If you have some fabulous photos of the area; a favourite local recipe; knowledge about local history; a favourite place you love to visit; tips about fiddlehead picking, fly fishing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing or any Miramichi related activity; then the annual Miramichi River Guide wants to hear from you.

Written submissions should be no more than 250 words. Or send up to six high-resolution photographs.

The deadline for submissions is February 20th.

Email stacy@mightymiramichi.com with River Guide Submission as your subject line. To view the 2011 Miramichi River Guide visit the website www.riverguide.ca.

Our 2012 Literary Competition’s deadline is February 29th, coming up fast.

As you may know, last year we returned our competition to its original roots and purpose: to promote and encourage New Brunswick writers. It was a huge success and we received nearly 50% more submissions than the previous year, when it was open to entrants all across Canada.

We’re hoping for a similarly strong showing this year. So, have you been thinking of entering but have thought …

1) I have no chance, there are too many entries.

The categories receive, on average, 20 submissions each, some fewer (non-fiction, for example) and some more (individual poem). This isn’t a blind lottery: a well-written piece has a strong chance of winning, placing, or showing.

2) I entered last year, didn’t win.

Let me tell you a story: last year’s Richards Prize winner, Barry Grenon, had entered the same manuscript (“The Formosa Papers”) the year before, yet wasn’t even among the honourable mentions. Every year we change judges for this reason: tastes differ. One judge may, for example, favour story, while another may favour style.

3) No feedback.

This year we are promising feedback on the top 5 manuscripts in each category.

4) One entry isn’t important.

Right! That’s why you should send two, or three. Seriously, every entry received makes my heart glow.

5) If I win, I won’t be able to publish my story elsewhere.

Nonsense. If you win, you get prestige! We claim no rights to the manuscripts and many, including recent winners Beverly Akerman, Rob Taylor and Riel Nason, find publication soon afterward (or get a boost of confidence to send other work out). Check out our list of former winners: http://www.wfnb.ca/competitions/winners/

6) I will feel crushed if I don’t win.

Yeah, it hurts. But it’s important to share your work, build good habits and positive feelings around the submission process. I’ve found, over the years, that one acceptance/prize quickly washes away a dozen rejections.

7) There are so many contests, why should I choose this one?

Good question. Well, other than supporting your very own Writers’ Federation, if you do well you get to attend our Awards Banquet at WordsSpring, meet other writers, read from your work, get your photo in the newsletter, or the local paper. Now, winning a competition in Alberta, or Idaho might be nice, but chances are you won’t shake a single hand or hear a single voice or handclap …

Competition categories and rules are on our website: http://www.wfnb.ca/competitions/2012-competition-now-open/ .

Thank you for your attention, and best of luck.

Lee

Lee Thompson
Executive Director
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick
P.O. Box 306, Moncton, NB E1C 8L4
506-459-7228
info@wfnb.ca
http://www.wfnb.ca

The storyteller, LeVêKe.

The storyteller LeVêKe will present his show Le Souffle de la Vie (the breath of life) on Thursday, February 23 at 8 p.m. at the Empress Theatre located on Robinson Court in Moncton. Tickets are currently on sale at the cost of $14.50 plus applicable fees. Le Souffle de la Vie is intended for all audiences.

Le souffle de la vie

While the humans’ machines and saws are about to eliminate the forest around him, the giant maple tree (personified by LeVêKe) talks about earth and humanity’s story. Before his demise, the tree shares a story about the evolution of life on earth. The idea of this show was inspired by a wooden mask made by sculptor Paul Ouellette. LeVêKe had the idea of talking about the importance of forests in life.

The performance starts with the projection of OÏO by artist Simon Goulet. At the end of this short 7 minutes film, LeVêKe takes the stage for his theatrical performance. After the show, the audience is invited to take a closer look at Paul Ouellette’s artwork.

LeVêKe is a storyteller from Balmoral, NB. For more than 10 years, he has performed with innovative new ways of telling his stories. This storyteller has toured in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, France and the USA.

