Is it raining? Probably. Well, we can help warm you up with friendship and awkward moments and maybe some poetry. Join Dina Del Bucchia and Daniel Zomparelli to help launch their book Rom Com! A book made full of xoxoxo’s and ♥ ♥ ♥. This dream team of smart, sexy, brunette, West Coast poets of Italian descent have passionately co-authored an intelligent collection of poetry that both celebrates and capsizes the romantic comedy. How to tell if you are compatible with this book: Are you equally versed in literature and pop culture? Are you a film-savvy fan of contemporary poetry? Are you an academic with interest in literature and cultural studies? Are you in general a cool, sad person? This book might just be the sassy best friend you’ve wanted. talonbooks.com/books/rom-com

Dina Del Bucchia was born in the Trail Regional Hospital and grew up in the small village of Fruitvale, BC. She spent much of her formative years watching all manner of television and most of her working life has been spent in bookstores, both independent and big box. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She writes a monthly column for Canada Arts Connect magazine, and her writing has appeared in literary publications across Canada, and as art in Old Friends’ exhibition, Funny Business. She is a literary event coordinator and host, performed a one-woman show at the 2005 Vancouver Fringe Festival, and has appeared at comedy events around Vancouver. She has taught creative writing to children and teens at the Vancouver Public Library and as part of the Vancouver Biennale’s Big Ideas program. Del Bucchia was a finalist for the 2012 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She lives in Vancouver.

Daniel Zomparelli is editor-in-chief of Poetry Is Dead magazine and recipient of the 2011 Pandora’s Collective Publishers of Magazines Award. Zomparelli is also program coordinator for the Megaphone magazine Community Creative Writing Program, which offers free creative writing classes for low-income and homeless people. He writes for and works with several magazines across Vancouver, including Geist, Megaphone, Sad Mag, Granville Online and, formerly, Adbusters. Davie Street Translations is Zomparelli’s first book of poems.

Kevin Spenst’s Jabbering with BC
April 25, 2015
 
How many poets does it take to run riot over the city of Vancouver? Thirteen and that’s no joke! Yes, on April 25th to celebrate poetry month, poets of all serious stripes and extemporaneous styles will be cycling, running, dancing, transiting and making their way through ten different venues in the city. These award-winning authors will read their work at an artist’s house, six galleries (the Equinox, Monte Clark, Grunt, Hot Art Wet City, the Or Bookstore and Satellite Gallery), a Korean rice burger shop – Kobob Burger, the Vancouver Public Library and the Paper Hound Bookshop. That’s right! Jennifer Zilm, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Shannon Rayne, Jordan Abel, Mariner Janes, Matea Kulic, Ray Hsu, Raoul Fernandes, Elena Johnson, Margaret Bollerup, Ben Rawluk, Kevin Spenst and Bren Simmers will be reading their poetry with audiences young and old, suspecting and unsuspecting, poetry-loving or hating. We’re set the win the city over to the powers of poetry for our second annual poetry marathon. Click here for the map, where you can check out all of Kevin Spenst’s 50-venue poetry tour of the province.

An interview with Vancouver painter, poet, dancer, and “explorer” Christyn M Hall

MUSIC: “Lonely Organ” by Broke For Free
INTERVIEW, VIDEO & EDIT: Chris Bentzen

The latest group show from Phantoms in the Front Yard puts writing and painting on a collision course. Each artist in the collective has pursued at least one writer, to establish together a specific selection of words – a short story, poetry, lyrics … as a point of response for original art work. The result is an exciting new collection reflecting the group’s continuing dedication to realistic and detailed rendering, as pressed through various off-kilter processes of responding deeply to other artists’ written creations.

Sunday November 11 from 7pm
Guest Speaker on the topic of Text and Art
Jeremy Todd / Director
Jeremy Todd discusses his explorations of image/text relationships and his appreciation for the context and works within the exhibition. Many of the abilities ascribed to images and text can seem mutually exclusive – the arrest of time and descriptive language versus the activation of the visual imagination and durational narrative for example – and yet their interaction can also generate a plethora of insights concerning the authority and transparency of both. Image/text interactions are common enough within our everyday lives, let alone contemporary art (consider advertising and online social media). Do these combinations perpetually influence our understanding of things? How and why do they expand beyond the limitations of their parts? What questions are brought to bear upon our senses of self, meaning and value?

Jeremy Todd is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, writer, curator and musician concerned with the role of artists and intellectuals in society, the formation of cultural memory and technologies of the self. He is a faculty member of the Vancouver Film School Foundation Department, developing curriculum integrating art history, cultural studies and creative process. He was Director/Curator for the Helen Pitt Gallery ARC from 2003-05, and in 2007-08 acted as the interim Director/Curator of the Richmond Art Gallery. Jeremy also organizes grassroots collaborative events in Vancouver as part of his ongoing Not Sent Letters artist project (notsentlettersproject.com) while maintaining a studio practice and performing in the new music group Payday Millionaire.