Ashes, Paper & Beans: 25 Jan 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Happy Robert Burns Day!

In Sept 2011, the Burns statue on The Green in Fredericton was re-dedicated with pomp and ceremony including several bands. The above photo taken before Rabbie was unveiled.

To start today's APB episode, in memorium for Wolastokwiuk elder Gwen Bear who passed away unexpectedly this past weekend, I play the legend of "Koluskap and the Giant Beaver" as told by Gwen Bear.

Going Scottish now:

Joe Blades & Biff Mitchell on F'ton affirs, the trails, & Robert Burns.

Hamish MacDonald: A ode to commemorate the opening of the first international robert Burns school.

Trail of Poems: the exhibit installation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—January 19, 2012

TRAIL OF POEMS LEADS TO THE CHARLOTTE STREET ARTS CENTRE

Fredericton poet–artist, Joe Blades, wears a Trail of Poems in the Charlotte Glencross Gallery, on his journey towards becoming a man of letters. The Charlotte Street Arts Centre is pleased to host Blades as writer-in-performance during his upcoming solo exhibition that will feature large-format photo-based works, along with text-based and mixed media artworks. Blades’ work is presented in partial fulfillment of a Master in Education degree in Adult Education at the University of New Brunswick.

Join us for the opening reception of Trail of Poems on Thursday, February 2 from 5–7 pm, where Blades will give a free poetry reading to launch his six-week series of onsite activities. Trail of Poems addresses Blades’ research questions that consider his artistic oeuvre and the path he has created to arrive at where he is today. Blades invites the public to visit both the Charlotte Glencross Gallery at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre and Room 145 in Marshall d’Avray Hall (UNB), where his works will be displayed concurrently in order to literally and metaphorically connect the dots, pebbles, or breadcrumbs of his art and education journey.

For over thirty years, Blades’ artist life and its continuing output of words and images have led him to his current engagement in arts-based research in adult education. He has exhibited hand-bound book works, photographs, mixed media pieces, and objets d’art in group shows across Canada and Europe. “Joe Blades has become a Fredericton landmark, and we’re extremely pleased to support his work in this way,” says WhiteFeather, Executive Director of the Charlotte Street Arts Centre.

Join us at the Charlotte Glencross Gallery to understand the importance of one’s own reflection on life and where that can lead, through art. All are welcome to attend the opening reception and to return to visit Blades during his performance residency. The exhibition will run until March 15, 2012.

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Media contact: Laura Perry, Communications and Outreach Intern, 454-6952 or charlottestreetartreach@gmail.com
or
WhiteFeather, Executive Director, 454-6952 or director@charlottestreetarts.ca

--
The Charlotte Street Arts Centre opens the doors of creative expression to all.

732 Charlotte Street, Room 200
Fredericton NB E3B 1M5
506.454.6952 | office
506.454.6956 | fax
506.238.5402 | cell
www.charlottestreetarts.ca

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 18 January 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Changing landscape of documentary filmmaking: (moderator: Rachel Bower), Greg Hemmings, Rob Turgeon, Paul MacNeil (National Film Board of Canada).
Recorded in the Industry Series of the Silver Wave Film Festival, Fredericton, NB, 4 November 2011.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 11 Jan 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Lorna Drew Maltese Poodle book launch (recorded 22 Sept 2011 @ Westminster Books, Fredericton).

Los puentes del Rio San Jaun/Bridges over the Saint John River (Broken Jaw Press) book launch by editors Nela Rio and M. Travis Lane with contributors Lynn Davies, Jo-Anne Elder, Sophie M. Lavoie, & Joe Blades (recorded 22 Sept 2011 @ Westminster Books, Fredericton).

John Terpstra & Bart Nameth: "Beach".

