lowry's Podcast

eMigrations Podcast 21 features a reading by poet Erin Moure. This is another reading from the On Edge Reading Series vault.

Erín Mouré is a poet and translator based in Montreal. Her 11th collection of poetry, O Cidadan (Anansi, 2002) is a troubled yet hopeful consideration on what "citizen" could mean in our era; it was a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person (Anansi, 2001, as Eirin Moure), her transelation from the Portuguese of Alberto Caiero/Fernando Pessoa's O Guardador de Rebanhos, was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the City of Toronto Book Award. A Frame of the Book, aka The Frame of a Book (Anansi, Toronto; Sun & Moon Press, LA) and Pillage Laud (Moveable Type Books, Toronto) both appeared in 1999; Search Procedures in 1996 (finalist for the Governor General's Award). Her 1988 Furious (Anansi) was awarded the Governor General's Award for poetry, and WSW (Vehicle Press, Montreal, 1989) received a QSPELL poetry prize. Moure's recent book of poetry, Little Theatres, won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and was also nominated for the 2005 Governor General's Award for English-language poetry. She has given talks and readings across Canada as well as in the USA, France, Spain, England and Japan.

This reading took place on Feb 15, 2007, at the Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design, as part of a Canada Council Sponsored Literary Reading series, On Edge, which is co-sponsored by ECI.

eMigrations Podcast 20 features another reading from the On Edge vault, a reading by novelist Francisco Ibanez Carrusco.

Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco was born in Santiago de Chile in 1963. Hisfirst novel Flesh Wounds and Purple Flowers: The Cha-Cha Years was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2001 and nominated for the Regional Commonwealth Prize in 2002. In 2004, he co-edited a volume of essays with Erica Meiners entitled Public Acts: Disruptive Readings on Making Curriculum Public (Routledge/Falmer). His first collection of short stories, Killing Me Softly/Morir Amando hit the shelves in January of 2005 published by Suspect Thoughts Press. His short stories have been included in Contra/Diction (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998), Best Gay Erotica 2000(Cleis Press), Of the Flesh (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2001),and The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica (Carol and Graff Publishers, 2001). Francisco teaches at Goddard College in Vermont since 2004.This reading took place on Jan. 18, 2007 at 7 p.m.

The On Edge Reading Series gratefully acknowledges the support of the Emily Carr Institute and the Canada Council for the Arts.

This is a podcast featuring a reading by Betsy Warland. Betsy is reading as part of the On Edge series at Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design. The reading took place on Feb 8, 2007.

eMigrations 18 is from the vault. I met up with David Odhiambo in Banff in August. He was in his own studio in the Layton colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts, working on his latest novel, The Lost Boy. We talked about his work, touching on questions of style and intention. David and I talked about the legacies of the 1990s identity struggles and the pressures he and others face.

eMigrations 16 features a reading/story-telling performance by Richard Van Camp. This reading took place at Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver on Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

The On Edge series gratefully acknowledges the support of the Emily Carr Institute and the Canada Council.

eMigrations 15 features a poetry reading by Garry Gottfriedson at Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. Garry is reading as part of the On Edge Reading series and launching his new book of poems, Whiskey Bullets: Cowboy and Indian Heritage Poems (Ronsdale).

Garry Gottfriedson was born and raised in Kamloops and he is a member of the Secwepemc Nation. He is a rancher, writer and educator who has written a number of books: In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (Theytus); 100 Years of Contact (Secwepemc Cultural Eduation Society), Glass Tepee (Thistledown); The Painted Pony (Partners in Publishing); and Whiskey Bullets.

This reading took place on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Garry is introduced by writer-educator Richard Van Camp.

The On Edge series gratefully acknowledges the support of the Emily Carr Institute and the Canada Council.

Myriam Chancy was reading at 7 pm on Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design + Media in Vancouver Myriam Chancy is a novelist and a researcher. Her first novel, Spirit of Haiti (Mango Publications 2003) was shortlisted in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean Region, of the Commonwealth Prize 2004, and her second novel The Scorpion’s Claw, was published by Peepul Tree Press, in 2004. Her critical works include: Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple UP, 1997), which was awarded an Outstanding Academic Book Award from the American Library Association); and Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers UP, 1997). Myriam was born in Haiti, raised in Quebec and Winnipeg, She is currently Visiting Associate Researcher, Center for Black Studies & Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of Black Studies, UC, Santa Barbara, 2006-2007. Her webside is www.myriamchancy.com The On Edge series gratefully acknowledges the support of the Emily Carr Institute and the Canada Council.

eMigrations Podcast 13 features a  reading by Paulo da Costa recorded on October 5, 2006. Paulo was reading his work at Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design + Media, in Vancouver (ECI).

