Introducing Dr Afua Cooper

A poet, performer, scholar, historian, and social and cultural commentator, Dr. Afua Cooper’s expertise in and contributions to the arts, history, and education were recognised when she was presented in 2015 with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

A celebrated poet she is the author of five books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Copper Woman and Other Poems. She has also recorded two poetry CD’s. Her poetry has a strong sense of memory, history, place, and spirituality. Further, Afua has published two historical novels, which have garnered Canadian and American awards. Her work in the creative arts has been recognised with the Premier of Ontario Award for Excellence in the Arts, a Governor General’s Award nomination, and internationally with the Beacon of Freedom Award (recently awarded for her book My Name is Phillis Wheatley). A founder of the Canadian Dub poetry movement, Afua Cooper was instrumental in organising three international dub poetry festivals between 2004 and 2009.

Introducing Buddy Wakefield

Photo courtesy of Luke Reid, 2017

Buddy Wakefield is a three-time world champion spoken word artist featured on the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, ABC Radio National and signed to Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. In 2004 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals thanks to the support of anthropologist and producer Norman Lear then successfully defended that title at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands against the national champions of seven European countries with works translated into Dutch.

An author at Write Bloody Publishing and an original Board of Directors member with Youth Speaks Seattle, Buddy is published internationally in dozens of books with work used to win multiple national collegiate debate and forensics competitions. Wakefield, who is not concerned with what poetry is or is not, delivers raw, rounded, disarming performances of humor and heart.

For full bio please see http://buddywakefield.com/

Introductions to Faculty members in Banff - starting with Tanya Evanson, Program Leader

So, I never got the opportunity to blog properly about this year's Spoken Word Faculty members at Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. Neither did I have the time to write an ongoing reflection of the program whilst I was in Banff.

I am now rectifying this, and over the next couple of weeks will be posting about the above.

To start off I would like to introduce Tanya Evanson, The Spoken Word Program Director



Tanya Evanson is a Montreal poet, performer and director of Banff Centre Spoken Word. She performs internationally, has published six artist books of poetry and four audio recordings including the latest ZENSHIP (2016). In 2013, she received the Golden Beret Award and was Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Recent work includes publication in Resist Much / Obey Little - Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Dispatches Editions 2017), More Caught in the Act: an anthology of performance art by Canadian women (YYZBOOKS 2016), Where the Nights Are Twice As Long (Gooselane 2015), and her book of poetry Bothism is forthcoming from Ekstasis Editions. Recent spoken word performances include Blue Metropolis, Suoni per il Popolo, Verses Festival of Words, Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Tasmanian Poetry Festival, Australia’s Story Fest and Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.

www.mothertonguemedia.com

Banff Centre Spoken Word Residency - Day 9

Tuesday, April 25

Recording studio sessions - Rice Audio Studio, 
Writing Circle 

Today was another icy cold day with plenty of snow.

Individual Studio time
I spent the morning completing the scripts for each of the Spoken Word participants to read from within my allotted recording studio session. I have decided to use a mixture of recorded audio and spoken word in my performance on Saturday evening. I have developed the text that I wrote in response to the vulnerability that I felt on the first day in the Opening Circle. I believe it will work well, given the context of the residency, to begin my performance with a mixed audio track of the different participants vocalising their insecurities and fears. This will be followed by me reading the text, which will then lead into the concluding audio track consisting of the participants vocalising sounds and words of support and reassurance. Having collected lots of recordings from participants over the course of the residency, I have now chosen the sounds that i want each person to say, but will record it higher quality in the sound booth. It has been quite a mean feat arranging the recording session schedule, but I've now got the hour planned well.



Recording Studio Session
The recording session went well and the time flew by! Now I have the task of editing all the recordings into the tracks to be played for the performance.



Writing Circle
In the evening I attended the Writing Circle group at the Library. One of the exercises that we did was to take different lines from different existing poems to form a new poem. We could also take a line from an existing poem and then do our own creative writing from this. At the event I met other artists on different programs at Banff which was interesting.

Banff Spoken Word Residency - Day 8

Monday, April 24 

Workshop 6, Led by Janet Rogers
WHAT CAME FIRST? 

Workshop 7, Led by Buddy Wakefield 

DON’T FAKE CRY

Individual Meeting - Buddy Wakefield

Workshop 6, Led by Janet Rogers
WHAT CAME FIRST? 

In this workshop Janet Rogers shared the evolution of her media poetry from page to screen and the possibilities beyond. I gained a greater understanding of literary and media processes and where multi-media projects can live. Janet shared the possibilities that exist between literary, media and performance. She showed us how one piece of work exists in print, as a spoken performance and as an audio track on a CD, and we compared the effect that these different formats had on the work.

Workshop 7, Led by Buddy Wakefield
DON’T FAKE CRY 

In this workshop we each presented a performance piece that we would appreciate feedback on. Buddy provided in-the-moment coaching and feedback on our presentation and performance.


Individual Meeting - Buddy Wakefield

Buddy and I discussed my work for the forthcoming performance at the Spoken Word Flash Forward event. I had changed the tense from 'you' to 'I', and Buddy agreed that this made it seem a lot more genuine.
He mentioned that my writing often relates to 'moments' in time, and that he could imagine them becoming part of some more extended writing such as a novel.

Banff Spoken Word Residency - Day 6

Saturday, April 22
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Roundtable on creativity, education, applying for grants
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm - Workshop 5, Led by Tanya Evanson 

Roundtable on creativity, education, applying for grants

This was an opportunity for us to ask questions about any spoken word related topics. 

Workshop 5, Led by Tanya Evanson 
SONIC SALON - We were each asked to bring a short excerpt from our current project to share in an intimate performance setting. There was physicality, vocalizations, mic tech, stage possibilities, critique, feedback loops, storytelling arcs, musings, and bravery!

Tanya shared some very useful advice about nervousness, body language, and technical issues such as microphones.

Banff Spoken Word Residency - Day 5

Friday, April 21

10:00 am - 11:00 am - Recording Info Session  
11:00 am - Group Photo - Shaw Amphitheatre
4:30 pm - Faculty Show Tech Check
8:00 pm - RE:QUEST Faculty Show 

Recording Info Session  

We began with an introduction to the sound technicians and the sound room that we would be using for our recording session, and were able to ask questions about these sessions.

Group photo

Elk Adventure!

Audrey Lane, David and I took a walk to Bow River to do some sound recording. We were fortunate enough to witness a couple of elk affectionately playing with each other, rubbing their antlers together and making an incredible sound. After watching them for a long time, we crossed over the river to explore the ice and then saw a larger group of elk being herded away from the bridge and across the river towards us. They walked elegantly in pairs through the water and acknowledged us as they walked past. It was incredible!









RE:QUEST Faculty Show 

The four Spoken Word Faculty Members performed in the RE:QUEST Faculty Show 

Afua Cooper



Janet Rogers



Buddy Wakefield



Tanya Evanson



This was my first experience of a Spoken Word event and I was amazed at the variety of performances given by the four artists. Janet's use of a soundtrack and props opened my eyes to how I could integrate more of my visual art background into my performances, as did Tanya's use of props. I particularly enjoyed Tanya's text about her Dad's gumbo! I was given confidence by Afua Coopers reading of some of her texts because I saw it was still possible to make a meaningful connection with the audience when reading from notes. It did not take away from her performance. Buddy was accompanied by a piano, and it was very interesting to see how this simple addition of a beat added to the words that he was saying. It was a truly inspiring evening.