Special Event: Summer Dreams "Comes Home" to Trout Lake!

Barbara Adler & Fang are this year's headliners at Summer Dreams

The biting humour of Barbara Adler's "Fang", is just one highlight of this year's Summer Dream Literary Arts Fest.

When you look at past rosters for the Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival, you quickly realize that the  "grassroots" used to describe it could easily be the grass of East Vancouver's Trout Lake,  the heart of the trendy neighborhood where many of the performers live and work.

Besides being only a few blocks away from the home of the city's and one of the country's oldest slam poetry venues, Cafe Deux Soleils and the Rio Theatre (which played host to a packed house for the finals for this year's Canadian Festival of the Spoken word), Trout Lake is a jewel in the neighborhood.

As in the past, the headliner for the event will be a familiar name to East Vancouverites, Barbara Adler and Fang. The accomplished spoken word artist cut her teeth at the local slam and has made a successful go of combining her poetry with her other passion, music.

This festival is not just slam based though. It truly lives up to its name of  a literary festival by having such literary greats as Joe Rosenblatt, Bryant Ross, Dennis E. Bolen, Daniela Elza and Heather Haley, just to name a few. There will be free workshops running throughout the day as well. 

For the festival to make the switch from it's long-time Stanley Park location is an important step for the festival's founder and executive producer, Bonnie Nish.

“Trout Lake has always been our ideal spot for the festival, “Nish states.
“While Lumberman's Arch obviously has a lot going for it too, East Van really is a huge centre for the city's writing scene. So many of our performers consider this (Commercial Drive) to be home, and because Pandora’s Collective - the non-profit literary organization which created and runs the festival – has put on so many events on the Drive, we can't help but feel like we are coming home as well.”

As one might expect, putting on a big event with 3 stages, a children's area, a market place and 90+ performers is a lot of work, so the more help the festival can have the better.  Volunteers are needed. It’s a great way to meet people and learn more about event planning and Vancouver's vibrant writing community.  Those interested can sign up on The website at www.summerdreamsfest.com.


For more information about the festival, including complete directions and line up, check out our website: www.summerdreamsfest.com or email srduncan@shaw.ca or call 604-788-8340

Literary: Van Lip

EVIL BOY GENIUS PRODUCTIONS

AND

NEW MUSIC WEST

PRESENT

VAN LIP: A NIGHT OF VANCOUVER SPOKEN WORD

SATURDAY MAY 17TH

@

CAFÉ DEUX SOLEILS: 2096 COMMERCIAL DRIVE

DOORS AT 7PM

SHOW STARTS AT 8:30

$10 AT THE DOOR

FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY

2008 VAN SLAM TEAM MEMBERS

SCRUFFMOUTH, RADAR, FAUST McKENZIE, ZACCHEUS JACKSON AND AL MADER

PLUS

SEAN McGARRAGLE, THE SVELTE MS. SPELT, CJ, BARBARA ADLER

JULIE PARRELL, RC WESLOWSKI

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

ARDATH WHYNACHT FROM HALIFAX

Contact rcarcee@yahoo.ca for more info

Or

604 215 9230

Special Event: Barbara Adler and Jess Hill

Friday, February 22nd
Cafe Deux Soleils
2096 Commercial Drive
9:00ish

Jess Hill: Folk songs with a dark twist and a gentle heart

Barbara Adler: Poems and stories, and tons of exuberance

Don't Be Sad Because It is Winter and You are Working Too Hard.

Come to Our Show !

Literary: Vancouver Poetry Slam Features Boston's Brian Ellis

THE VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM
REGULAR SEASON CONTINUES
@
CAFÉ DEUX SOLEILS: 2096 COMMERCIAL DRIVE
THE 1ST, 3RD AND 5TH MONDAY OF EVERY MONTH
THE NEXT REGULAR SEASON SLAM IS MONDAY JANUARY 21ST
FEATURING BOSTON'S BRIAN ELLIS

Brian Ellis has represented Boston's Cantab Lounge in both the National and Individual World Poetry Slam. His newest book, "Pharmakos," was published by the prestigious Destructible Heart Press. He currently lives in the Whitehaus, a large home filled with artists, writers, musicians and their various subordinates.