Catherine Kidd & Jack Beetz: "Sea Peach".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 4 January 2012

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

The beginnings of Acadian Literature:
Jo-Anne Elder (moderator), Diane Legere, & Rose Despres

Michael Crummy: "Rust"

New Year's Eve

snow and ice pellets before dawn
red long underwear and wool socks
krauch's smoked atlantic salmon
a warm warm sweater
poetry and translation discussion
an exchange of books
downhill in freezing rain
a fit of sneezing
strong enough to stop me
a pan of sauteed scallops
an atlantic lobster dressed in red
a growler of picaroons best bitter
post-"be..." research foiled
by internet erasure–revisioning
by the in-control powers
of denial and distance
as canada's national blue-wrap
stretches its inner whiteness
in its occupy increasingly
questioned by other informal
grassroots occupy movements
camped out in the cold
while the bums on the plush
celebrate themselves
their control and holding on
to the end of the year
and unknown futures
of one and all …

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 28 Dec 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Skaugnir Holmgang Trio: "Three Viking Ships (came sailing in)"

Lord Torvald Torgarson: "Freya's Wedding"

Sean Virgo: "Delivered by Hand"

Jocelyne Verret: "Memramcook"

Beverly Matherne: "Le bles du tabac / Tobacco Barn Blues"

Skaugnir Holmgang Trio: "Deck the Halls (with skulls of Saxons)"

Joe on Literary Landscapes (CKCU)

Today, tonight, poet Joe Blades is the guest on Literary Landscapes. He will be interviewed by Christine McNair, and will read poems from Casemate Poems (Collected) (Ottawa: Chaudiere Boooks, 2011).

Literary Landscapes blog archive at cartywheel.wordpress.com.
Co-hosts Christine McNair, Bardia Sinae, Kate Hunt, and Neil Wilson.
Thursday, 6:30-7:00 pm (ET/EDT).
CKCU, 93.1 FM in Ottawa.
ckcufm.com everywhere.

winter solstice 2011

west chezzetcook eastern
shore nova scotia dawn in
half an hour orange–yellow
golden glow on eastern horizon
a few lavender–burgundy
clouds and frosted everything

even frozen puddles
of hillside trickle
saltmarsh grasses
mossed apple trees
spruce and mountain
ash sprays of red berries

and there is a pheasant under
an apple tree eating seeds

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 14 December 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Hilary Peach: Suitcase Local CD.

bill bissett: "Opening Chant"

Maggie Estep: "Sex Goddess of the Western Hemisphere"

Catherine Kidd" "The Walking Man"

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 7 Dec 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Evalyn Parry: "14 (for December 6)"

Catherine Hunter (w/ the weakerthans): "Rush Hour"

Sheri-D Wilson: "Crow Fusion"

Leanne Averbach: "The Birds of Sarajevo"

Ahdri Zhina Mandiela: "Canefields"

Queenie: "Perfect Road"

Tanya Evanson: "Turkish Coffee"

Place poem: An exploration

After my 14 October 2011 presentation on the two-person panel, with Jenn Pazienza, of "Poetry and place: The social significance of the mythic imagination in art and education", in Creative Essentials: 2011 National Conference, Canadian Society of Education through Art. Fredericton, NB, in mid October, Pippa Dean-Veerman and I started a conversation on writing poetry that this blog post continues.

Pippa asked me if I help her on how to get her students to write poems in the moment of exploration of the land, with the immediacy of seeing one's face reflected on a water surface—puddle, stream, lake—rather than with a removed, abstracted, reflective writing exercise in the classroom, or as homework, at some later time.

I said to her that most of the poetry in my recent books—Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books, 2011) and Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010)—was written in public artist residencies, on the spot, mostly with a manual typewriter, with the immediacy of an artist–journalist, or an explorer–scientist writing fieldnotes in my journals later sourced, as in from the book that doesn’t close (Broken Jaw Press, 2008). I said that I wrote about how I write situational poetry in the afterword to my out-of-print Casemate poems (Widows & Orphans, 2004).

