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News Briefs
Twisted Poets Literary Salon
has a new venue. Come join us at the Bump N
Grind cafe, 916 Commercial Drive on Sept 18th.
The guest speakers we be
Irene Livingston
and
Eileen Kernaghan.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
Aug 26, 2006
Pandora's Collective
will be hosting a new, on-going reading series in collaboration with John
Fisher of Upstart Crow Books in North Vancouver. Join us
October 20th
for open mic and featured readings from Fran Bourassa and
David Zieroth. Details
available on our event
listings.
Bonnie Nish and Sita Carboni will be
featured readers at Indigo Books in North Vancouver
(1025 Marine Drive)
on Sept 13th at 6:30pm.
We would like to
congratulate Fran Bourassa, Jason
Dom, Bernice Lever, Roy
Roberts and Sharon Taylor.
They are the winners of this year's
Words on Robson
Poetry Contest.
Sita Carboni received five
poetry publications this summer. Two in
Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine and three in Blue Print Review’s
print issue Monument.
Bonnie Nish also received recent publication in
Illuminations. Congratulations
ladies!
Ruth Kozak
will be teaching a variety of creative writing courses through the Vancouver
School Board this year. For details visit our
event listings or
email Ruth at ruthaki1@telus.net.
The literary arts
community mourns the loss of spiritual poet (and host of First Tuesday
Assembly of Poets), Shulamit Joffre. "She
was unfailingly kind" said local writer Leila Kulpas. Shulamitt was the
author of four books including her latest release, Syllables of Creation.
On Aug 1, 2006 at tribute to Shulamit was
held at Chapters on Robson Street. Hosted by Bonnie Nish and
Sita Carboni (of Pandora's Collective) the evening included readings and
memories from twenty four readers, a musical performance by David Campbell
and complimentary coffee from Starbucks. Joffre's family was present and
closed the night with a touching story about Shulamit's never ending sense of
humour. The first Tuesday Assembly of Poets will continue each
month hosted by Pandora's Collective.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
Aug 21, 2006
On
Saturday July 22,
2006 Pandora's Collective
will present the 3rd annual SUMMER DREAM READING FESTIVAL.
Come on out to hear sixteen literary groups, two bands and two
singer-songwriters perform in this engaging, outdoor festival established to
raise public awareness regarding the on-going literary events, programs and
resources available in the community. The festival will take place at UBC
Robson Square (just down the stairs from the Vancouver Art Gallery)
from 12 pm to 8:30pm.
Find out more...
James MacCann and
Jen
Currin were guests at Twisted Poets Literary Salon this month. Our
next guest (scheduled for July 17, 2006)
will be Sean McGarragle
(representing Story Slam) and RC
Weskolsi (representing Poetry Slam). The night will be guest hosted
by Trevor Spilchen. Details on our
event listings.
Join us at the PANDORA'S
COLLECTIVE SCHOLARSHIP FUND-RAISER on July 15, 2006.
We will be featuring Melic Thrum and
Tea at
The
Cottage Bistro. Tickets are $20 w/food
(choice of vegetarian or meat dinner) or $15 without food. You can also by
Raffle Tickets. Prizes include an overnight stay at
The Bumbleberry Inn B&B
on Galiano Island, prints of a Jack Kerouac portrait by artist
David Burns, a gift certificate to Tanglewood Books and
Syllables of Creation by
Shulamit Joffre. Raffle tickets are $2/one, $5/three or $10/ten.
Our scholarships are either enrolment into The
Vancouver Public Library's Summer Book Camp for children or teens or enrolment
into a college level creative writing course for young adults.
Please help us to support this imporatant cause.
Find out more...
Bonnie Nish
and Sita Carboni
of Pandora's Collective will be featured at the Blue Moon
Reading Series on July 11th at the
Clearbrooke Gallery in Abbotsford (32320 George Ferguson Way). The Blue Moon
Reading Series is held the 2nd Tuesday of every month from 6:30-8:30pm.
On Tuesday
July 4, 2006 Carson Tipper and Marni Norwich will be featured
at First Tuesday Assembly of Poets at Chapters on Robson Street.
Daniela Elza
and Trevor Spilchen will be hosting the event. Details on our
event listings.
Our
Kisses and Popsicles
Spring Poetry Contest winners are Daniela Elza (1st and 2nd place -
adult category), Doug Harrison (3rd place - adult category), Stephanie
Farmer (1st place - children's category), Nathalie Daudet (2nd place
- children's category) and Mandalyn Unger (3rd place - children's
category). Honorable Mentions go to Doug Harrison, Mark Leci and
Edmee Nataprawira. Our congratulations to the winners!
