interviewer Kevin Heslop should interview Tom Cull about London's first literary festival, called WORD, scheduled for Oct. 24 to 26, which Cull helped organize. There are so many aspects to the festival that it's a little confusing and really could use the single voice of an effusive spokesman like Cull to bring it all together. The interview will take place and be posted soon.

And then Kevin and I sat up at his place till 3:30 in the morning talking poetry. At one point we were mulling over some of the great leaders of cultural change of the last few generations, their similarities, Presley, Dylan, and earlier Ginzberg and Kerouac. And during lulls, Heslop would recite from memory great swathes of Ginzberg's Howl, and Kerouac's October in the Railroad Earth, sounding so much like Kerouac himself it gave me chills. 

Of all the greatest readers of their own poetry in modern history, Kerouac has got to have been one of the best. See for yourself: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjPZpaXNsw

0 Comments

Ron Stewart steps down from his poetry workshop

7/3/2014

1 Comment

 
PictureRon Stewart
After seven years of facilitating his monthly poetry workshop at London’s Landon Library, Ron Stewart is stepping down to put more time into his own poetry. He and wife Jan will continue to support local literary events, partly through the now-traditional announcements on his extensive email list, which many Londoners have long depended upon. 

Stewart, a retired airline pilot, began the workshop as an essential finishing touch to the group of ingredients already supplied to the local poetry scene by the Poetry London Reading Series, also held at Landon Library. Since then, many poets have benefitted from his initiative and hard work.

Following are expressions of thanks by Poetry London and some of the local poets who have attended the workshop:

Ron and his wife Jan continue to embody the creative energy, hard work, and congenial spirit that has come to define the London poetry community.   We offer our congratulations and appreciation to Ron for initiating and nurturing such a successful workshop - one that has meant so much to so many writers in London over the past several years.  We wish him continued success with his own writing and all of his future endeavours in our poetry community. 
~ the Poetry London Reading Series

To the other sentiments expressed here by others, all of which are true, I would like to add that if not for Ron’s workshop there would be no London Open Mic Poetry Night, which is simply a spinoff of his workshop.  
~ Stan Burfield, organizer, London Open Mic

Ron-
I want to thank you so much for making the London (especially winter) nights seem so much more welcoming for your generous hosting of those wonderful poetry gatherings.
With much appreciation and warmth,
~ Cheryl Cashman

I think Ron is a wonderful poet, and a great supporter of other poets. His way of summarizing other’s poetry and encouraging them to write, is remarkable, heartfelt and full of spirit!!! 
~ Joan Clayton

Thanks, Ron. I haven't been to any workshops recently, but I have good memories of those flights of fancy. Arriving to find you at the end of the table ready for take off. Orienting us to the program. Apprehensive as to what this flight would be like. Excited about reaching for the upper ether of poetry. Hearing your calm confident gentle voice reassuring us it would always be a good flight (which it always was) and landing us safely at the end (which you always did). They were quite the trips. I miss them. Good luck with your solo flights. Bon voyage.
~ Martin Hayter

When I think of Ron, I see, when entering the clean, well-lighted room in the Landon Library underground, at the head of the long, peopled table strewn with poems, the welcoming smile, the articulate, white goatee, the glimmering eyes and freckled dome which I have come to know and trust. If there is any one secret to the endurance of his workshop, I think it is that trustworthiness which has compelled each of us to uncloak the vulnerability which in daily life we habitually deny, to communicate in all its shifty-eyed, anxious humanity a wish to express ourselves and be heard. Ron - thank you for listening. And thank you for having tenderly impressed upon each of us those four simple words which unfailingly conclude your summations: Live Life, Love Poetry.  
~ Kevin Heslop

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said, "Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry."  Ron Stewart helped us add a third dimension, share poetry.  He did so by creating a non-threatening, congenial poetry workshop.  Thank you for that, Ron.
~ Louisa Howerow