This reading is the 3rd in the Fall 2006 On Edge Reading series, sponsored by ECI and the Canada Council for the Arts, with funding for Literary Readings.

More information about Paulo da Costa can be found at www.paulodacosta.com.

Thanks for Jean Rhoutier for recording the event and to Paulo da Costa for permission to broadcast this podcast.

On Tuesday, I had the privilege of hearing Henry Tsang speak about his work to Sadira Rodrigues and Jeremy Todd's Interdisciplinary Forums course at Emily Carr. Henry spoke about four pieces/projects: two installations of Chinook Jargon and translations, including recent banners created for the World Peace Forum in Vancouver in June; "Orange County," a four channel video installation featuring footage shot in Orange County, California, and "Orange County" China, a two-phase suburban development/gated community on the outskirts of Beijing; and his most recent work, "Olympus, 2006."

In an emailed invitation to the talk, Olypus 2005 is described as "an interactive new media video project that selects video clips based on information gathered over the internet and premiered in Torino, Italy during the 2006 Olympics" and which "depicts one man's journey in two cities hosting the recent and upcoming Winter Olympic Games: Torino and Vancouver." The interactive element of "Olympus 2006" comes from the fact that it responds to "changes in popularity of the Torino2006 and Vancouver2010 websites" by changing the order of clips (see Ciao da Vancouver - Henry Tsang www.onedge.tv).

What impressed me about Henry's talk, in addition to the obvious, depth, wit and scope of his work, was his decision to frame it within particular theories of social space and spectacle (DeBord, Lefebvre, Soja) and what I see as a somewhat uncanny return to question of industrialization, labour, trade and racialization that underpin the work, particularly this latest piece.

Thinking about the question of direct action raised by Ashok Mathur, about the way Henry might position himself and his work in relation to histories of direct action, the FLQ and Paris '68 being examples, I was struck by certain trajectories in the work viz. French thought, as well as a comment Henry made during his talk on the association between Torino and Fiat (Fabbica Italiana Automobili Torino), on the fact that alpine area around Torino was developed by the Agnelli family (of Fiat fame) as winter play ground for their friends.

This association reminded that me of one of the few moments in Henri Lefebvre's conceptions of Social Space/Everyday Life that has to do with his question of race, specifically his thinking about migrant labourers a Renault factory outside Paris. Lefebvre's notion that social space is a priori contradictory and contradicted and that each epoque produces and reproduces various spatial realities seems to me to be crucial to understanding the re-invigoration of nationalist discourses around the intersections of race, citizenship, and labour, especially in relation to the eruption of protests and violence in France in October and Nov 2005.

In the context of Vancouver and the run up to the 2010 Olympics, one is left to wonder about the links between the heavily industrialized sites of Europe (Italy and France) and the not-yet, never-quite industrialized spaces of BC. Moving from these colonial centres to a central colony, or at least its Western periphery, one is left to think about the Asian labourer both evoked and transformed (to athlete, consumer, location scout) in Henry's solo journey back into the terrain of BC's mountains.

Just a few thoughts to follow up on later, perhaps.

I caught up with Ashok Mathur at the Banff Centre for the Arts earlier this month, June 10 2006, and we sat down and talked about Ashok's work as a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Cultural and Artist Inquiry at Thomson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC. Ashok and I spoke about the end of English and possibilites for transforming literary and cultural studies. We also talked about his goals for the new Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada linked to his CRC. The music used in this show is Balancing Forces by Andrea from an album titled Words to Water. It has been downloaded from Pod Safe Audio (http://www.podsafeaudio.com/) and used with permission from the artist. It is licensed under Creative Commons License 2.0--Attribution, Noncommercial.

This is a talk I gave at Emily Institute for Art and Design in Vancouver on April 7, 2006. The focus is on my pedagogy, particularly in relation to teaching writing/composition, and my professional practice as a writer and editor. In addition to providing some sense of where I'm coming from, I hope that it might stand as something of rational for or in so way comment on these podcasts.