Poetry Festival Friday to be one ‘wild’ night
“You’re An Animal!” is the theme of the Poetry Gabriola Festival’s Friday, February 17 showcase—as it should be, given that the imaginative and untameable Cat Kidd will present Hyena Subpoena, a multimedia show about a woman who claims to have turned into a feral, laughing carnivore.
In addition, Vancouver’s Jordan Scott will read from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species—and you’re not going to snooze through this science class. For De Comp, commissioned by Poetry Gabriola with the assistance of the B.C. Arts Council, Scott and his accomplice Stephen Collis left five copies of Darwin’s masterwork in as many different areas of B.C., including Gabriola. Over the course of a year, the great evolutionist’s words were “edited” by wind, water, and browsing voles into a strange and unexpectedly poetic text.
And for the third part of the evening, poet and accordionist Barbara Adler plans on giving a truly beastly performance, in the best possible way.
Beast Pieces—another Poetry Gabriola commission—features Adler’s squeezebox-led power trio, Fang. This animal alphabet, which presents 26 portraits from nature, is sure to be delivered with the wit and wry insight typical of Adler’s work, both as a solo artist and with 2009 poetry-festival sensations the Fugitives.
Will “aardvark” make the cut? How about “zebra”? Adler’s not saying. But Fang’s been known to get several hundred Vancouver hipsters howling along to songs about everything from petty crime to team sports, so we’re sure Beast Pieces will be funny, wild, and fantastic—just like the festival itself.
For a full Poetry Gabriola Festival schedule, plus ticket info, visit www.poetrygabriola.com.