Ron’s workshop was unique and will be missed. It was one of a kind. 
~ Carl Lapp

A bit lost at the Poetry London Events, it was really Ron's Workshop that helped me feel at home in the London poetry scene. His gentle and positive leadership developed my confidence and introduced me to friends I hope will be in my life for a long time to come.  Thanks, Ron (and Jan)
~ Janice M. McDonald

For Ron-
Ron is an enthusiastic and talented poet whose presence enhances many events in London’s poetry community. His dedicated work has fostered and supported the growth of various venues. Particularly important is the monthly workshop (held at the Landon library) organized by Ron. This workshop series has provided London poets an opportunity to share and discuss their poems. Many thanks, Ron!
~ O. Nowosad

For Ron, who has, in the Open Poetry Workshop at Landon Library, created a safe and encouraging atmosphere for poems finding their perfection, a place of meaningful, good-humoured discussion, an evening from which we come away with both wits pencils sharpened. For Ron, who has faithfully and with such generosity led the workshop 10 months of the year, for so many years. To Ron, I offer my deep gratitude.
~ Christine Thorpe




1 Comment

We have a new interviewer, Kevin Heslop!

5/19/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureHeslop reading at the May open mic.
Beginning with the next interview, that of Monika Lee, Kevin Heslop will take over the role of interviewer for London Open Mic Poetry Night from organizer Stan Burfield. 

Maybe you think interviewing is just a matter of asking standard questions. Well, it has been in the past. But no more. Heslop will bring a whole new dimension to the task, a dimension that results from his talent, his experience, his enthusiasm and his education.  Just wait. You'll see. The difference will be obvious. 

Heslop is currently studying English Literature, creative writing and philosophy at Western and has been on the organizing committee of London Open Mic Poetry Night for most of its two seasons so far.  He is also one of the most popular readers at the open mic.

Check out Kevin's blogs:
On London Open Mic's site, where he puts many of his best poems
On Facebook, where he puts everything as of late. 

0 Comments

THE HESLOP EVENT SUMMARY for Oct. 2nd, 2013

10/5/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
There was a little Greek restaurant just south of Oxford east and Adelaide of flat white sign hanging above the stout four-step-set of stairs reads Mykonos in blue letters. 

Open Mic poetry night in there Wednesday featured Jan Figurski who tread jazz, blues and radio-friendlies through the laughing air of wine-pouring and food coming or having arrived and hot before the readings began. 

Jan’s musical accompaniment consisted of Geoff Johnson of Big Picture, who battered the electric keys with a shootist’s decisiveness and the rhythmical integrity of a skilled carpenter, and I, who intended to keep drum kit rhythm under the current of Jan under siege and telling us, blowing blues through harmonica and the music happening and on. 

Time infringed, though, as it does, and with characteristic gentleness, Dawna, our host and the seamstress of these monthly evenings, took the podium and told us so, handing the mic to David Paul, sincere friend of Mr. Figurski, and we were under way. 

Jan began with the sensitive poet’s promise of intimacy; he took the audience to a vulnerable place with all the emotional momentum of a man of the blues, giving the audience a frock and his personal truths, an emotion-laden reel of raw images, his the harmonica resonating still, before ruddying his demeanor and loosening his face and ours with good humor and a few final poignant words. 

Following hearty applause, Dawna seamed either side of the fifteen minute intermission into the evening and we were into the open mic.

The readers ranged from first time readers to familiar participants, future featured readers and past and the communal act of our sharing was a pleasure to take part in.

With a final seam and some just applause, Big Picture took the stage, the dancing began and a joyful group raised arms in OPA to celebrate the victory of yet another open mic at that little Greek restaurant we know as Mykonos. 

Kevin Heslop

0 Comments

No Summary This First Month

9/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Kevin Heslop has an interesting prose style, so during the easy days of summer I asked him if he would like to take over my job of writing the summaries of our open mics. Well in those lazy, hazy days of summer he thought yes that would be fun and agreed. 

Kevin didn’t really realize what he was in for until it all came down on him at once. All right after that first Sept. 4th open mic, right when he was going to write his first summary. 

