I got the chance to do some writing “mini-consults” at Vancouver’s somewhat weather-damaged Word on the Street Festival today. At first sad that I would only be doing two, I ended up doing five, due to some late signing up / clerical confusion. The writers I got to talk with were great; so varied in style, it really gave me a workout in terms of attentive listening/reading and providing useful feedback. 3 of the 5 I did were ‘cold readings’ i.e. I didn’t get anything to read in advance. Super fun. I don’t know how well I did, but I was impressed by the writers and their ability to share their work with a complete stranger, let alone a moustached poet.
After that, trying to escape the rain, sat myself down with some hot tea in the poetry bus. Caught my boy Rob Taylor breaking hearts in his usual style, and Garry Thomas Morse who delivered an awesome maniacal performance.
Among the many booths, came across this cool thing that’s been started up called The Writers’ Room a literary program that provides one-on-one tutoring for at-risk kids, in a similar vein to what goes on at Dave Egger’s famous 826 Valencia (but without the pirate shop.) They’re looking for volunteers and I am very much considering being a part of that. I’ve totally missed working with kids since the art class drop-ins I used to do a long long time ago, and have wanted to do some volunteering that means something to me. We’ll see how that goes.
And then, very much like a surprise dessert at the end of a good meal, I came home to find that two of my poems have been accepted into the poetry friendly Contemporary Verse 2 magazine for their upcoming animism-themed issue. Nice. Thanks CV2!
Raoul Fernandes 