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.
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On this the 400th birthday of Shakespeare’s death on our milk crates we stand, teeter, and with books in hand we wag our lips. Hopped up on words, on rhythm, on the plenitude of vocal cords and tongue, we stand on our milk crates and read on this the 400th birthday of Shakespeare’s death, which may also be the anniversary of his birth, if historians’ speculations correctly show his mortal coil both found breath and lost on this the day of April 23rd, cruelest month when lilacs spring and memory and desire meet. And so we prop our voices and tell of the cold towns we live and die in and that special way of being afraid.
Think how resounds the passage of air through mouth. Articulation. The precise placement of tooth and tongue and how rhythms smack off lips and how rhymes plump the cheeks and sounds set the air slithering and the curlicues of voices batter eardrums and set neurons sparking. We hold being on our tongues, we birth sound from our lips, and, if there is truth, with each word we kiss it. o place-giving hallowers, namegivers, o poets o see-ers o seers, enchanters of being, tellers of tales, gift-giving bards revealing, seeding the good soil, worldgiving historians of light ~ Shelly Harder  During the Nov. 2015 Words Festival in London, Aileen House took to the milk crates to read her poetry on the notorious corner of Dundas and Richmond. Organizer Tom Cull provided enthusiastic support. Saturday at 2 pm, London Open Mic Poetry Night is launching its new monthly series called Guerrilla Poetry, to be held in the central branch of the London Public Library. This may very well be a world 1st. So come and get your name on the reading list. WHERE: The reading will be held just inside the doors of the library proper, in the open area called Discovery Place in front of the circulation desks . The hosts of the event will wear black t-shirts decalled with "Guerrilla Poetry". The library will also provide a poster to back up the readers. WHAT: Co-hosts Stan Burfield (burfield@live.com) and Joan Clayton, will sign up readers, who will read in rounds. At each reading, they will read a maximum of two short-to-medium poems. Anyone wanting to read after the event has begun can sign up at the bottom of the list. Poets can read their own poetry, or that of others. Audience members will be encouraged to find poems they like in the poetry books brought to the area for this purpose by the librarians, then sign up and read them. (We only ask that they have read a poem at least once before reading it to the audience.) This first event will only last one hour, ending at 3 pm. GENRES: Every type of poetry is suitable, although some would definitely go over better than others. Performance poetry, by its extraverted nature, should be at home here. Any narrative poetry, with it's story-like quality, is fairly easy to follow in a reading. Many other types, however, fare much better when read more slowly than is possible in an oral reading. A bit of an introduction in these cases can certainly help to orient the listeners' minds ahead of time. Considering many in our audience will be very poetry illiterate, it would be good to introduce most poems. TABOOS: We will have to make a couple of compromises between the wild freedom of true guerrilla poetry and the demands of our library setting. The library doesn't allow photos to be taken without authorization from the photoees. So its staff photographer will take any and all photos. Also, of course, what we read must be suitable for children. So "no profanity or very graphic violence". WHY: The idea of guerrilla poetry is to take unsuspecting passersby by surprise. Those checking out books at the circulation desk, or wandering to or from the escalator, or youths from their area behind the circulation desk, or people playing chess to one side, or working a jig-saw puzzle, or a colouring book, people who might not otherwise expose themselves to poetry, could end up listening, becoming interested in poetry for the first time, and might even take to the milk crates themselves to read to others. (For those people, the library is bringing down a selection of poetry books and anthologies.) And to many, this will be their first exposure to the poetry open mic scene. If they enjoy it enough, they might even come out to our regular events. This London Open Mic version of guerrilla poetry was inspired when London poet Tom Cull brought guerrilla poetry to his home town during the Nov. 2015 Words Literary and Creative Arts Festival. Several groups of readers stood on milk crates at various places on downtown sidewalks and read poetry to pedestrians. The main difference between that version and the London Open Mic one is that the new one takes place inside a building, the library, where there is no traffic noise to compete with, and which probably has a larger number of literary-minded strollers to fascinate. Also, the library, being a destination for people, has already slowed them down and opened them up. The sidewalk outside is just the opposite. For instance, if you take a seat in a public toilet one day and are confronted with a poem in black felt pen on the back of the door, and you find that you just have to read it (how could you not?), then do take a picture of it and post it here, or in London Open Mic Poetry Night's Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/121795184827333/ .