For starters, there was the stress of registration for his first full year at Western (English and philosophy), and immediately his first classes.  And then everything else he had jumped into. Here’s an email to me Wednesday: “Got a poem into the paper at western today, and I've got two articles going into  tomorrows and thursdays editions. And that's on top of class hours and homework   (just got back from a 3 hour class this evening). So…” And he’ll be a drummer in the university jazz band. And then there’s soccer. And not to forget his constant discharge of poems, which, though rapid, still takes time. 

So I suggested, to Kevin’s relief, that he skip this first summary. I don’t want to be the cause of some 21-year-old guy having a heart attack. Assuming that’s possible.

So no Heslop summary until after our second open mic of the season, October 2nd, featuring Jan Figurski. 

However, any day now we have a batch of videos coming out, taken at last week's open mic. Erik Martinez Richards, our esteemed videographer, is working on them as we speak. As with Kevin, this is Erik’s first shot at his new job for the open mic. It’s his on-the-job training, as he has never done this kind of fussy work before, only your normal vacation shots, etc. But his learning curve is steep, as you’ll see. 
0 Comments

NEWS FLASH!!! 

6/14/2013

0 Comments

 
--Stan Burfield reporting, sort of

I had a terrible time writing the summary article for this last (June 5th) event of our first season. It took me all of three days! It would normally take maybe three hours, including revisions. I was burnt out. My mind was rebelling at each phrase. 

Well, it takes no genius to see if that’s the case now, at the end of season one, I’m going to need help from other people to get through a second year. Otherwise, my anxiety will go up even further after a little dip in the summer. 

One thing I can do fairly well is solve problems on the fly. 

I had finally gotten most of the summary down on paper (so to speak), but just the bare bones. So then I was trying my damndest to put some humour in it, as I had done to fairly good effect in the previous month’s summary. But humour requires a much more fluid and open mind than I was at all capable of. A mind like....Kevin Heslop’s. Well, a lot of people have fluid and open minds, but for a long time now I’ve been reading Kevin’s stuff, first his poetry and now prose. So he was my example. I began imagining myself as Kevin writing the summary. And then of Kevin writing it himself. And then I started to get excited. My god, what a great idea. Ask him to do it. Not only would it be better written, but I wouldn’t have to write a word! And that’s when I suddenly got the energy to get the summary done.

The thing is, just when I need someone the most for this, Kevin is ripe and ready to go. In the year that I’ve been reading his stuff, since we started the open mic, he’s gone through phases. First it was Bukowski, then D. H. Lawrence, and then Kerouac’s poetry and now his prose poetry, or poetic prose, or just prose or whatever it is. This prose thing happened on Kevin’s adventure in Montreal the week before the open mic. So he’s really into it now. (At least he was a day ago, but one day for him is like a month for me.) Well, the big news is I did ask him and he actually did say yes, he would give it a shot. So there we have it. Something different to look forward to. Now the problem will be having an open mic that stands up to it’s summary!! :) But I can tell you now that it will. For one thing, there are a bunch of open micers (plus our next feature) who are going away in July to their own special retreat to hatch up stuff! But more on that later. 

For now, just to give you a feeling of how Kevin can report on an event, and what it might read like, I have a taste for you. 
 
I follow Kevin's output on his blog and a week or so before the open mic he seemed to be slowing down. The flood was drying up. So I thought I would give him a new experience, picked him up and took him along on my job as a support worker for a guy who always likes to meet new people. After several hours, I dropped Kevin off at home. This was on his website maybe three quarters of an hour later. (He writes as fast as Kerouak ever did.)

THE KING, THE WHEELMAN AND THE BUSTED BLUE VAN

This afternoon the mad Wheelman in his rickety busted down old blue van of dent and rust jabbered up to my driveway, his foul-mouthed pal Gregor riding shotgun who said my name as I sat in back and I said his and we were off cackling about suburban corners and out out towards a McDonalds for coffee.