PLUS A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE FROM BELLINGHAM'S RYLER DUSTIN
THIS WILL BE ANOTHER QUALIFYING SLAM TO MAKE THE VAN SLAM PLAYOFFS THIS APRIL AND MAY FOR A CHANCE TO MAKE THE 2008 VANCOUVER POETRY SLAM TEAM
DOORS AND SIGN UP ARE AT 8PM
OPEN MIC AT 8:45
SLAM STARTS AT 9 O'CLOCK
STILL ONLY $5 TO GET IN
COME BE A JUDGE
COME SLAM FOR THE FIRST TIME
ALL POETS AND POETIC STYLES ARE WELCOME
604 215 9230 FOR MORE INFO
AND DON'T FORGET THE VANCOUVER YOUTH SLAM HAPPENS ON JANUARY 28TH FEATURING BARBARA ADLER
PLUS THE NEXT "ALT SLAM" IS MONDAY FEB 11TH
THE PAN AFRICAN SLAM FEATURING: BOONAA MOHAMMED

Music/Spoken Word: The Fugitives Release CD @ the Wise Hall March 9

Vancouverites Barbara Adler, Mark Berube, and Brendan McLeod are singer-songwriters, multi-instrumentalists, and award winning performance poets who have merged their diverse styles into one distinct mixture of poetry and song, backed by accordion, guitar, piano, banjo, and melodica. A group of road dogs, they have toured their unique combination of three part harmony, athletic performance poetry, and skillful musicianship, four times through Europe and twice through Canada since the group's inception two years ago.

Their recent performances include the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (Vancouver, BC), the German National SLAM championship (Leipzig, Germany), Festival Voix D'Ameriques (Montreal, Quebec), the Dylan Thomas Festival (Swansea, Wales), the London High Commission (London, England), and the Isle of Barra Poetry and Song Festival (Scotland).

They have two new albums due this year. One, a music/spoken word album engineered by John Raham and featuring members of the Be Good Tanyas, Po' Girl, TOFU, and the Breakmen. Their second album is a full length spoken word piece funded by the Canadian Council of the Arts Storytelling Project.

"I can see why they're jumping off the tables for you!" Sheryl McKay, North by Northwest CBC.

"The Fugitives are one of the most innovative, exciting, and accomplished groups of musicians and poets I have ever seen…the best show in fifteen years of the festival" - Off the Shelf Festival, Sheffield (UK)

"With superior instrumentation and creative lyrics, they are a band that demands your attention and leaves you begging for more" - Meredith Hambrock, Ubyssey, Vancouver

"Welcome to the land where lyrics and instruments are equals…you will absolutely love this band" - Satellite, Vancouver

"Poetry doesn't get much further from the library shelf than this" - Georgia Straight, Vancouver

"An experience certain to please both literary and musical audiences" - Vienna Literature Festival, Austria

"They are a show you absolutely cannot afford to miss!" - Drek Daa, Founder & Chair, Spoken Word Canada

"The Fugitives are a Sasquatch Marching band walking high wire across the Grand Canyon. At first glance, you expect it to all come crashing down, but upon closer inspection you notice they're flying, and scrutinizing even further, you realize you're floating too." - Randy Jacobs, Artistic Director, 2005 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

To get tickets to their CD Release Party (happening Friday, March 9th, at the Wise Hall, with the Breakmen) and ensure entry to the show (in case of a sell out) there are a few options:

a) Tickets are currently onsale at Zulu (1972 W 4th Ave.), Highlife (1317 Commercial Drive), and Scratch (726 Richards). They are a mere 12 bucks!

b) For even cheaper (10 bucks) you can send an email to Brendan at: eightmillionbrendans@yahoo.ca and he will bill you through paypal and reserve you a ticket at the door.

c) Or, you can catch them at Rime on Feb.24th or the Chutzpah! Festival (Feb.22-25) and buy a ticket from them in person. This is also only 10 bucks.

Check out their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/canadianfugitives) for their new music video for 'Haunted'. It looks fantastic! It will be playing at Festival Cinemas in the month of February to promote the CD release. Thanks to Randall Okita and Anthony Bocquentin, who had the vision for it.