But definitely DO NOT vandalize a washroom door yourself!! We do NOT condone such illegal activity. If we discovered it ourselves, we would STRONGLY CONDEMN it in no uncertain terms. And loudly enough for all to hear. (Even though we would see no good reason, either philosophical, ethical, legal or otherwise, not to snap a photo of it and post it.) Some Guerrilla poetry that we do condone, however, will be happening in the central library (just inside the doors, in the area of the circulation desks) this Saturday, April 23rd, at 2 am. (This could very well be the first time in world history in which guerrilla poetry has taken place openly in a public library!) Come, put your name on the reading list, and try to distract innocent library-goers with your delivery of poetry, either your own or some by your favourite poets. Two small-to-average-sized poems per go-round. 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.  Charmaine E. Elijah, organizer of the May 4th, 2016 feature. Charmaine E. Elijah is organizing London Open Mic Poetry Night's May 4th feature, which will include indigenous poetry, music, stories, drumming and other performances.
Our normal feature consists of one poet reading for 20 minutes. For this special event, the feature portion of the night will be expanded to an hour to include a larger number of people and a range of arts. Charmaine has already lined up at least two poets, a musician/singer, story tellers, and fellow indigenous students at Western who are studying Anishinabbe: the original languages and cultures of the Great Lakes area. Charmaine herself is from the Oneida Nation of New York. Anyone who would like to take part, please contact Charmaine at charmainee19@gmail.com, or on Facebook. THE EVENT . WHERE: The Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. North, London, Ontario. The restaurant has a large, enclosed terrace just behind the main restaurant, which comfortably holds 60 poetry lovers. Mediterranean food and drinks are available. The terrace is open to the parking lot behind. Overflow parking is available across the side street and in the large lot one block north, in front of Trad’s Furniture. WHEN: Wednesday, May 4th, 2016. Doors: 5:30 to 6:30 (it's a restaurant.) Event begins at 7:00 THE FEATURE: Aboriginal poetry, stories, music, and other performances, followed by a Q&A. The feature will last for a full hour (vs our normal 20 minutes). MUSIC: There may be an aboriginal music portion, possible with a drum, that would begin at 6:30. As of this writing, this is not yet certain. OPEN MIC: The normal poetry open mic section will be significantly shortened because of the lengthened feature that precedes it. Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader's list, which is on the book table at the back. It's first come, first served. COVER: Pay What You Can (in jar on back table, or use Donate Button on website Donate Page). Your contributions are our only source of income to cover expenses. RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who pays what cover they can at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by The Ontario Poetry Society.  During the Nov. 2015 Words Festival in London, Aileen House took to the milk crates to read her poetry on the notorious corner of Dundas and Richmond. Organizer Tom Cull provided enthusiastic support. London Open Mic Poetry Night is launching a new monthly series called Guerrilla Poetry, to be held in the central branch of the London Public Library. Its first engagement with the unsuspecting public will be Saturday, April 23rd at 2:00 pm, as part of the April National Poetry Month.
