A mild February night with fiery words and virbant open mic

The February 26th edition of livewords was a great night with a full and appreciative house to hear Jenny Sampirisi (check out http://otherclutter.com/), Lara Bozabalian (check out http://bozabalian.wordpress.com/), and Robert Priest (check out http://www.poempainter.com/robertpriest/).

We had a vibrant open mic contest with 12 poets vying for the judges pleasure. Nicki Ward won over our judges with her original piece: “Found Album” which you can hear at http://nichola-ward.blogspot.com/2009/02/found-album.html. Thanks to our judges, Sonia Di Placido, Nick Drumbolis, and Tom Fiore.

Thursday Feb 26 livewords presented Sampirisi, Bozabalian & Priest

WORDS BY:

Jenny Sampirisi: Jenny
is a poet, prose writer and editor. She is the managing editor for
BookThug and facilitates the online concrete poetry journal, Other
Cl/utter. She teaches English at Ryerson University where she runs the
Ryerson Reading Series. She is also an executive member of the Scream
Literary Festival. Her first novel, is/was explores the flexible boundaries of language, media, and the body.

Lara Bozabalian:Lara
Bozabalian’s poetry was selected to be read for the International
Olympic Committee, during the 2010 host city deliberations (on
Vancouver’s behalf). She represented Toronto at the 2009 Individual
World Poetry Slam, and is currently working on a collection of poetry
to be published by Piquant Press. http://bozabalian.wordpress.com/

Robert Priest: Robert
is the author of fifteen books of poetry, 3 plays, 2 novels, lots of
musical CDS, one hit song and many columns for Now Magazine .   His
words have been debated in the legislature, posted in the Transit
system, quoted by politicians, and sung on Sesame street. AKA Dr.
Poetry   His latest book is: Reading the Bible Backwards (ECW)

† OPEN MIC CONTEST: Best Original Poem  – $50 Cash Prize

Contest judges will pick the winner.

@ Cervejaria, 842 College Street (just west of Ossington)
7:00 p.m. Doors Open
7:30 p.m. Open Mic Sign-Up
8:00 p.m. Performances Commence

Shout out to Jim Johnstone, Sandy Pool, Blair Trewartha, Aaron Tucker, Myna Wallin & Jenny Samprisi

livewords felt delectable hosting the Misunderstandings Magazine Issue 11 launch party on Friday, February 6, 2009 to a lovely crowd at Cervejaria in Toronto.  A shout out to Editor & Publisher Jim Johnstone! And to our readers: Sandy Pool, Blair Trewartha, Aaron Tucker, Myna Wallin and Jenny Sampirisi (stepping in graciiously at the last for Camille Martin).

Jim’s embarrassingly kind words can about the whole thing can be read at here.

And thanks to Dane Swan our skilled and sophistcated DJ for matching the music to the occaision.