Read the poems...
Mary Duffy
read on behalf of Pandora's Collective at the World Peace Forum on
June 27, 2006. The event was held at the
Vancouver Public Library. Way to go Mary!
The Federation of BC Writers hosted an evening of readings by David
Helwig, Michele Adams, Ryszard Dubanski, Cullene Bryant,
Bonnie Nish
and Bernice Lever at Cafe Montmartre (Main Street @ 28th Avenue)
on Wednesday
June 14, 2006.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
June 28, 2006
Pandora's Collective received the 2006 Celebrations Grant from the
City of Vancouver c/o
The Office of Cultural
Affairs in the amount of $2000 to be used for site costs and advertising for
this year's Summer
Dream Reading Festival to be held on July 22, 2006. Thanks Vancouver and the
OCA.
The Bumbleberry Inn B&B
donated a one
night stay to Pandora's Collective to be used for a raffle prize to help
bring in funds for Pandora's Collective outreach work. If you are interested in
purchasing a ticket email
sita_pandoras@yahoo.ca. To find out about their accommodations and deals for
writers visit our event
listings.
Irene Livingston and
Don Simpson have
recently made financial contributions to Pandora's Collective. Thanks -
we really appreciate it. Don donated his winnings from the Story Slam
competition (Congrats Don) and Irene donated her 1st place $100 winnings
from our very own
Hibernating with Words
Poetry Contest. You are awesome Irene - She was also a first place winner in
the Arc Poetry Contest this year.
Want to know how you can help Pandora's
Collective? Visit our "help
us" page to find out how you can make a difference with advertising and
marketing, cash donations, fundraising, gifts in kind, your physical presence
and the collection of books and school supplies for Zimbabwe.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
May 24, 2006
Word Whips Writing Series has
a new date, time and location. We have moved to
Soma Cafe (In the back room - you'll find us writing around the table), 2528
Main Street, Vancouver, BC on the 1st Wednesday of every month from 7:30 -
10:00pm. Take the challenge. We provide the writing prompts and the opportunity
for sharing. Ten - fifteen minutes to write to each prompt. See what you can
whip up. Hosted by Pandora's Collective.
Pandora's Collective and the
Vancouver Public Library would like to introduce you to
Connections - A
Poetry Writing Group for Teens. Teens
will have the opportunity to connect with themselves, with others, with
professional writers and with publishers. Activities include writing to prompts,
editing, submitting to publications, readings and more. Hosted by
Bonnie Nish and Sita Carboni of Pandora's Collective. Upcoming
dates: May 28, Sept 24, Oct 29 and Nov 26.
Find out more..
Ashok Bhargava
and Heidi
Greco made history on April 28th
doing the first ever poetry reading at City Hall in Surrey, B.C. When
they first approached City Hall in early February they were told in no uncertain
terms, "City Hall doesn't do that sort of thing." but they were
persistent and on April 28th they had a terrific noon-hour crowd of about 30
enthusiastic listeners. "I can't help think we did more than make a bit of
history. I think we might have opened some doors and minds to the idea of
poetry." said
Greco.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
May 12, 2006
Pandora’s Collective will be
guest hosts for First Tuesday Assembly of Poets during the months of May
and June. Feature Poets on May 2, 2006 will
be poets Jen Currin and Antonio DiMichele. Location:
Chapters, 788 Robson St @ Howe, 3rd floor.
Grand Slam Master of the
Vancouver Poetry Slam, Graham Olds is leaving to broaden his horizons in
other pastures. We want to wish him the best and acknowledge how much he has
contributed to the writing community in Vancouver.
We want to give a very special thanks
to four fabulous volunteers. Lorraine Strand who has done an amazing job
getting us warehouse space, a truck and a driver for 825 boxes of books to send
to Zimbabwe. She Rocks. Alex Augustyn
who has taken over doing the press releases to media and freed us up to annoy
you with emails. Sharon Taylor who has been pounding pavement collecting
gifts in kind for The Summer Dream Reading Festival. Wait to you see our
official sponsors list! Thanks Sharon. And Catherine Cooper who has
interviewed us and will be trying to get the word out about Pandora's
Collective via her articles. We really appreciate all of your hard work
ladies!!!
On Sunday
April 23rd the Vancouver Public Library donated 825 boxes of
books (they estimate that to be 33,000 books!!!) to Zimbabwe via
Pandora's Collective. Connie Linder of
Insight
Creative Communications and Doug Ante of
Rotary International are the
founders of an on-going cause to help build literacy in Zimbabwe. We are
proud to be able to help them on this very important mission via our
Zimbabwe book drive.
