"The Roving Iconist" by Bogdan Luca - Opening at LE Gallery in Toronto on June 24th, 2011

The Roving Iconist, Bogdan Luca's most recent exhibition opens on June 24th at LE Gallery in Toronto.

Here are some extracts from the invitation to the exhibition:

"The Roving Iconist experiences the world as a visual range where images of conflict, disaster, spectacle and entertainment become the basis of personal mythologies. 

In this space of possibility the Iconist encounters figures that interact with structures of movement which are usually only experienced as time intervals between destinations: bridge, tunnel, railroad. 

Bodgan Luca is a recent graduate from the Master of Visual Studies program at the University of Toronto. 

The Roving Iconist marks his second solo exhibition with LE Gallery."

THE ROVING ICONIST

Bogdan Luca

June 22 - July 17

Opening June 24, 2011,  7-10 pm

LE Gallery

1183 Dundas Street West Toronto, ON, M6J 1X6 
Director: Wil Kucey
Telephone: 416.532.8467 

From Bogdan Luca's secret laboratory

...to the gallery!

I'm hoping to post some images from this event in my next post.

Puddicombe Poetry Reading

I will be reading poetry at the  2011 "Puddicombe Poetry Reading".

The event is organized by Mr. Conrad DiDiodato, poet, poetry blogger and teacher from Ontario.

Mr. DiDiodato is the author of two blogs dedicated to poetry and poetics:

Word-Dreamer:poetics &

Word-Dreamer: blognoscenti sources

I am thrilled to be taking part in the "Puddicombe Poetry Reading"  & have been feverishly preparing for the event, whose aim is - in the words of its organizer -   "to address a uniquely Canadian rural poetics." 

carte blanche, Montreal and twitter poetry

Number 13 of the literary magazine carte blanche, edited in Montreal, is now on line. 

One of my poems -  Five twitter poems - is part of this number - and you are cordially invited to view it by clicking this -->link.


I was extremely glad to receive news of this poem being accepted for publication -
even more so after having read this article  by poetry editor Patrick McDonagh.
 

                                                                    

But let's broach for a second the topic of twitter poetry, which is nothing except poetry compressed within the space of 140 characters. 


A topic which begs the question: can this work, writing a poem with only 140 characters? 


And the obvious answer is, in my view: maybe.

Twitter offers the opportunity to write miniscule poems, filiform poems, ant-size poetry, unfinished haikus that can encapsulate spurts of words and images.

It's a poetry that is best suited for open ended poetry constructions - I think. 
It would be a bit more difficult to create a closed ended poetic text, but, it is, of course, within reach.

Here is my version of twitter poetry.

I stop here since it is getting very late.

@continuous_poem

The 2011 Griffin Prize Poetry: Heavenly Questions & Ossuaries....

...are the titles of the two books of poetry that have been awarded the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize.

Heavenly Questions by Gjertrud Schnackenberg is the winner in the International category &

Ossuaries by Dionne Brand is the winner in the Canadian category.

Here is a link to an article in The National Post ->link

The 2011 Griffin Prize Poetry - Shortlist Readings

The 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize winners will be announced later on today. 

Yesterday evening, the Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings took place in downtown Toronto in the Telus Center for performance and learning.

The Shortlist Readings began with readings from the 2011 international shortlist which included:

• Human Chain by Seamus Heaney (Robin Robertson read poems from this book, Mr. Heaney was not present at the ceremony)
• Selected Poems by Adonis (read by the translator of the book, Mr. Khaled Mattawa)
• The Book of Snow by  François Jacqmin (read by the translator of the book, Mr. Philip Moseley) and
• Heavenly Questions by Gjertrud Schnackenberg, read by its author

After the intermission a surprise: the French poet Yves Bonnefoy (b.1923) was presented with the Griffin Lifetime Recognition award - the address was delivered by Carolyn Forché.

The second part of the Readings included the Canadian shortlist, and the authors read from their books:

• Ossuaries by Dionne Brand
• The Irrationalist by Suzanne Buffam
• Lookout by John Steffler.

 Here are some images from the venue:

     
267 Bloor St. West, Toronto, where the  2011 Griffin Prize Shortlist Readings were held 

Irish novelist Colm Toíbín (right), one of the three judges for the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize arriving at the Shortlist Readings.

The event is about to begin: