Literary: Kempton Dexter Book Launch @ People's Co-op Bookstore

Date: Friday, November 23rd, 2012

Place: People’s Co-op Bookstore

1391 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, British Columbia

Time: 7pm

No Charge

Join musician/playwright/storyteller Kempton Dexter for the launch of his first collection of short stories, "Mrs. Ceperly's Garden and Other Plots" at Commercial Drive's People's Coop Bookstore.

What people are saying about the book:

In these pages you will read of sex and death and their dance partners love and life set to an Elmore Leonard like libidinous strum and you will laugh at a little devil with gas. Kempton Dexter works the darkness to let a little light shine in.  

- Grant Shilling, writer, journalist, visual artist, and author of The Cedar Surf

            Dexter’s “plots” are more than points in the passage of time. With each plot are interactions often deemed to rude for contemporary narrative literature. If this was all he did, they might be, but they are not. Dexter's ability to braid the sacred and the profane makes this book something to behold.  - Michael Turner, poet, author, essayist. Company Town, Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer's Poem.

            In  these stories Dexter shows a keen eye for the intersection of nature and human nature. The complicated human heart and it's treacheries...beauty and fallibility in drama. - Jan Kudelka, actor, writer, musician and creator of  Janus/Janus and Circus Gothic. 

Kempton Dexter, a.k.a. Hi-rise Dex  grew up in Nova Scotia with a view of the Bay of Fundy from his bedroom window. He had his first art shows and theatre performances while studying biology at Acadia University. 

 

After living in Toronto and Vancouver Island he arrived in Vancouver and helped start the artist run center, the grunt gallery. Shows include Ya Work, Ya Eat , the grunt; Forest Art ,UBC research forest in Maple Ridge, Digby County Pastures, Matane, Quebec and Post Pop for Now People at the Helen Pitt Gallery.

He formed the Stellar Jays, a dance band in the mid 90's. A handfull of self-produced tapes and CD's followed including Other Women, Other Men and Dex and Nicky, a collection of duets with actor Nicole Robert.

His first efforts in theatre in Vancouver were through his affiliation with Glenn Alteen and the grunt gallery. In 87 he wrote the music and lyrics for his first Fringe production, Ornery Magee. In 89 he did the same for The Renter's Tale. In recent years he has been musical director for a number of fringe plays with Jacques Lalonde, including The Kenny Rogers Experience, One More for the Road, and The Lost Supper.

Kempton wrote and presented two plays in this year’s Vancouver Fringe.

He performs solo and with the country trio, Blue Lasso. He hosts a musicians gathering at the Prophouse on Saturday afternoons..

There will be booze, music from the author and special guests, friends and good conversation!

For more information contact Steve Duncan at 604-788-8340 or srduncan@shaw.ca.