What came to mind as a possible tool, or device, for me to examine on how to write a "how-to write a place poem" is Yoko Ono's instruction poems in Grapefruit, first published in 1964. I just happened to witness a not-scheduled performance of her "Cut Piece" in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, by a group of fellow Ceative Essentials conference participants. I knew "Cut piece" from its inclusion in the play The Yoko Ono Project: with instruction poems, music and other texts by Yoko Ono by Jean Yoon, that my Broken Jaw Press published in 2002.

My photo (2011) of the participants posed for a photograph after their performance of Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece".

Later that day I attended a paper presentation by Maria Ezcurra, a grad student at Concordia, who discussed "Cut piece" and the work of two other women artists in the context of her own textile artworks. Maria didn't know of Jean Yoon's play.

Here are two attempts by me to write an instructional "place poem":

place poem

be somewhere
be aware
write your senses
write your emotions

step away from the poem

[repeat]

place poem 2

stop where you are
where are you?
write where you are

Fredericton Crafters' 10 Dec Sale

Joe Blades will be here with both Maritimes Arts Projects Productions and Broken Jaw Press stuff: hand-made artist books, note cards, objet d'art, books, books & more books … including his newest poetry books Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions), and Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books). Fredericton's Broken Jaw Press has poetry, fiction, drama local history, and art books by many New Brunswick authors plus authors scattered across Canada and beyond.

Most of the books are in English but many are in Spanish & English; some are in Spanish & French; in German & English; in Spanish, English & French; in Serbian. Fredericton's revue ellipse mag is in even more languages: the newest issue is a collection of Brazilian fiction and poetry in Portugese, English & French.

Help build cultural community bridges by getting a copy of Los puentes del Río San Juan / Bridges over the Saint John River, a Capítulo de Fredericton de la Academia Iberoamericana de Poesía antologia featuring Canadian poetas / poets—Hugh Hazelton, Nela Rio, Lady Rojas Benavente, Julio Torres Recinos, Joe Blades, Lynn Davies, Jo-Anne Elder, & M. Travis Lane; traductores al inglés—Hugh Hazelton, Elizabeth Gamble Miller, Edith Jonsson-Devillers, & Alicia Zavala Galván; and translators into Spanish—Natalia Crespo, Gabriela Etcheverry, Hugh Hazelton, & Sophie M. Lavoie. Nela Rio & M. Travis Lane, editoras / editors.

"This snowman has bones."
"No, it doesn't."

But Bones of the Magus will be piled on the table with author Tristis Ward in attendence to autograph copies.

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Exhibitors/vendors:
Louise Chapman - Wax Art, Photography, Painting
Tara Francis - Porcupine Quill Work, Hand Dyed Silks, Acrylic Painting
Melanie Mitchell Designs - Silk and Silk-Velvet Scarves, Screenprinted Pashminas, Silk Buttons
Jennifer Krueger's Estey Creations - Watercolour, Collage and Acrylic Artist
Donna Nutter's By Donna - Beeswax Candles and Chainmaille Jewellery
Vivian Nelson - Photography Prints, Calendars, Gift Cards
Kyla Jardine's Button's Corner - Rag Wreaths, Fleece Blankets, Sewn Items for Children
Ginette Areseneault's Yarn It - Crocheted Baby Wear, Adult Winter-wear and Home Essentials
Mary Forbes and Debbie Crouse - Quilted Totes, Wall Hangings, Runners
Neil Cole's Unit-tee Designs - Screenprinted T's and Pinback Buttons
Martha Hills' Hills Pottery - Mugs, Plates, Trays and Ornaments
Herb Page Blacksmithing - Picture Frames, Wall Hooks, Games, Candle Holders
Maureen Williams & Sheri Legacy, Two Women and Their Soap - Soaps, Lotions, Balms
Jennifer Whelan of Savi Jewelry - Sterling Silver Jewellery
Bronwyn Gallagher Textiles - Sleep Masks, Woven Scarves
Tess Feeney's Soulflower Herbals - Herbs, Teas & Spices, Perfumes, Salves, Soaps
Megan Billings Pottery - Pottery
Joe Blades' Maritimes Arts Projects & Broken Jaw Press - Handbound Books, Poetry, Notecards
Delica King's Oh!Leander Clothing and Design - Dresses and Shifts from Cotton Jersey
Rachel Greenwood Pottery - Pottery
Dora Boudreau's Atlantic Pewter and Glass - Pewter Jewellery, Ornaments, Housewares
Sabrina Edwards' Oracle Design Studio - Dyed Silk Scarves, Jewellery, Greeting Cards, Pillows
Erin Hamilton and Angela Black - Wool Soakers, Owlly Ornaments, Cards, Handbound Books
Caleigh Mugford - Shibori Scarves, Belts, Stone and Steel Jewellery, Ink Drawings & Mandalas
Sarah Smith-Stewart's Awesome Possum Accessories - Hair Bows, Barrettes, Bow Ties, Hats
Sarah Smith Stewart's Beadnik - Silver Plate, Sterling, Copper, Hemp Jewellery
Amy Sullivan's Amylaloon Pottery - Pirate Mugs, Monster Jars, Garden Sculpture, Ornaments
Kent Jensen's KVHJ Designs - Upcycled Fabrics and Silkscreens, Ties, Pillows, Scarves
Amber Cober Glass - Housewares, Ornaments, Jewellery
Cynthia Ryder Art and Jewellery - Sterling Silver& Stone and Upcycled Jewellery and Art Cards & Prints
Chelsea Walsh, Tracy Molyneux of Produce it Elaborate - Sterling Silver and Beaded Jewellery
Nate Miller, Emanate 7 Productions - Music performer, recording, production, CD's