WHERE: The reading will be held just inside the doors of the library proper, in the open area called Discovery Place in front of the circulation desks . The hosts of the event will wear black t-shirts decalled with "Guerrilla Poetry". The library will also provide a poster to back up the readers. WHAT: Co-hosts Stan Burfield (burfield@live.com) and Joan Clayton, will sign up readers, who will read in rounds. At each reading, they will read a maximum of two short-to-medium poems. Anyone wanting to read after the event has begun can sign up at the bottom of the list. Poets can read their own poetry, or that of others. Audience members will be encouraged to find poems they like in the poetry books brought to the area for this purpose by the librarians, then sign up and read them. (We only ask that they have read a poem at least once before reading it to the audience.) We will read till 4 pm, or possibly longer. There will be no microphone. GENRES: Every type of poetry is suitable, although some would definitely go over better than others. Performance poetry, by its extraverted nature, should be at home here. Any narrative poetry, with it's story-like quality, is fairly easy to follow in a reading. Many other types, however, fare much better when read more slowly than is possible in an oral reading. A bit of an introduction in these cases can certainly help to orient the listeners' minds ahead of time. Considering many in our audience will be very poetry illiterate, it would be good to introduce most poems. TABOOS: We will have to make a couple of compromises between the wild freedom of true guerrilla poetry and the demands of our library setting. The library doesn't allow photos to be taken without authorization from the photoees. So its staff photographer will take any and all photos. Also, of course, what we read must be suitable for children. So "no profanity or very graphic violence". WHY: The idea of guerrilla poetry is to take unsuspecting passersby by surprise. Those checking out books at the circulation desk, or wandering to or from the escalator, or youths from their area behind the circulation desk, or people playing chess to one side, or working a jig-saw puzzle, or a colouring book, people who might not otherwise expose themselves to poetry, could end up listening, becoming interested in poetry for the first time, and might even take to the milk crates themselves to read to others. (For those people, the library is bringing down a selection of poetry books and anthologies.) And to many, this will be their first exposure to the poetry open mic scene. If they enjoy it enough, they might even come out to our regular events. This London Open Mic version of guerrilla poetry was inspired when London poet Tom Cull brought guerrilla poetry to his home town during the Nov. 2015 Words Literary and Creative Arts Festival. Several groups of readers stood on milk crates at various places on downtown sidewalks and read poetry to pedestrians. The main difference between that version and the London Open Mic one is that the new one takes place inside a building, the library, where there is no traffic noise to compete with, and which probably has a larger number of literary-minded strollers to fascinate. Also, the library, being a destination for people, has already slowed them down and opened them up. The sidewalk outside is just the opposite. We're an amateur organization, and proud of it!
We are not a corporation, or a charitable foundation or a non-governmental organization, and certainly not a Las Vegas show. We're just some people goofing off together. So what am I doing sitting tightly throughout our events trying to take professional-quality photographs? Who needs them? And I'm missing half the poetry in the process. And then when I get home, why do I struggle hour after hour picking just the right shots from an assortment of ten or fifteen from each poet, then cropping them perfectly and trying to get the exposure and colour just right? For heaven's sake, I'm not a professional photographer. I'm not a professional anything! Give it up! It's not like there's no alternative. There is. You guys in the audience are all carrying cameras. So I'm going to start relying on you to take the photos, then email them in to me. And the videos as well. (We no longer have a videographer.) So please snap away, and take any videos you want, and don't worry about how amateur they are. That's what we want. That's our look. Send them in along with your name and I'll post them and credit you. Stan: burfield@live.com From all of us at the London Open Mic, we hope you've been having an enjoyable holiday season. January will be a holiday month (we're giving some time for everyone to recover from festivities), but we're excited to invite you back for February 3rd, our first event of 2016. This will be a unique evening featuring three Western University English Students, headed by Western's Student-Writer-in-Residence, Helen Ngo, and followed, as always, by an open mic.
