The Raving Poets

Last updated

The Raving Poets was a collective of poets and musicians who held a series of live, weekly poetry with music events in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It ran from 2000 to 2010. [1]

Contents

Origins

The Raving Poets had several open mic ‘music and poetry’ precedents in Edmonton, but the actual first ‘music with poetry’ event happened in the summer of the year 2000.

That year, three of the ‘founding fathers’ were board members with the Stroll of Poets Society, an Edmonton poetry group that hosted two annual reading series. Mark Kozub was president, Thomas Trofimuk, [2] Volunteer Coordinator and Gordon McRae, Treasurer. The Board was tasked with finding ways to expand and revitalize the Society, which faced declining membership.

During the May 4th, 2000 Stroll of Poets board meeting, in keeping with the expansion mandate, three new "Subsidiary Roles" were created, Media Liaison, Liaison with other Arts Groups and Open Stage Coordinator. Though both Mark and Thomas were optioned for sharing the role of Media Liaison, it is the Open Stage Coordinator role that gave Mark the impetus to start up something completely new – with Thomas sharing the hosting duties with him.

The new reading series, Poetry Tuesdays ran through February, March, and April 2000. The Backroom Vodka Bar was used as the venue of choice in two of those three months. The ad of the March series ran, “Beware the Odes of March, hosted by Phil, the Cowboy Poet with The Art to Choke Hearts band.” Though Mark and Thomas read during the March series, neither were part of the ‘band’.

The real beginning happened when this ad was posted in the May 2000 Stroll newsletter under the heading "More Chances To Be Involved"

"The Alberta Beatnik (Mark Kozub) and Thomas Trofimuk are looking to host & coordinate a monthly ‘Open Stage’ event down Whyte Avenue, starting in June or July. (The goal is simple: get new members.) If anyone has a lead on a funky Whyte Avenue venue that might need the extra business (and might even pay the Stroll a small fee to boost it), call Mark Kozub at … ASAP"

“The Raving Poets” began as the name of a reading series, but soon came to be thought of as the name of the band, and later, the collective of poets and musicians who performed together on weekday evenings.

On March 23, 2002, Mark, Thomas and Gordon left the Board and the Society for good during the Stroll’s Annual General Meeting. From then on, their energies were directed solely toward the Raving Poets.

Founding Fathers

Notable Poets

Michael Appleby, Ryan Baier, Jocko Benoit, Joe Blow (Todd Anstead), Michelle Boudreau, Natalya Brettle, David C. Brydges, Anton Capri, Dawn Carter, John Chalmers (Revy Man), Christine Comeau, Tim Cusack, Adriana Davies, Corine Demas, Trisia Eddy, Bonnie Enes, Tyler Enfield, Kevin Feeley, Kathy Fisher, Delvina Greig, Corey Hamilton, Margaret Haugen, Jenn Heather, Cathy Hodgson, Michael Hogan, Alison Hurlburt, S.E. Ingraham, Philip Jagger, Wendy Joy, Chris Krueger, Todd Kuziw, Jefferson Lavender, Shelley Lawson, Gary Lee, Rusti Lehay, John Leppard, Mandie Lopatka, J.P. Lorence, Laurie MacFayden, [8] [9] Jan Mann, Aaron J. Marko, Paul McLaughlin (The Middle Poet), Kerry Mulholland, Nerissa, Ubaka Ogbogu, Nicole Pakan, Roy Picou, P.M. Pilarski, [10] Mary Pinkoski, Dan Poitras, Justin Poulin, Daniel Poitras,Monika Ptak, Ray Rasmussen, Jadon Rempel, Shima Aisha Robinson, Victoria Rohac, Kelly Shepherd, Patti Sinclair Adam Snider ,Kevin solez, c.t. staples, Suzanne Steele, Lara Thesenvitz, Mingus Tourette, Deborah Vos, Amy Willans, Francis A. Willey, Rosemary Wilson, Sheri-D Wilson

The Concept

The Raving Poets was conceived as an open mic poetry event with improvised musical accompaniment. As the jazz poet scenes in the 1993 Mike Myers movie, So I Married an Axe Murderer prove, it was not a new concept. What set the Raving Poets apart was the incredible variety of musical and poetic styles performed. From the wordsmiths, everything from Slam and hip-hop to erotica and nature poetry, with generous doses of politics, confessionals and rants. The musicians matched these forms with equally eclectic styles, from folk, rock and jazz, through ambient, experimental and other electronica.