We want to give a very special thanks to our volunteers for all their
brawn and careful packing - Phyllis Bassett, Danielle Brandon, Catherine
Cooper, Ali Denno, Becca Denno, Mary Duffy, Trina Ferguson, Derek Johnson, Mary
Konkin, Kunjdial, Cherie Laurent, Rowan Lipkovits, James McCann, Jim McKnight,
Paul McNeill, Brian Nelson, Leanne Padgett, Kaya Revorti, Aliz Revorzi, Eryn
Revorzi, Loretta Revorzi, Steve Samis, Lorraine Strand, Tierney Wisnienski,
Albert Wong, Mike Wong and Buddy Young. And a special thank you to Janice
Douglas, Pauline Manton, Ed McNeilly, John Bandstra of
Bandstra Trucking,
Frank Karsmaker of the Mennonite Community, Lorraine Strand and
Albert. For details and photos visit our
Zimbabwe page.
On April 11,
2006 Pandora's Collective conducted a workshop for grade 12
students from Argyle Secondary School at the Bowen Lodge by the Sea. We
were so inspired we are planning a writers retreat for the summer. Stay tuned
for details.
On April 1,
2006 Bonnie Nish was a guest reader on Friday Harbor Island
where Antonio DiMichele held an evening of spoken word, music and art.
Visit his web site at
www.perren.freeservers.com/anth
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
May 1, 2006
Bonnie Nish and
Sita Carboni
of Pandora's Collective will be featured at the Blue Moon
Reading Series on July 11th at the
Clearbrooke Gallery in Abbotsford (32320 George Ferguson Way). The Blue Moon
Reading Series is held the 2nd Tuesday of every month from 6:30-8:30pm.
Twisted Poets' new format as Twisted Poets Literary Salon has proved
to be both informative and inspiring. Recent guests have included Byron
Sheardown (Quills Canadian Poetry
Magazine), Lisa Manfield, Ana Torres (Room
of One's Own), Jo Blackmore (Granville
Island Publishing), David J. Litvak (Cascadia
Publicity), Fernanda Viveiros (The
Federation of BC Writers) and Ms Spelt
(Vancouver
Poetry House). To find out who will be sharing their expertise next visit
our event listings.
Join
Pandora's Collective on a mini writing retreat evening at the
The Vancouver Art Gallery
on Tuesday March 28th. We will begin by
writing to the art on the first floor at 7:00pm and will then work are way up.
Hope you can join us.
Keep watching this page for updates.
March 21, 2006
Oops, we are missing News Briefs from June 2005 - Feb 2006 - sorry for the gap.
If you are wondering what is missing you can visit our history page for a
categorized and dated list of Pandora's Collective community involvement.
Pandora's Collective will be hosting a
troupe of roving poets in Van Dusen Botanical Garden
August 26th to spontaneously write and
perform and see how they might inspire you. (2-4pm) Or bring your blanket,
picnic and best friend to enjoy a poetry reading by local poets under the shade
of an old tree and let the words and scenery make you forget you are in the
city, at least for a while. (6:30-8 pm). Details on the
event
listings.
Bonnie Nish and Sita Carboni had the honour of being the guest
editors for the summer issue of Quills
Canadian Poetry Magazine. It was an incredibly intricate process. From
the 1200 submissions they had to narrow it down to under 40 poems and arrange
them in a harmonious flow. Watch for the results when Quills hits the book
stands in July.
Vancouver Poetry House is looking for new
members and input from the community. These committed individuals are determined
to make a huge difference in our community. Let's show them our support and give
them a chance to support us. To find out more visit:
http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/index.php. Membership is only $2.00.
This
year's Vancouver Poetry Slam Team winners are Brendan McLeod,
Chrystalene Buhler, Barbara Adler,
Zacheeus and Magpie Ulysses. We send them our congratulations and
wish them well for their trip to Alberque, New Mexico where they will be
competing.
Pandora's Collective held it's first Writers Retreat in
beautiful, sunny Sechelt, BC. The artist's home we stayed at was only a couple
of blocks from the ocean and boasted a beautiful Magnolia tree in the front
garden. While in Sechelt we attended a Pure Poets Reading at the Gum
Boot Cafe and later arranged for the Pure Poets to be featured here in
Vancouver at First Tuesday Assembly of Poets at Chapters on Robson
Street. Watch for them June 7th when we will
have the honour of being the guest host for this event.