Stay tuned for more news about this exciting evening. But for now, the EVENT INFO WHERE: The Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. North, London, Ontario. The restaurant has a large, enclosed terrace just behind the main restaurant, which comfortably holds 60 poetry lovers. Mediterranean food and drinks are available. The terrace is open to the parking lot behind. Overflow parking is available across the side street and in the large lot one block north, in front of Trad’s Furniture. WHEN: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016. Doors: 6:00 to 6:30 (It's a restaurant.) Event begins at 7:00 THE FEATURED POET: Three Western University Students, headed by Student-Writer-in-Residence, Helen Ngo, will open the poetry portion of the event at 7:00. OPEN MIC: Following the featured poets, and an intermission at 8:00 pm, open mic poets will read to as late as 10:30. Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader's list, which is on the book table at the back. It's first come, first served. COVER: Pay What You Can (in jar on back table, or use Donate Button on website Donate Page). Your contributions are our only source of income to cover expenses. RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who pays what cover they can at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society. We want to set up a poetry workshop and open mic in the women’s prison in Kitchener. We need a few more women with the right skills to help with this.
London Open Mic Poetry Night has been doing its own poetry events in London for over three years. We are now thinking of working out in the community as well. We would like to start a poetry workshop, and later possibly an open mic, in a prison, where the writing of poetry could do wonders for inmates, in terms of self-therapy and rehabilitation. Inmates have very little that is positive in their lives. Yet they have as much creative ability as the average person on the outside. Writing poetry is something they could do with the little they already have: literacy and a pen and paper. And the creative energy involved in working on a poem could temporarily free their minds from their harsh environment. Holding poetry workshops could be a way of getting inmates interested in poetry, and then of mentoring them and keeping them moving forward. Unlike other workshops, which are meant to allow inmates to let their feelings out in a controlled environment but for only a limited period of time, poetry workshops do just the opposite. They promote creative work between workshops, when the poems would be written. This could positively affect the entire emotional and mental lives of inmates. Our next step would be to convince the institution to allow a poetry open mic for the general prison population. At this event, the new inmate poets who read their stories in poetic form to the applause of their fellow inmates might get a very rare boost to their self esteem. We have the beginnings of a committee now, consisting of three senior female London poets, one of whom is also a psychotherapist. But we would welcome other women who have skills that could be of help, for instance social work, or a knowledge of institutions, especially the prison system. Anyone else who would like to help is certainly welcome. Contact London Open Mic organizer Stan Burfield at burfield@live.com Several groups of four poets each took to the streets for an hour of standing on crates and reading to each other, to the passing automobiles and to the occasional ear of a pedestrian. We read any poetry we felt like, our own or other's. The task proved far easier than expected, even for shy me. We quickly got used to our bodies standing on those crates. And surprisingly the lack of a stationary audience was quite freeing. Evolving Guerilla Poetry
I have a new idea. After a couple of our guerilla poetry groups returned to our museum starting place from our hour standing on our crates blasting it out into the traffic, I wandered back downtown to see if I could find Joan Clayton's group. (I also had in mind the two glaring deficiencies of Guerilla Poetry -- the lack of an interested audience and the street noise -- and, always looking to solve problems, I scanned everything with that in mind as I walked.) Well, last I had noticed, Joan's group was heading to the marketplace to set up. But no, it wasn't there now, which is fun to walk through nevertheless. A couple blocks further I got to the mall, went through its big centre area with its fountain, and with the the stools built in around it, and imagined us reading there to people on the stools, but no the fountain is too loud. Then I walked into the wide lobby which sides onto the Central Library, and which goes right on though the mall and out onto Dundas. In the lobby opposite the library is Wolf Performance Hall, which continually packs in crowds for various and sundry interesting topics. And I thought, My God, here is the place, in this wide, quiet lobby, which is always streaming with interested people, people who are here not to get from A to B but because this is where it's all happening, man. There is plenty of unused room just past the Hall doors. We could put a sign on the wall. No need for any equipment. And we could read any poetry we wanted to. I could do my Lawrence Ferlinghetti. People could read their own poetry, An interested audience would actually stand there and listen. It really would. Without doubt. And they could hear us easily. We could do it maybe once a month. I even know the name of the Chief Librarian. I'll ask her. Here's what I realized standing on my soapbox reading to nobody: There is no other place where you can read your favourite poets to other people. None. At regular open mics, like ours at Mykonos Restaurant, you have to read your own stuff. But I really enjoyed reading Ferlinghetti and Creeley. Actually I had never read them before. And I only did it now because I was looking for something good to read.That got me reading a lot of poetry I had never before looked at. And then to read those poems aloud at home to feel how they would go over. That alone was a wonderful experience. And then to go there and do it. I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN, but in a better setting this time. . One of the first poems I would read would be "Corner" by Ralph Pomeroy, from back in the 50s. It goes like this: The cop slumps alertly on his motorcycle, Supported on one leg like a leather stork. His glance accuses me of loitering, I can see his eyes moving like a fish In the green depths of his green goggles. His ease is fake. I can tell. My ease is fake. And he can tell. The fingers armored by his gloves Splay and clench, itching to change something. As if he were my enemy or my death, (plus 7 more stanzas.) Stan  Join us at Marienbad Restaurant for our special Open Mic Poetry Night at Words, featuring poet Lucas Crawford!
