On Sunday, December 10, you are invited to come out to the roastery at Bean North Café and listen to readings by several poets and writers.
Kathy Munro and Elisabeth Weigand are putting on the event, in which both of them will read from their own work along with the other literary treats that they have planned for your entertainment. There will be readings from recent work by the late Jessica Simon, who was a writer based in Whitehorse.
Kathy Munro will launch two new publications. One of her own, a leaflet by Leaf Press called Waiting. This work is part of the Sky leaflet series that was launched earlier this year at the Atlin Arts and Music Festival.
Her second new publication is an anthology published by Anvil Press of Vancouver, edited by Vancouver Poet Laureate Rachel Rose, called Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food. It was launched in October at the Vancouver Writers Festival.
Munro will read some of her work published in the anthology and a poem by Vancouver writer Elena Johnson that has a real Yukon feel to it. Johnson has previously done research in the Yukon.
Laurel Parry is among the other writers who will be reading their work at the December 10 event read. Parry joined Munro and Weigand to write on Wednesdays at the café during the past year. These Wednesday meetings are an ongoing event open to everyone.
Members of Solstice Haiku will also read – this haiku discussion group met monthly at Bean North over the summer, in the wall tent with the yellow door.
When Kathy Munro told me their special guest for the December 10 event will be Yvonne Blomer, the word “bard” came to mind, with images of a kind of minstrel standing by the main gate of a castle shouting out poetic renditions of happenings from within and outside of the castle walls.
Yvonne Blomer is the Poet Laureate of Victoria; the work she will read is also in the new Anvil Press publication. The title “Poet Laureate” reminds me of how I see a bard of olden days.
When I consulted a dictionary, “laureate” means crowned with laurels in token of honour.
“Minstrel” means a medieval singer, musician or poet.
The root of the word “minstrel” means an employed person with an official duty. The origins of the word “bard” are more vague and rather complex, but according to Scottish tradition a bard is a strolling minstrel.
I do like that image and hope you will stroll through the beautiful winter snowscape woods of the Takhini Hotsprings area while visiting to listen to the readings. Presented in warmth of the café, you can enjoy sipping your hot tea or coffee and maybe a delicious Bean North snack.
The authors will have books for sale at this event.
The event, called Fresh Roasted Writing, is free. The Bean North Coffee Roasting Company is located at Km 9.3 on the Takhini Hotsprings Road.
See you there!
