Readers’ threesome

A compatible trio of popular reading series awaits in May and June

Lying just beneath the thin crust of this city is a wash of amazing literary events that really seem to belong to a different town than the Ottawa we think of – a strange and colourful place, a brave and experimental and word-drunk city. It’s just waiting for you to crack into it.

“Ottawa is a city of poets, or at least has been traditionally,” says Max Middle, director of the A B reading series. “There is a demand for the work that we’re doing.” For the past few years, the A B Series has been dedicated to presenting the “best the world has to offer in sound poetry and experimental poetry.”

About to enter their fourth season, the A B Series has gathered tremendous energy, with space graciously offered in the City Hall art gallery, and with a regular place in the Mercury Lounge down in the Market. “I hadn’t planned on the scope of it becoming as large as it has become,” said Middle, “it gathered energy quite quickly.” But he seems to be coping excellently, having secured a performance from acclaimed Dutch poet Jaap Blonk and the incomparable Christian Bök (http://abseries.org).

David O’Meara directs the Plan 99 Reading Series, a fixture on the Ottawa scene since its inception back in (yep) 1999. Plan 99 generally takes advantage of the famous Manx Pub, a beautiful little cocoon of plush seats, beaten brass-topped tables and low wooden ceilings. “What I love about Ottawa,” says O’Meara, “is that we’ve got six or seven solid reading series and festivals… and everyone seems to have found their niche.” Plan 99 is devoted to traditional fiction and prose, but generally from authors who have “one or two books, but with smaller presses.” The focus allows O’Meara to pull in names that one might ordinarily never hear of, but who have talent in spades.

As of this month, the Tree Reading Series is 30 years old. It’s kind of a strange number to contemplate… It’s as old as The Empire Strikes Back. Rod Pederson and Rona Shaffran are the latest co-directors of this venture, and they aim to grow it well into the future. Tree aims to bring in great talents, but retains the community-centric vision they started with. “We want this to be a conversation about poetry,” says Pederson. True to their word, every Tree reading is preceded by a poetry workshop and open mic, where all are free to read.

“A poem isn’t really a poem until you hear it,” ventures Pederson. “Hearing a poet perform the works gives the poem a new reality.”

A B Series, first two Thursdays of June at the Mercury Lounge, 7 p.m.

Plan 99 Reading Series, Manx Pub, May 29 & June 12, 5 p.m.

Tree Reading Series, second and fourth Tuesday of every month until the end of June, 6:45 p.m. workshop, 8 p.m. event

As appeared in the Ottawa XPress – May 13, 2010
http://www.ottawaxpress.ca/books/books.aspx?iIDArticle=19793