Read at the open mic and, PRESTO!!!, one of your poems can be published in the festivals instant zine!! (See below.) At 8:00 pm on Sat. November the 7th, London Open Mic Poetry Night will be hosting a relaxing poetry open mic at Marienbad Restaurant -- 122 Carling St. Music begins at 7:30, so come early to get a table and order drinks, food. Join us upstairs in the Fireplace Room, order something to drink and eat, and settle in for a multitude of 5-minute poetry readings, beginning with a feature by poet Lucas Crawford. Anyone who wants to read can read. Sign up on the sheet. It’s first come, first served. Any genre of poetry is welcome, including, of course, spoken word and bifocals-and-page poetry. And if you have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, don’t take it as an insult if you receive no louder applause than the limerick poet who follows. We clap for everyone. Humour will bring a laugh. You might even accompany yourself on a washboard or some other wingding instrument. But please leave the Steinway Concert Grand at home. There will be a donation jar and anyone donating will receive a raffle ticket. Immediately after the intermission the three prizes will be selected, consisting of poetry books donated by The Ontario Poetry Society and Brick Books. Open Mic Poetry will feature poet, queer performer and scholar Lucas Crawford, who has just released his new book of poetry, Sideshow Concessions. A collection populated by the circus-like bodies and experiences of a narrator navigating rural pasts and urban presents, Sideshow Concessions is the unofficial story of someone who is both a bearded lady and the fattest man in the world. Lucas is from rural Nova Scotia and is based in Vancouver. His poetry has been published widely, including in the Literary Review of Canada, The Antigonish Review, Room, PRISM International, and Best Canadian Poetry (2015). Crawford is the R.W.W. Junior Chair of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. Transgender Architectonics (2015) is Crawford’s book of scholarly essays. READ AT THE NOV. 7TH OPEN MIC AND YOUR POEM WILL GO IN THE WORDSFEST ZINE!! One poem that you read at the open mic, even if it's not about the festival, can be published in the instant WordsFest Zine, simply because you read it at the festival's open mic. You just have to email it in before 8 pm. (Hint: do it anytime before the open mic to make sure it's in on time. If you end up not reading it, they'll know and won't publish it.) Putting Words into print. Here's what we're doing: WordsFest is producing an instant magazine called WordsFestZine. We invite anyone to submit work for publication. The work just has to be related to WordsFest. It can be a reaction to a reading, event, an author, a happening, the contours of the day, anything that was brought about in contact with the Festival. In the great tradition of occasional writing, WordsFestZine will document, analyze and celebrate the events, people and works that make up the festival as it is happening. We’re looking for writing about and related to aspect of the festival. It can be poetry, fiction or non-fiction, including a tweet. All pieces have to be under 250 words. Submissions will open at the beginning of the festival and we will have finished magazines for the close of the festival. The publication is a partnership between Insomniac Press, Poetry London and WordsFest. For submission guidelines and to submit to WordsFestZine click here: submissions@wordsfestzine.com THE EVENT WHERE: Marienbad Restaurant, Fireplace Room (upstairs) http://www.marienbad.ca/ WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 7th, 2015. Come early. Event begins at 8:00 THE FEATURED POET: Lucas Crawford OPEN MIC: Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader's list on the book table. It's first come, first served. COVER: By donation (in donation jar). Donations are our only source of income to cover expenses. RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who donates at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society.   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. The Sultry Summer Poetry Gathering at London’s beautiful Mykonos Restaurant on Aug. 16th, 2015, was enjoyed by everyone in spite of it being one of the hottest days of the summer in a terrace room with no air conditioning. Twenty hardy poets read to an audience totaling about thirty at the annual gathering of The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS).