Series

Venues

Recordings

The Roar

The Raving Poets created a festival, The Roar, [13] [14] which ran for two years, 2006 and 2007, between the demise of the Stroll of Poets “stroll” and the advent of the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

Related Research Articles

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the best volume of poetry published by a first-time poet. It is presented in honour of poetry promoter Gerald Lampert. Each winner receives an honorarium of $1000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ishmael Reed</span> American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, and playwright (born 1938)

Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is Mumbo Jumbo (1972), a sprawling and unorthodox novel set in 1920s New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Amirkhanian</span> American composer

Charles Benjamin Amirkhanian is an American composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of Armenian origin. He is mostly known for his electroacoustic and text-sound music. Performance artist Laurie Anderson praises his work: "The art of audio collage has been reinvented here... A brilliant sense of imaginary space."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Sutherland Fraser</span> British poet

George Sutherland Fraser was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Brown</span> Performance poet and singer (1940–2023)

Peter Ronald Brown was an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce. Brown formed the bands Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments and Pete Brown & Piblokto! and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also wrote film scripts and formed a film production company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Holman</span> American poet and poetry activist

Bob Holman is an American poet and poetry activist, most closely identified with the oral tradition, the spoken word, and poetry slam. As a promoter of poetry in many media, Holman has spent the last four decades working variously as an author, editor, publisher, performer, emcee of live events, director of theatrical productions, producer of films and television programs, record label executive, university professor, and archivist. He was described by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The New Yorker as "the postmodern promoter who has done more to bring poetry to cafes and bars than anyone since Ferlinghetti."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Bourne</span> Canadian musician (1954–2022)

William Sigurd Bourne was a Canadian musician. He won three Canadian Juno Awards, and was an eight-time nominee. Bourne's music incorporates musical elements from around the world, including aboriginal, African, Cajun, Celtic, country, delta blues, flamenco, folk, funk, gospel, reggae, and world beat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Gallery of Alberta</span> Art museum in Edmonton, Alberta

The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies an 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) building at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittorf, and B. James Wensley, although portions of that structure were demolished or built over during a redevelopment of the building by Randall Stout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Hawn</span> Canadian politician

Laurie Daniel HawnPC CD is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Canadian Air Force, businessman, and former federal politician from Edmonton, Alberta. He was the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre from 2006 until 2015. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence from October 10, 2007, until May 24, 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Crummey</span> Canadian poet and writer

Michael Crummey is a Canadian poet and a writer of historical fiction. His writing often draws on the history and landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Collier (poet)</span> American writer and academic

Michael Robert Collier is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripides' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Poet Laureate of Maryland. As of 2011, he is the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a professor of creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park and the poetry editorial consultant for Houghton Mifflin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Burt</span> American literary critic and academic

Stephanie Burt is a literary critic and poet who is Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. The New York Times has called her "one of the most influential poetry critics of [her] generation". Burt grew up around Washington, D.C. She has published various collections of poetry and a large amount of literary criticism and research. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker,The New York Times Book Review, The London Review of Books, and other publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hallé</span> Symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England

The Hallé is an English symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. Since 1996, the orchestra has been resident at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

<i>Longhorns & Londonbridges</i> 1974 studio album by B. J. Thomas

Longhorns & Londonbridges is a 1974 album by B. J. Thomas, released on Paramount Records, during the time when rights to the Paramount Records name were owned by Paramount Pictures. It is commonly misidentified as Longhorn & London Bridges.

The Poet Laureate of Texas is the poet laureate for the U.S. state of Texas.

CantoMundo is an American literary organization founded in 2009 to support Latino poets and poetry. It hosts an annual poetry workshop dedicated to the creation, documentation, and critical analysis of Latinx poetry.

The Alberta Literary Awards (ALA), administered by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, have been awarded annually since 1982 to recognize outstanding writing by Alberta authors. The awards honour fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children's literature. At the first public ALA Gala in 1994, the inaugural Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award was given to W. O. Mitchell.

References

  1. ↑ "Raving Poets". MG Creative. 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  2. ↑ Stepanic, Matthew (1 March 2014). "Shut Up and Read the Poem". Glass Buffalo. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Kozub, Mark. "Mark Kozub, About". Mark Kozub. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  4. ↑ Trofimuk, Thomas. "Thomas Trofimuk, About". Thomas Trofimuk. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Edwards, Randall (2014). "The 50 Words Project". The 50 Words Project. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  6. ↑ Edwards, Randall. "Randall Edwards, About". Randall Edwards. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Gravel, Michael. "Michael Gravel, Raving Poets". Michael Gravel. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  8. ↑ MacFayden, Laurie. White Shirt. Frontenac House, 2010, p. 6.
  9. ↑ MacFayden, Laurie. "Laurie MacFayden, Raving Poets". Spatherdab. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  10. ↑ Pilarski, Patrick M.. Five Weeks. Patrick M. Pilarski, 2007, p. 43.
  11. ↑ "Beatnik turns ringmaster". Vue Weekly. 8 April 2004. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  12. ↑ "Beacons for Anglo bibliophiles in the City of Light". Edmonton Journal. 2 Oct 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  13. ↑ "Edgy poets ripping strips with spoken word and sharpened wit". Vue Weekly. 20 September 2006. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  14. ↑ "Poetry Festival Gets Ready to Roar". Vue Weekly. 6 Oct 2007. Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.