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FOUNDER STAN BURFIELD TO FEATURE JUNE 7TH

5/14/2017

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The featured poet at the June 7th, 2017 London Open Mic will be the organization’s founder and organizer Stan Burfield. The June event is the last of his tenure, the culmination of five seasons of work. He will be passing the torch to co-organizers Mary Dowds and Kevin Heslop. Before his featured reading, he will be introduced by his wife Linda.
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BURFIELD’S BIO:
​
 I was raised on a small farm in central Alberta. My first ambition, a very serious one, was to live alone in a log cabin as a trapper. That changed to farmer, then biologist, then journalist, then florist. 

In Calgary, I studied biology, then journalism. Amongst numerous more-nondescript jobs, I was for two years a reporter.
 
Then, over a four-year period, I went on some extremely long, arduous adventures by foot, canoe and bicycle, hoping they would break me out of my life-long shyness and anxiety. No such luck. So, having read that poetry was a possible route into the subconscious, which I assumed was the home of my anxiety, I took a poetry anthology out into a closed provincial park near St. John’s, Newfoundland. For a month and a half, I read, wrote and memorized poetry until it floated across the sky in my dreams. But it did nothing for my anxiety. 

In 1987, I married Linda, a flower designer, and we opened and ran a flower shop in Vancouver for nineteen years. 

When we sold the shop and semi-retired, we moved to London, Ontario in 2008 to be near our children and grandchildren. 

With more time on my hands, I revved up my poetry writing, and, as a form of shyness therapy, began attending Ron Stewart's excellent poetry workshop. When I got used to that, the next logical step in the direction of my fear was to find a place to read to an audience. Since there was no open mic for regular “page poets” in London then, I decided I would have to organize one. In doing so, the constant social contacts that were necessary turned out to be just the therapy I needed. The stress nearly killed me but I eventually got used to it, and by the fifth season had lost most of my shyness. After 62 years, I felt like I was stepping through a door into a completely new life.
 
In the process, my ability to write decent poetry has dramatically improved. And I have a place to read it!
 
RECOGNITION:
  • The 2014 Ted Plantos Memorial Award from The Ontario Poetry Society.
  • 2nd Prize in the 2014 Poetry London Poetry Contest. 

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LONDON OPEN MIC'S FUTURE

5/10/2017

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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.
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Mary Dowds takes a huge load off Stan's shoulders

3/19/2017

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London Open Mic is happy to announce our newest committee member: Mary Dowds. Mary is in training to become our Internet Manager, just in time to take over that responsibility from Stan Burfield, the current London Open Mic organizer and series founder, as he is set to retire from active duty at the end of this season, June 7th, 2017.

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". .

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Deciding about the future of the open mic.

3/15/2017

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As organizer, I have a big decision to make before the end of April. 

I want this to be my last season, and, if that turns out to be the case, there are three events left that I'm responsible for. But what comes after that? Well, at least we now know there will be a next season because we have a new volunteer who will be doing most of my duties, consisting of all the internet work (website, facebook, tweeting, newsletters, constant communication with people). Mary Dowds, whom I'm training now, is our new Internet Manager. Nobody else in our group either has the time or the ability to do this essential work. So, with Mary, the open mic will definitely be able to continue. 

The big question in my mind is what form the administration of the open mic will take. The ideal would be a group of equals, with each member taking responsibility for a share of the work, and each excitedly trying to make the open mic work. Sounds good, and it's my #1 hope, but having researched it a bit, it seems committee-run organizations tend to get bogged down in rancour and conflict, often resulting in some members leaving, and even, occasionally, the demise of the organization.

I have till the end of April to feel out the volunteers who are actively working on the open mic now. If I decide by then that a committee-run system wouldn't work then I have two choices: to appoint someone to take over my position, or to stay on as organizer for another season to try to work out some lasting solution more gradually. 
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This is my last season: HELP WANTED!

10/28/2016

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This 5th season of London Open Mic Poetry will be my last as organizer. I’ve had a good run, and accomplished what I wanted to, both in terms of personal growth and helping to build a poetry community in London. But I have other things I want to accomplish that will require all my time and effort in the future.

Our committee right now doesn’t include anyone who can pick up where I leave off. It would be a shame for London Open Mic to die, or even to fizzle away in a half-hearted fashion. So we desperately need someone to step forward before the end of the season: June, 2017.