. The normal London reading series at Mykonos, London Open Mic Poetry Night, regularly turns out substantially larger audiences, but the weather reports had predicted a very hot day, so it was no surprise that many people decided to stay home. The London Branch Manager had tried to obtain folding paper fans for everybody in advance, but none were available anywhere in the city, so free rental and real-estate magazines were supplied in their place and seemed to do the job for most of the audience . Thirteen TOPS members read: Carmen Falconi, Wayne Ray, Stan Burfield (London Chapter Manager), Fran Figge (TOPS President), Debbie Okun Hill, I. B. (Bunny) Iskov (TOPS founder), Keith Inman, Leona Harris, John Ambury, Nancy Walden, Roy James, Dunlaith O'Heron, and Carmen, a holocaust survivor. Carl Lapp was present but didn't read. . Additionally, seven non-members read at the open mic: Martin Hayter, Joan Clayton, Lorna Pominville, Kevin Heslop, John Nyman, Dorothy Mahoney, Laurie Smith. . Readers drove into London from all over SW Ontario just for this event, from Toronto, Newmarket, Windsor, Sarnia, Thorold and more. A Personal Note from Stan Burfield, London TOPS Chapter Manager & organizer of London Open Mic Poetry Night: WOW!!! From my point of view as co-host (with Bunny Iskov, TOPS founder), the afternoon certainly was a success. In fact it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. After a long life of serious shyness, this was the first time I have ever been totally calm in a gathering largely of strangers. It was the culmination of five years of self-therapy. Initially, I forced myself out into the community to attend Ron Stewart's great monthly poetry workshop, and when that became easy I tried to read to an audience, and, finally, for lack of a regular reading venue, I created one by organizing London Open Mic Poetry Night. That idea was sparked by a TOPS reading/open mic I attended in Sarnia. Moreso than attending workshops and reading in public, It was the organizing itself that did most of the work of ridding me of shyness. So, after three seasons of London Open Mic, here I am actually co-hosting this year’s version of the TOPS event I had attended in Sarnia that got me going on this course in the first place. And, by lovely coincidence, this event happens to be the first one at which I’ve ever been totally calm. It felt so good I had to keep myself from constantly grinning. Everything I said as co-host was warm and relaxed, the polar opposite of my tight fear at the first few events of London Open Mic three years ago. It feels like some huge coin has finally settled down on its opposite face. I definitely have Bunny Iskov, and the rest of the executive of TOPS, to thank for this, because I would never have thought of becoming a social organizer (“Are you insane!?!?”) had it not been for TOPS. A possible "Shy Poets Club" Preparing for the Sultry Summer TOPS reading, I thought of starting a Shy Poets Club. Socializing worked to rid me of my shyness; why wouldn’t it also for others? It would probably be a poem sharing club, but light on critiquing and heavy on socializing. In a group of shy people, no one is going to be judging other shy people negatively. Only supporting each other. Having suffered from a bad case of shyness all my life, I finally decided, on semi-retirement at 62, to try to reverse it by forcing myself out with others. I began by attending Ron Stewart's excellent poetry workshop, and eventually worked up the courage to read poetry before an audience, which I did twice at Poetry London events, a reward for having the poems workshopped there.
