If you’re anywhere near Toronto, I’d live to see you!
Excited to be performing in collaboration with Bill Gilliam!
My reading is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets.
WELCOME to the Summer Edition of the Minstrels & Bards Soirée! In the warmth, conviviality and ease of the summer, come celebrate with us on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 in The Living Room at the Tranzac Club in Tkaronto/Toronto. Doors are open 5:45pm and we start promptly at 6pm.
We’ll enter a delightful Quantum universe of poetics and performance with our features extraordinaire, Penn Kemp, a multimedia poet whose voice is rhythm, and Bill Gilliam, a composer of experimental and new music. In guest spots, a range of innovative styles with Rocco De Giacomo, Wes Rickert, and Babar Kahn.
Poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication of poetry by Coach House (1972). She’ll be reading new work from P.S. (https://www.gapriotpress.com/shop/p/penn-kemp-sharon-thesen-p-s) and A Baker’s Dozen. Delighting in collaborative multimedia, Penn looks forward to performing with composer Bill Gilliam again, along with a version of the sound poem, “Night Orchestra”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98OEWklDcYY. It is on Incrementally, out from Angry Starlings August 18: https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp. https://youtu.be/98OEWklDcYY
Penn has edited many poetry anthologies, recently Poems in Response to Peril, with Richard-Yves Sitoski in support of Ukraine: https://www.rsitoski.com/poems-in-response-to-peril and https://shepherd.com/best-books/social-justice-women-and-the-environment. For service to arts and culture, Penn received both Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee and Platinum medals. The League of Canadian Poets acclaimed her as Spoken Word Artist of the year 2015, an award for lifetime achievement, as well as a Foremother of Canadian poetry and their 40th Life Member. She is on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, even MySpace. Updates: pennkemp.weebly.com, pennkemp.wordpress.com and https://pennkemp.substack.com/.
Bill Gilliam is a Toronto based composer / pianist who creates and improvises jazz and new music compositions blending contemporary harmony and jazz idioms into his unique style of acoustic and prepared piano playing. His recordings include “Outside The Maze” (2023) and “Light Through Dark” (2021) with Bill McBirnie & Eugene Martynec, “Counterstasis – Refracted Voices” (2019) with Glen Hall & Joe Sorbara, “Entangled Pathways” (2017) with the Gilliam, Milmine, Pottie trio, “Ensorcell” (2012, solo piano), “Memory Vision” (electroacoustic DVD), “Signposts” as well as “Spirit Matter” and “Urban Undercurrents” with the Bill Gilliam Ensemble.
Bill has performed and recorded with Penn Kemp and played with his different ensembles in many jazz venues and festivals. Recently he performed with his improvising trio Counterstasis and special guest Kathryn Ladano (bass clarinet) at the Open Ears Festival 2023 in Kitchener. He also released a new album “Outside The Maze” in May 2023 with Bill McBirnie (flute) & Eugene Martynec (electroacoustics).
Rocco de Giacomo lives in Toronto with his wife, Lisa Keophila, a fibre artist, and his daughters, Ava and Matilda. He is a widely published poet whose work has appeared in literary journals in Canada, Australia, England, Hong Kong and the US. The author of numerous poetry chapbooks and full-length collections, his latest, Casting Out (Guernica Editions) – on the reconciliation of the author’s secular lifestyle and their deeply Evangelical upbringing – was published in April of 2023.
Wesley Rickert is a writer, director & producer of no-budget art house films and has written & produced 5 arthouse features that defy easy categorization. Between film projects he is a performance poet, noise musician, DIY audio producer, visual artist and sculptor. His writing and sound poetry embraces the irrational, cherishes original experience and strives for personal transformation at any cost. He is a regular contributor to “Maintenant -A Journal of Contemporary Dada”, Three Rooms Press, NYC, has performed with the legendary sound poet bill bissett at the Poets House, NYC, The Players Club, NYC, & for Versefest, Ottawa. He was recently a featured reader at the Art Bar in Toronto and is the director of Liberty Manor, an informal and rural artist residency in the Thousand Islands dedicated to furthering all forms of challenging expression.
Babar Khan is a Canadian writer, poet, and art photographer who grew up partly in Paris, France and partly in Toronto. His poems have appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, Rampike, and Vallum, among others. His photographs have been exhibited at Month of Photography L.A. and on Lensculture. He has also featured multiple times over the years at the Art Bar, AvantGarden, Emerging Writers, and other reading series in Toronto.
Penn Kemp 