photo by Nikki Reimer
During the sixteen days of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, I'll be working nightly at the Playrights' Centre Theatre on Granville Island with Vancouver writer Alex Leslie on a public art project we're calling BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR.
In response to the censorship that's been a part of the 2010 Olympic PR machine, Leslie and I have collected months worth of Olympic coverage from local and national newspapers as source material for your found poetry.
Poems of erasure (blackout poems) have been a part of collagist literary tradition for over a century. Now it's your turn to give it a try. Your materials at The Candahar include an avalanche of Olympic coverage, black markers, Olympic- coloured electrical tape, scissors, and a very nice pint of lager. The beauty of the blackout? You don't have to write a thing. Just come on down and start blacking out.
Still not sure what I'm talking about? Come on down to The Candahar, catch a show, and find out.
BLACKOUT AT THE CANDAHAR acknowledges the support of SubTerrain magazine, the City of Vancouver, the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and Presentation House Gallery. All poems will be shown during the last few nights of the salon and the best of the blackouts will appear in SubTerrain magazine.
