Poetrology

June 29, 2018   Free
Memorial Library, 1221 2 St SW
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Presented with
The Calgary Library, The Calgary Spoken Word Society

Artists
derek beaulieu * Weyman Chan * Audrey Lane Cockett * Kris Demeanor * Xam Eitsirhc * Malcolm Mooney * Martin Guderna * Micheline Maylor * Charlie C Petch * Mike Roberts * Zaire Sealy * Sheri-D Wilson

Surreal Stories from the Real World—Real Stories from a Surreal World

This will be an experience including many dimensions of poetry: Sound, Music, Visual Poetic Play & Poetry Hacking! This event is meant to create a space where the audience is invited to interact with poetry in unique ways—an event meant to inspire! Several emerging artists will be guides to take the audience through the experience.

Part I – Rooms of Inspiration

The audience will enter through the back doors into the lower level of the Memorial Library. The lower level of the library has several rooms and each room, will house a poet/artist who will create an hour-long presentation (in ten-minute loops). The audience will move from room to room and will be invited to create their own work from the inspiration the performers provide.

Upstairs there will also be ‘Rooms of Inspiration.’ The audience will be invited to explore the upper levels and one of the larger rooms will house, “Poetry Hacking.’

What is Poetry Hacking? Each of the Laureate Poets will submit a poem in advance. The poem will then be cut into smaller snippets line-by-line and placed into an envelope. The audience will be invited to choose an envelope and tape the pieces of the poem into the order they chose. The pieces will be photographed and shared on social media.

Part II – The Laureate Reading

At 8:15 approximately, we will invite the audience to join us in the main concourse where we will present ‘The Laureate Reading.’ All four poet laureates of Calgary will share their work. The poets will include the poem they submitted to ‘Poetry Hacking’ in the order they originally wrote it. This may propel the audience to see and hear and experience poetry in new ways as they are personally connected.

June 30, 2018   Free
Memorial Library, 1221 2 St SW
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Presented with
The Calgary Library, The Calgary Spoken Word Society

Artists
derek beaulieu * Martin Guderna * Micheline Maylor * Charlie C Petch * Sheri-D Wilson

We will circle for this discussion of poetry and surrealism—School of Thought style.

July 23 - 27, 2018
Memorial Library, 1221 2 St SW
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Presented with
The Calgary Library, The Calgary Spoken Word Society

This is a special weeklong summer intensive for youth, aged 15 - 19, who are interested in poetry, spoken word and slam. Youth will have the opportunity to work with mentors Sheri-D Wilson (Poet Laureate of Calgary) and emerging artist Audrey Lane Cockett, Monday - Friday at the Memorial Park Library.

Poetrology’s summer intensive for youth will encourage participants to explore the world, and themselves. We will focus on both writing, and performance skills through a series of games, exercises, prompts, and one-on-one direction.

This intensive will guide, inspire, and give tools to the youth attending. By the end of the five days each participant will have gained the skills to create and perform their own works!!!

This journey will build confidence, writing skills. On the last day, July 27 @ 4:00 PM, students will share their work to parents and invited guests at the same location.

Registration will open May 15, 2018            Capacity: 20 Students

The cost is: $125. (scholarships are available if needed)

Students will bring their own lunch.

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With most performances the audience buys a ticket, arrives at a designated time, is presented with a program, sits down in a seat…anonymous. They watch the show, decided if they like it or not, clap their hands and maybe they hit a restaurant or grab a beer on the way home.

We live in this world of like and dislike, right and wrong, good and bad, friend and unfriend…of polarity and making snap decisions or judgements, of what we like and dislike. Within the concept of poetrology, we are attempting to disrupt this formula or construct.

The audience will book a position. When they arrive they will be given a name tag, so they are no longer anonymous. The audience is invited to bring any art making tool they like. The “audience” to be part of the actual art show, by interacting with the art that they have come to see – in is highly participatory. They can take pictures with camera or phone, write poems, they can hear a line they hear and tweet it. They are invited to document the event to respond to the event in any way that they please, within the realm of creativity. We ask the audience not to respond with any polarity but with openness and objectivity.

After the event there will be a brief window in which the audience creativity will be sent to a designated platform (as provided by Sheri-D) and this will be part of the overall performance of the evening. Any artist who have been booked in the first layer are welcome to also submit to this “platform”