Day without Art

1 December
International AIDS Day
Day without Art

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 30 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 30 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Jeff Ferrell: Empire of Scrounge [talk recorded at St Thomas University, Fredericton, NB on 30 September 2011 at the annual Qualitative Lecture of the Atlantic Centre for Qualitative Research and Analysis.]

Evalyn Parry: "14 (for december 6)".

Mary Elizabeth Grace: "Bootlegging Apples on the Road to Redemption".

tanya evanson: "I am not Together".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 23 Nov 2011

blog post 1000!

First real snow of the heating season show ...

Feature is a colloquium lecture, "In search of Byzantium" by Theodore Christou, Faculty of Education, UNB Fredericton [recorded 29 Sept 2011 in Marshall d'Avray Hall]."

Montreal poet Hugh Hazelton: "Emergency

Found photo du jour

This blog's post #999.

Found at 3:56 pm, 20 Nov 2011, between the sidewalk and parking lot at 123 York Street, Fredericton, NB, beside the building housing the Multicultural Association of Fredericton and Caribbean Flavas restaurant.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 16 November

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Greg Marquis: "Anglophone New Brunswick's Folk Music: Old Time and Country Music in the 20th Century" [recorded 1 Nov 2011 @ Atlantic Canada Studies Seminar Series, UNB, Fredericton].

Eliz Robert: "Between the Covers".

Phlip Arima: "Human Drag: Take Thirty-Two; Punk Got Stomped; Survival of the Fittest".

Hugh Hazelton: "Wordwork".

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Cynthia Taylor's "Art and the After-Life (... and there is only the dance")" address at the 2011 National Conference of the Canadian Society for Education through Art, Fredericton, NB.

Australian poet Robin Rowland from her CD Off the Tongue with music by Rose Bygrave: "Things of stone and wood", "Hunger", "Venice", "Things you gave me", & "Everything's turning".

Radio Free Vestibule: Kevin and God.

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 2 Nov 2011

Ashes, Paper & Beans: 9 Nov 2011. Host: Joe Blades. CHSR 97.9 FM, www.chrsfm.ca Fredericton, NB.

Live interview with emerging Fredericton, NB filmmaker Ryan O’Toole and Jim Lavoie, Publicist for the 2011 Silver Wave Film Festival.

+ a snippet from Dire Straits’ “Skateaway”.
The Wordburglar: “Welcome to the Props Department”.