With no other reading events in London (except the Slam performance contests), a couple friends and I drove to Sarnia for a reading/open mic event put on by The Ontario Poetry Society (TOPS). On the road home, we mulled over the fact that there was no similar monthly open mic in the much larger city of London. I decided to give it a shot myself. And it worked. So I'm grateful to TOPS for giving me the idea. Even though the organizing initially drove my stress through the roof, 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 To someone with a long retail background, which consisted of the day-to-day attempt, over 18 years, to make a flower shop successful, it’s second nature to see ever-larger numbers as the big goal. And that’s a hard rut to get out of. So if 40 come to a event, it’s twice as successful as one that only attracts 20.
However, people keep telling me that the open mic’s success has nothing to do with size, but more with art, ideas, poets appreciating each other’s work, liveliness, life expressed, expression itself, a breakthrough of expressing one’s self, to others, being part of a community. And those are all good points. But this summer I’ve discovered a new guage of success. So far I’ve taken part in (organizing and/or reading) three very small open mics. Two of them consisted of a small number of poets essentially reading to each other. But in each case, something good happened. For instance, a young lady who was very anxious and initially afraid to read a poem she considered too “dark” was encouraged to read it anyway, and applauded afterwards for her courage. In these small events, unexpected communication can happen, at least with me the organizer. I and others have more time to help each other with unusual problems that might not otherwise be expressed. And so on. I came home from these tiny, supposedly unsuccessful events very satisfied. And with this new idea: If one good thing happens at an event, then not only was it a success but I could go one step further and say that the event had a purpose and now its purpose was fulfilled. For me, everything else that happened at the event became simply the things that were required for that good thing to happen. And that makes strong sense to me because when everyone goes home, most will go back to their carry-on lives, to some degree as if the event hadn’t happened at all. But that one person will be changed. From now on, I’m not going to worry so much about numbers, and instead try to become more sensitive to what’s happening, and maybe what needs to happen. Stan The next small event to look forward to is this Saturday morning, a poetry reading at the Mantis Eco and Arts Festival at Boler Mountain. We read at 11:00 am. If you’re into nature, as I am, you should enjoy it. http://mantisfestival.blogspot.ca/ Then, the last summer event I’m working on (organizing and hosting) will be Aug. 16 at Mykonos Restaurant, The Sultry Summer Poetry Gathering, put together by London Open Mic and sponsored by The Ontario Poetry Society TOPS, at 12:30 pm. There’s an open mic to read at, and you can get the idea of what TOPS is, and if joining would be of any benefit to you. http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Poetry%20London%2015.htm From The Ontario Poetry Society
& London Open Mic Poetry Night THE SULTRY SUMMER POETRY GATHERING Sunday August 16, 2015 12:30 p.m. Mykonos Restaurant 572 Adelaide St. North, London OPEN MIC will follow readings by society members Attendance: free Featuring Th Sat. June 6 – The Old East Village Street Festival is being held in conjunction with FRINGE. Many of the shows are on stage at the Palace Theatre this year. But the poetry will be on the street.
Three blocks of Dundas will be closed off. We will have a stage AND A MIC. A riser and tent (in case of too much sun or possible showers) will be provided. The three blocks of the festival are Dundas east from Adelaide as far as Rectory. Our readings will be about a third of a block east on the Western-most block: Adelaide to Lyle, on the south side, at 637, which is the building just east of the St. Regis Tavern. We could cool down and wet our whistles in there between readings, or in the new, fancy, organic Root Celler next door to it. I could phone when it''s time to come out. and read. (We will each read only about 5 minutes, taking turns till we've all read, then start over again. That way, the audience will remain excited aand hopefully stick around. We will begin at 1:00 pm and stop about 4:30. If you're interested in reading, email me (Stan): burfield@live.com. Or just come and sign up.  Andreas Gripp, one of London’s most well-known and liked poets, has decided to take “an indefinite hiatus” from the poetry scene.