Job requirements:
​
• You must be able to plan ahead, continually. Not everyone can handle this. Since London Open Mic is a series of events, two events have to be prepared for simultaneously, first in finding featured poets, then in making sure everything else is done in proper sequence and on schedule: writing and posting ads on the website and social media and other platforms, doing interviews with the features, hosting the actual event, getting photography and videography done, writing and posting summaries and photo galleries. Consequently, a strong sense of responsibility and an ability to manage time are necessary. 
• You need to persuade other volunteers to do as much of the work as possible. This is also important because the open mic is a social event, and so should be run by a social group, which then forms one of the seeds of the community it is promoting. 
• You have to do any work yourself that other volunteers aren’t getting done. 
• You must communicate with all parts of the community: featured poets, open mic poets, poetry aficionados, other poetry organizations, city agencies, etc. 
• You must search not only for new featured poets, but for other possible kinds of features, and also for new ways of involving the organization in the community--then make them happen. 
• You must inspire others. 
• You must use your position to do as many good things for individuals as you possibly can. This is more important than all the rest.


Organizing London Open Mic Poetry has been a very rewarding adventure, ridding me of a debilitating shyness and, at the same time, involving me productively in my community.

I’m hoping that someone else will want to carry it forward. If you’re just curious but not likely to go for it, please ask me about it anyway. If you know someone else who might be right for it, suggest it to them. It isn’t for everyone, but it may, in the end, be perfect for someone who doesn’t think so at first glance. That was certainly true for me when I started it.
I’m happy to talk about it: 

Stan
burfield@live.com
519-204-1792

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London Open Mic Poetry is suddenly evolving!

4/19/2016

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We are in the process of making a radical departure from our past.

We have always been a single-event organization 
run by a single organizer. But during this month, April, 2016, which is coincidentally National Poetry Month, we are breaking out of that mould, becoming a multi-event organization with each event run by its own organizer.

And now, instead of the one central organizer trying to plan every detail, which is only possible to a certain extent, at least without causing seriously debilitating anxiety, he is stepping back to allow others to take over the planning of their own spin-off events

This relaxation, openness, and "spontaneous" growth of new events and poetic happenings could continue indefinitely, as more people become aware of us, are excited by the possibilities, and create their own ideas. And the more that poetry becomes a part of the landscape of London, the more people will begin to see it everywhere, and not only throughout the city, but also in the community-building social media. Poetry could become the fashionable art of London.

It would follow that this rapid growth in quantity (as we create more spaces for poetry, and so excite more people) could provide a rich breeding ground for changes in quality as well.

Thanks to an idea by Frank Beltrano, we will launch a series of readings in the Chapters book store near the White Oaks Mall, probably in May. At each monthly event, organizer Andy Verboom will be pairing one of the featured poets who has earlier read at our four-season series at Mykonos Restaurant with a lesser-known poet who has not yet been published in book form. Andy is in the process of working out the format but it will include readings by each poet (a longer one by the featured reader), some form of conversation between the two, and of course questions from the audience. These new organizing ideas are so exciting that we may try to adapt them to the larger stage at Mykonos.

We are launching an E-journal, wherein each month the open mic readers at our events will publish one of the poems they read that month (if they would like to), along with a photo of them reading it. Also, the featured poet's three poems, interview and bio would be included, and possibly those of the poets reading at that month's Chapters event. The organizers (publishers, editors) of this publication are Koral Scott and Christine Ellwood.

Our already-announced series of Guerrilla Poetry readings in the central library (if it goes as planned) will have a spin-off in the Chapters book-store near White Oaks mall. It will be organized and hosted by Brittany Renaud. (The original series in the central library down-town is launching this Saturday, April 23rd, at 2 pm.)

London Open Mic Poetry is rapidly changing from a Mykonos event series into an umbrella organization. It now has eleven members. Projects that have been put off for lack of people to run them may soon be launched by new people who may want to work with us in the future.

For instance, we need someone to head our Prison Poetry project, a woman (since it would be in the women's prison in the Kitchener area) who has the time, the energy, the right expertise, and who has experience dealing with institutions.
We need people to try to start workshops and possibly open mics in other long-term care institutions.

We need someone to promote with the city our idea of having city workers stamp impressions of poems into side-walk areas as they are being repaired. This has been done successfully in St. Paul, Minnesota.

We need people to carry out our dream of exciting the city's high-school English students in poetry, possibly by means of a city-wide contest.

As London Open Mic Poetry grows in size, its abilities are also growing. For instance, we now have a social media expert on board, Koral Scott, who is reorganizing our presence on the internet to make it more effective.

We're open to people and their ideas. We're no longer just imposing our own.
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