Please don't forget that we are collecting books for Zimbabwe. If
you would like to donate to this great cause contact us and we will make
arrangements to get the books from you.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
May 26, 2005
On
March 30th
Talonbooks in association with
FC2, House of Anansi
Press and the RAW Exchange Reading Series hosted,
Hands Across the Border,
a reading by many of North America’s brightest, most interesting and innovative
writers, including: bill bissett, George Bowering, Karen Brennan, Colin
Browne, Suzanne Buffam, Marie Clements, Frank Davey, MAC Farrant, Adeena
Karasick, Cris Mazza, Michael Mejia, Jamie Reid, Lynda Schor and Fred Wah.
Admission to the event was free, but attendees were asked to
bring book donations to support our on-going efforts
to send books to
Zimbabwe. In total we have now
collective just over 500 books.
Congratulations to Salmon Avalanche,
Sita Carboni,
Jolene Heathcote
and Fernando Raguero for their publications in the Spring 2005 issue of
Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
April 16, 2005
In February Pandora's Collective
received a special group recognition award from the World Poetry Reading
Series in a spectacular gala evening put on by Ariadne Sawyer and
Alejandro Mujica-Olea.
In collaboration with Connie
Linder of Insight Creative Communications and Doug Ante of
Rotary International, Pandora's Collective is collecting books to
send to Zimbabwe
on an on-going basis.
The Summer Dream
Reading Festival programming is well under way. Starbucks has
agreed to be a sponsor and will be supplying coffee all day long. Many
individuals and groups have contributed to the cause and we are grateful for
their support.
We send our condolences to
Franci Louann
whose mother passed away recently. Franci asked her Hygienist Study
Club to give their donation in honour of her mother towards Pandora's
Collective work.
Battered Souls, the brain
child of Rouge Reese Murphy who performs along with Trevor Splechen,
is a powerful evening of performance based works along with music and some
interesting surprises. Time and local: 8pm,
April 16th
@ The William Davis Centre.
We were happy to come across local
band Mother recently. The are a fantastically original and talented group
featuring thought provoking, tangible lyrics and beautiful interwoven harmonies
(Ryan Guldemond guitar and vocals;
Molly Guldemond vocals; Debra-Jean Creelman vocals).
They have agreed to perform for this year's
scholarship fund raiser
along with our regular favourite local band
Melic Thrum featuring flavours of
Latin, Jazz and Folk, odd-time signatures, thoughtful lyrics, catchy hooks, and
improvisational solos (Mike Peacock
vocals and piano, Chad York
vocals and bass, Ryan Drolet guitar and Alex McFarlane
drums). Don't miss this evening of original music. Time and local:
7:30pm, May 28th @ The Candy Bar. $10
door, all proceeds go to the
scholarships.
Contest News- We were so excited to
discover that our latest second place winner (from the children’s category)
Anya Corke
is from Hong Kong. Our
winners page
has the full list.
Speaking of winners- the first place
winner of Story Slam, Richard Wagameese donated his winnings both
times to Pandora's Collective.
Our Board has had a few changes. We
welcome Joanne Kim, Ruth Kozak and Carson Tipper to the
Pandora's Board.
Irene Livingston
who has just had her second children's book published has been nominated for all
kinds of awards for the first Finkle Hopper Frog. Way to go Irene. And if
that isn't enough Irene recently won the Limerick Slam putting all those
Irish men to shame.
Speaking of the Irish... Don't know
if he is or not but he could likely draw you a map to show you the way to a
leprechauns hideout. James
McCann who is having his second book 'Rancour' published by
Simply Read Books,
will be launched at the Chapters
in late June. We will keep you posted as to the date. And congratulations James
who just found out that Raincoast
will be the distributor for the book. Check out his website to find out about
purchasing his first book 'Upon the Shoulders of Vengeance.'
Revision Reading Series, a
part of the Burnaby Writers Group,
will be featuring
Bonnie Nish and
Sita Carboni
on April 20th
at Miles of Beans in Burnaby.
Bonnie Nish
had her poem 'January's Variant' published in the winter issue of
Quills. Pandora's will be
guest editors for the summer issue.
In November
David Campbell
had his CD launch for a whole series of new Cd's he has just released. Check out
his website to find out how to purchase one.
Trina Ferguson is a fairly new
reader on the scene these days but she hasn't let that stop her. She recently
won Story Slam and we were excited to see her story in print in
The Common Ground.
And talk about guts. John Roberts
who has rarely read in public, braved his fears and did a dynamite job reading
at the last Twisted
Poets. He helped to make it a great evening.
And finally Michael Shandrick
has been helping Pandora's with some grant writing and publicity for
which we are grateful. His input has been invaluable.
- Keep watching this page for
updates.
March 28, 2005
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