In the announcement on his website, Gripp said, “After 23 years of writing poetry, I have decided to retire from actively writing, performing, and publishing my poems, effective June 7th, 2015. My latest books as well as my back catalogue will be available from the Harmonia Press website: http://harmoniapress.blogspot.com My thanks to those kind souls who showed an interest in my work and who offered support and encouragement along the way.”  Sat. June 6 – The Old East Village Street Festival. The Street Festival is being held in conjunction with FRINGE. Many of the shows are on stage at the Palace Theatre this year. But the poetry will be on the street. Three blocks of Dundas will be closed off. We will have a stage AND A MIC. A riser and tent (in case of too much sun or possible showers) will be provided. We will stop about 4:30. Beginning time will depend on how many poets we have. It sounds like fun. Email me: burfield@live.com
Fri. June 12th: The Friends of the Coves Subwatershed, a non-profit environmental organization in London, is hosting an open-mike night at the Elmwood Ave. Presbyterian Church at 7:00 pm. The goal is to gather a diverse group of artists to explore nature and the connectedness between people and their natural environment. Anyone interested in reading, email me: burfield@live.com Photo: The sign is one of the "Signs of the Times" placed on the Dundas corridor as part of the Old East Village Business Improvement Area. YOU CAN BUY THIS SIGN: It is a metal sign, and cost $55.00 plus delivery if you're out of town. Call Susan McElroy: 519-434-8109 susan@susanmcelroy.com  Sebastian Rydzewski is replacing Kenny Khoo, who resigned because he was finding himself called away on too many business trips on the first week of the month.
We will have Sebastian's first set of London Open Mic videos posted here tomorrow. Sebastian Rydzewski's family moved to Canada in 1991, and has lived in London Ontario ever since. His passion is digital media and computers, and has taken Computer Science studies at Fanshawe College. He is a self employed computer, media, and technology specialist and offers a variety of services to the general public of London and surrounding area. From web design to custom software solutions, video-graphing events/weddings to making your very own video DVD's, even home theatre design and setup, he can get the job done at most affordable rates. For a more in-depth look at the offered services, visit his website or give him a shout at the provided information bellow. Contact: srydzewski1@yahoo.ca Website: www.customprojectslondon.com(srydzewski@customprojectslondon.com) Phone: (519) 878-9395 Sebastian is also a co-founder of the web-academic institute of "Academics Today". Their main goal: "Our goal is to make higher education available to everyone on the planet." How: "Using the internet, students sign up for free, with video lectures, peer reviewed assignments, online tests, and optional certificate for course completion. Instructors are able to create their own courses for free, and provide them to the community. We call this structure neutron learning, as it is learning, without charge." Their website is in Beta testing, you can visit them atwww.academicstoday.ca and find out more. London Open Mic Poetry Night needs a videographer. If you have a video camera which can be held still on a tripod, and which has reasonably good sound quality, we could use your volunteer services.
You could use our tripod if you don't have one. You would simply have to turn the camera on for each poet, and then post the videos to our YouTube channel. What would be the benefit to you? We would definitely give you a letter of recommendation, if that might be of any help down the road. Your volunteer work would be a great service to the local arts community. If you're interested, or know someone who is, email Stan at burfield@live.com The Upcoming Poetry Events page of our website, as well as the version on the home page, will be discontinued after May, barring a last-minute stampede of protesters to the comments section below. So far, in the two years of its existence, no potential audience member has ever told us they have used it. Yet it's constant maintenance takes up a lot of time and energy.
This is part of our current streamlining process, which will hopefully allow this all-volunteer organization to stay in existence. If anyone would like to volunteer to keep it up, and thus join our little team, they would be very welcome. See the "Upcoming Poetry Events" page. |
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