We arrived in the parking lot of gloom and doom-skied afternoon, the wheelman hunkering out first to get a scooter for Gregor, and did so, got him set and we rolled in together and ordered and sat down to drink our hot cups of coffee in the lighted inside bustle and shuffle of blue trays, yellow sandwich wrappers and ‘I can help whose next please’, you know it. And so began a game of backandforth between the tyrant Gregor and the Wheelman, one upping each other with play venom banter and ramblings that struck fear into wrinkled eyes all over the place, say an old bald guy in pressed corduroy jacket and khakis, green eyes heavily spectacled peeking over his newspaper wondering what’s what. The whole place beginning to stare, in fact, and without a care and having more kicks than anybody ol’ Gregor guzzling coffees with ten sweeteners and maniacal of eye, really letting loose like with the top down on sum sunset stretch in the desert.

Loose ends having gotten tied, and Gregor up one on the scoreboard with the Wheelman, we get set again, into the van, the scooter returned and roar clattering around bends, two wheels coming off the pavement at times, and on to the next and the next, Gregor making obscene jokes and planning lap dances for the gang of us on the Wheelman’s dime. The Wheelman just an mouth open revealing teeth rows and those laughing eyes pressing into the gas as the trip ripped forward.

To the next McDonald’s, onward, the white lines jumping past that familiar careless window and the gloomy sky shuddering at the jagged lines of light rippling up and down the cloud canvas, and we, in that heavy handed van strong-arming it and beating past yellow lights and turning heads and we’d arrived at the next stop suddenly.

On his walker now, Gregor denying the sloped curve and opting to hop the perpendicular one, which he did, and called out to us he needed to piss! and so made his way to the bathroom, passing by a widescreen T.V. playing The Elephant Man, which seemed a strange film to be playing in an easy café like that but that’s the truth.

The Wheelman and I paired with frantic eyes in line to order more coffee and a Coke for Gregor tapping our restless road ravaged toes and then Gregor, having pissed, making his way to sit down at a table by the window beside a couple, 80 years old each, and the coffee lidded and Coke filled and brought to the table we sat and made chat with the pair.

It trickled out the Wheelman and I were poets, the Wheelman in fact a fine poet and tireless madman putting forums for readings together in the city at a real pleasant Greek dig other side of town, and the tender bag-eyed couple taking interest in that, she an oil painter and he an engineer with an ear for words, and so we made chat, and the old Engineer shared a story about a preacher they knew who used to smoke out front the chapel between masses, used to every day say ‘how are yah’ to an old lady with walker out front the church there, and her always responding ‘bugger off’, ritually, just like that with no prelude, and they laughed brightly at that and we too.

Gregor then jumping in insisting his kingliness, his king’s horses back home waiting for him, and we I think ‘prolly all knew the subtle truth in that, you know, something Gibran saying the most massive characters are seared with scars, and he Gregor ridden with them but beautiful sure worthy of a crown but just wearing an old blue and white baseball
cap.

And the chat being made the elders moved off to beyond the door, I guess, into the bright day, and Gregor then demanding a story, and to deny a king a tale being treason I acquiesce with just so happens a Kerouac book on hand to read, and did, about two pages finally easing off it, and then nothing, and the King asking for more and so to the end of the chapter me spinning best I could those mad rhythms of bright open sky and beach bumming with fire roaring and spic clad in hot meat cooking for dinner, eventually the King blurting out that the Wheelman, who’d been sitting back grinning contentedly like a just fed cat, had farted, and so the reading ended there and just fine- he’d had his fill, I guess.

So a couple stagnant looks thrown over our shoulders, the King shuffles off to make royal pudding in the bathroom (haha), and the Wheelman gets the door open for him.

Me, I move off to the sidewalk to smoke, sit and think a bit at all that’d transpired- the old man peeping over papers, the busted road and the lap dances, the Elephant Man and the announcement of Royalty and the reading, and I nestled back into the book a bit smoking there in the fternoon air, the sun way out now bastardizing the dark grey tarp over the trees, and eventually the King set and the Wheelman ready to go, we went back out to the street to count the jumping white lines of the road.

