I am a full range of emotions as this Poetry and Music Salons series comes to an end. The final salon at Palmerston Library Theatre was on June 24, 2017 after a 3 ½ year run. It began at a most wonderful gallery at Queen and Parliament, Urban Gallery, where I had a solo art show in 2014. Calvin Hambrook, the director of the gallery, asked me to bring people into the gallery to make them aware of its presence. So the wonderful Bänoo Zan and Philip Cairns each did a Salon and I learnt how to run an event. I organized, hosted and danced throughout one with Luciano Iacobelli and John Oughton in the Winter of 2014. After my solo art show was over, I missed Calvin and Allen at Urban Gallery, and they also missed me it turned out. Calvin called me in for a meeting in maybe March of that year and asked me if I would like to continue running the Poetry and Music Salons. Thus began a journey through 4 venues - three art galleries (Urban Gallery, the beautiful Charlotte Hale and Associates Fine Art, Photography and Design and the wonderful Mirvish Village - Markham House) and a large 120-seat theatre at my local library, Palmerston Public Library. I have been the woman-of-all trades – booking features, organizing the event, designing the flyer, creating a Facebook event, splattering the event everywhere on social media, hosting the salon, providing refreshments for the break, videoing, photographing, and editing that video which takes 12 hrs to 3-5 days to complete, and discovering what an amazing, giving, loving, hugely talented group we are. I want to celebrate everyone who has come out to share as a feature and as a spotlight on open mic. I am so happy that we have been able to come together for these years to share with and support each other as poets, writers, artists, actors, musicians to be everything that we can be.
I have had some teary times over the ending. These salons are so much work that I do not see continuing them in any real capacity. So there's grieving going on here, in my room, in my heart. Feel very blessed to have been part of the salons for their duration - so much love in our community, so much support for each other. Is what touches me very deeply, is what I hold dearest.
Here are photos of everyone who read or performed. Go to Google Photos to see the album (though, for names, look at the file names, as Google no longer offers an easy way to add captions to photos).
The video of my final Poetry and Music Salon Series:
direct link: June 2017 Final Poetry and Music Salon
In order of appearance:
1. Brandon Pitts 9:52
2. John Oughton 23:34
3. Wolfgang Dios 35:23
4. Kath MacLean 41:16
5. Stedmond Pardy 48:53
6. Tom Gannon Hamilton 55:54
7. August Henry 1:03:30
8. Valentina Assenza 1:07:35
9. Susan Helwig 1:12:31
10. Sharon Goodier 1:14:20
11. Irena Nikolova 1:19:16
12. Jeff Cottrill 1:25:56
13. Stanley Fefferman 1:34:16
14. Anna Gutmanis 1:42:12
15. Clara Blackwood 1:49:17
16. John Evans 1:53:20
17. Mikel BC 1:59:16
18. Charles Taylor 2:05:25
19. Alexandra Innes 2:12:11
20. Jennifer Hosein 2:18:14
Many thanks to John Oughton for the opening theme music and to Tom Gannon Hamilton for the closing theme music.
Videoed and edited by Brenda Clews
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