(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on July 11, 2007.)
Fringe festival event celebrates 5th anniversary in style at the Algonquin Theatre.
By Gillian Brunette
“Growth and more growth” is how Huntsville Festival of the Arts board member June Salmon describes the Poetry Café.
“We have growth in poets, talent and experience through the café and the community’s spirit. We also have growth in terms of venue. We started at Seven Main Café five years ago with eight participants and now we have up to 26 poets who have performed for us,” Salmon said.
Sixteen of those homegrown poets will take part in the event next Monday, July 16. All are well-known friends of the Poetry Café and recent anthology. All have been involved since the beginning.
The evening is also one of firsts: the first time it has been staged at the Algonquin Theatre, and the first time a major guest poet has been invited to take part, Salmon said.
The evening begins with readings from local poets. “One of the poets is Huntsville High School student Skyler Brooks, who participated in the Huntsville Festival of the Arts Grand Slam Poetry workshop,” said Salmon.
Following intermission, celebrated poet laureate of the City of Toronto Pier Giorgio Di Cicco takes the stage.
In addition to being a multi-faceted poet, Di Cicco is the curator of the Toronto Museum project and Centre for Global Cities and principal of Municipal Mind: Agents for the Urban Motive. He has authored 18 books of poetry, teaches at the University of Toronto and has just released Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City, a guidebook on civic aesthetic and the relationship between urban renewal, creativity and citizenship.
The evening concludes with an open mike with members of the audience invited onstage to participate in a great evening celebrating poetry.
Tickets for the Poetry Café are $10 and are available from the Algonquin Theatre box office, 789-4975, or online at www.algonquintheatre.ca.
Fringe festival event celebrates 5th anniversary in style at the Algonquin Theatre.
By Gillian Brunette
“Growth and more growth” is how Huntsville Festival of the Arts board member June Salmon describes the Poetry Café.
“We have growth in poets, talent and experience through the café and the community’s spirit. We also have growth in terms of venue. We started at Seven Main Café five years ago with eight participants and now we have up to 26 poets who have performed for us,” Salmon said.
Sixteen of those homegrown poets will take part in the event next Monday, July 16. All are well-known friends of the Poetry Café and recent anthology. All have been involved since the beginning.
The evening is also one of firsts: the first time it has been staged at the Algonquin Theatre, and the first time a major guest poet has been invited to take part, Salmon said.
The evening begins with readings from local poets. “One of the poets is Huntsville High School student Skyler Brooks, who participated in the Huntsville Festival of the Arts Grand Slam Poetry workshop,” said Salmon.
Following intermission, celebrated poet laureate of the City of Toronto Pier Giorgio Di Cicco takes the stage.
In addition to being a multi-faceted poet, Di Cicco is the curator of the Toronto Museum project and Centre for Global Cities and principal of Municipal Mind: Agents for the Urban Motive. He has authored 18 books of poetry, teaches at the University of Toronto and has just released Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City, a guidebook on civic aesthetic and the relationship between urban renewal, creativity and citizenship.
The evening concludes with an open mike with members of the audience invited onstage to participate in a great evening celebrating poetry.
Tickets for the Poetry Café are $10 and are available from the Algonquin Theatre box office, 789-4975, or online at www.algonquintheatre.ca.
