INKSLINGERS – October 10th – Get Your Poetry On!
WRITE ● CRAFT ● READ
NEXT INKSLINGERS NIGHT: THURSDAY October 10th, 2013
Inkslingers is delighted to announce that this month’s guest host for our Workshopping segment will be Valentino Assenza! Read more below.
INKSLINGERS offers a poetry evening (2nd Thursday every month) at the ever-gracious-to-poetry Black Swan Tavern – 2nd floor. This evening is designed to get poets and aspiring poets all writing, revising, and performing..
WRITE
The first hour (beginning at 7:00) will consist of writing exercises facilitated by Sue Reynolds designed to give you an hour to write poetry then-and-there. Bum in chair. Engaged and present and productive. This event is open to anyone as long as they have come to write. Bring a pen and paper.
Sue Reynolds has been leading writing workshops in Canada and internationally for 15 years. Many poems and short stories written in exercises with Sue have gone on to literary publication and to win prizes in competitions. (Recently, a short story begun by a participant in Sue’s Sanctuary won the $1000 Amprosia prize and one of the participants in the Novel Approach course she taught with James just signed a 2 book deal with Simon and Schuster for the project she wrote in that course). The costs of Sue’s workshops run between $80 to $300 per day, but she is leading these exercises gratis because she believes that much of the best poetry happens in that energy of writing community.
CRAFT
The second hour (from 8:10 to 9:10) consists of workshopping poems that writers have revised to the place where they now want input from fresh eyes.
Bring 15 to 20 copies of a poem (no more than 30 lines) that you want to present for feedback. Each participant will have a maximum of 7 minutes to both read the poem and receive feedback on their work from those in attendance who wish to make constructive comments. (Further feedback may be offered in writing on the submitted copies).
We normally review 7 or 8 poems during this hour.
The Craft portion of the evening is facilitated by a guest facilitator. We’re delighted to announce that Valentino Assenza is our guest host for October.
Valentino Assenza has been writing and performing his poetry in Toronto for nearly two decades. He has four chapbooks of poetry, his latest entitled Make Our Peace With Rattlesnakes from LyricalMyrical Press. His individual pieces have appeared in various journals and literary magazines such as Descant, Mic Check: An Anthology Of Canadian Spoken Word Artists (Quattro Books), and Labour Of Love Magazine.
Valentino was a member of the Toronto Poetry Slam team in 2009 and 2010, performing in both the Canadian Festival Of Spoken Word, and the National Poetry Slam in the US. For six years Valentino ran his own poetry reading series Cryptic Chatter at the Renaissance Cafe on the Danforth. Valentino sits on the committees for both the Toronto Poetry Project, and the Art Bar Poetry reading series.
READ
The final hour (from 9:20 to 10:20) is an open mic. Writers may read a poem they created in the first hour of the night, or may read something they bring with them for this purpose. Each writer will have 3 minutes to perform a poem. After each poem is read, the audience is asked to support each reader with kudos for aspects well handled, and any suggestions for ways to make reading the poem more effective. It’s all about learning the entire craft!
This portion of the evening will be facilitated by Creative James Dewar, host of Hot-Sauced Words Poetry Performances, Now in it’s sixth year (Third Thursday every month!) at the Black Swan Tavern.
In the event that we have more poets signed up than we have time available, the Craft and Open Mic slots will be allotted by draw.
154 Danforth Ave. (2nd floor) just east of Broadview)