 © Kevin Heslop  http://thechainsmokingpoet.wordpress.com/

0 Comments

Who We Are:

3/15/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Kevin Heslop

Kevin Heslop is a twenty year old writer-in-the-making, currently attending Western University as an English major. He is heavily influenced by the poetry and prose of Charles Bukowski and Ernest Hemingway, the philosophical works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Neitzsche, the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso and the music of J.S. Bach and Miles Davis. When not reading or writing, Kevin is either playing the drums, drawing with an 8B pencil and/or feeling distressed about not writing, at which times he often waits patiently in...



the garage 


the flannel blanket is thin and grey and tossed and disheveled lying

weeping upon the wooden chair with one shorter leg.

two blue garbage bins with crooked headpieces languish in the corner.

the garage doors are quiet and gaping like observant militia and

nestled in the shelving on the wall are browning gasoline cans

half empty and waiting for spring.

the cigarette butts in the ashtray are standing at odd angles

as if having maintained their positions at the conclusion of an interpretive dance

crumpled and embellishing the romance of their fate.

the metal structure of the withdrawing mechanism bends smoothly and decisively

each moment hanging with the threat of animation.

it is winter and the cool light slouches in

bordering the garage doors in soft clumps.

the naked bulb buzzes like a luminescent bee

hanging in midflight

hovering callously in the face of the

light switch.



For more from Kevin Heslop, his blog,  thechainsmokingpoet


0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012


    Categories

    All
    Administration
    Alan Leangvan
    Allen Cook
    Allen Ginsgerg
    Andreas Gripp
    Andy Verboom
    Anthology
    Basic Poetics Study Group
    Bernie Koenig
    Bill Paul
    Blog
    Book Launch
    Brighton Mckinnon
    Brittany Renaud
    Carl Lapp
    Carolyn Smart
    Carrie Lee Connel
    Chapters
    Chapters Reading Series
    Charmaine E. Elijah
    Cheryl Cashman
    Children's Poetry Workshop
    Christine Thorpe
    Coming Events
    Couplets: Poets In Dialogue
    David Heubert
    David Hickey
    David Stones
    Dawna Perry
    Debbie Okun Hill
    Dennis Siren
    Don Gutteridge
    Dorothy Nielsen
    E-journal
    Elliot Sapp
    Erik Mandawe
    Erik Martinez Richards
    Essay
    Featured Poet
    Founder
    Frank Beltrano
    Frank Davey
    Future
    Gabe Foreman
    Gary Barwin
    Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy
    Guerrilla Poetry
    High-school English Students
    Indigenous
    Internet Manager
    Interview
    Jacob Scheier
    Jaime R. Brenes Reyes
    Jan Figurski
    Janice McDonald
    Jan Stewart
    Joan Clayton
    John B. Lee
    John Nyman
    John Tyndall
    Josef Kaplan
    Journals
    Julie Berry
    Karen Solie
    Kathryn Mockler
    Ken Babstock
    Kenny Khoo
    Kevin Heslop
    Laurence Hutchman
    Laurie D. Graham
    Lemon Hound
    Leonard Cohen
    Light Of East
    Linda Burfield
    Lineup
    London
    London Arts Council
    London Open Mic Poetry Night
    London Yodeller
    Louisa Howerow
    Marlene Laplante
    Martin Hayter
    Mary Dowds
    Media
    Monika Lee
    Music
    Mykonos Restaurant
    National Poetry Month
    Ola Nowosad
    Open Mic
    Organizer
    Patricia Black
    Peggy Roffey
    Penn Kemp
    Penn Kemp
    Photography
    Poem
    Poet Laureate
    Poetry
    Poetry London
    Poetry Night Essay
    Poetry Reading
    Poetry Study Group
    Poetry Workshop
    Press Coverage
    Prison Poetry
    Projects
    Rl Raymond
    Ron Stewart
    Roy MacDonald
    Sebastian Rydzewski
    Sharon Bee
    Sheila Deane
    Shelly Harder
    Sidewalk Poetry
    Slam
    Social Media
    Stan Burfield
    Students
    Summary
    Table Reading
    The Ontario Poetry Society
    Tom Cull
    TOPS
    Tribute
    Videos
    Volunteers
    Workshop

Proudly powered by Weebly