This autodidact artist discovered the fabulous world of storytelling while meeting Father Germain Lemieux in Sudbury, Ontario. Lemieux published the impressing collection Les vieux m’ont conté, featuring stories from Ontario, Acadie, Gaspésie and Manitoba storytellers. LeVêKe’s process is inspired by various community and professional activities, as well as his involvement in the preservation of the environment.

With Le souffle de la vie, the artist takes the audience in his imaginary world filled with tales of environment, history and communication.

Box Office

Tickets for Le souffle de la vie at the Capitol Theatre are now on sale at the Capitol Theatre Box Office, l’Escaouette, Frank’s Music, Monument Lefebvre, Dieppe Arts and Culture Centre and l’Université de Moncton, at $14.50 plus applicable fees. Tickets are also available by phone at (506) 856-4379 or 1-800-567-1922, or online at www.capitol.nb.ca.

Theme 2012: Espacios propios y universales: FORESTS, MOUNTAINS, SEAS

In celebration of Rabindrânâth Tagore, Pablo Neruda and Aimé Césaire

DATE: 24 March 2012 Saturday, 2-4 pm.

PLACE: The 12th International Multicultural-Multilingual Poetry Reading and Poster Poem Exhibition will take place at the Fredericton Public Library, on Carleton St., Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

REGISTRATION FOR POETS:

Include your full name; city, province, country; email address; the title of the poem; text of the poem (use Times New Roman, 12 point). The poem should have 30 lines maximum, including stanza breaks (this is for the purpose of printing it as a poster for exhibition at the event).

Send the information before March 9th, 2012 to Nela Rio nelario@gmail.com.

The certificate of participation will be sent by email after the event. Please note: this community event will not be paying artists nor performance fee. This event is open to the public and admission is free.

Since 2000, this event has featured poets from over 19 countries and members of the community reading in many languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, Urdu, Turkish, Amharic, among others.

ORGANIZED BY: Nela Rio, the Founder of International Multicultural-Multilingual Poetry Reading, with the support of revue ellipse mag; Broken Jaw Press; the Creative Registry of the Canadian Association of Hispanists; NB Latino Association -PRESENCIA-; and the Fredericton Chapter of the Ibero-American Academy of Poetry. Agradezco a Sophie Lavoie_(Canadá) la traducción de este texto, al inglés y al francés.

United Nations World Poetry Day 21 March 2011.
“Poetry contributes to creative diversity, by questioning anew our use of words and things, our modes of perception and understanding of the world. Through its associations, its metaphors and its own grammar, poetic language is thus conceivably another facet of the dialogue among cultures.”

This year the New Brunswick Summer Festival will run from August 13 – 25 in Fredericton and will feature the music of French composer Claude Debussy and Canadian composer Talivaldis Kenins.

Talivaldis Kenins was a composer, teacher, pianist, and organist, born at Liepaja, Latvia in 1919. Kenins began playing piano at five and composing at seven, continuing piano studies in France while preparing at the Lycée Champollion in Grenoble for a diplomatic career. He studied piano and composition 1940-44 at the State Conservatory at Riga with Joseph Wihtol and, forced from Latvia by the Soviet occupation following World War II, continued from 1945-51 at the Paris Conservatory.

Kenins emigrated to Canada in 1951 to assume duties as organist-choirmaster for the Latvian congregation of St Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Toronto. He also founded the St Andrew’s Latvian Choir (one of the important choirs of its type in North America) and conducted it until 1958. He became the founder and president of the Latvian Concert Association of Toronto in 1959.

Kenins began teaching at the University of Toronto in 1952 and was co-ordinator of the composition division from 1977-79. He was named professor emeritus on his retirement in 1984. Walter Kemp, Edward Laufer, Bruce Mather, Ben McPeek, and Arthur Ozolins were among his pupils. Owing largely to the communicative disposition of his musical language and the consistency of his craft, Kenins became one of Canada’s most frequently commissioned composers.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Talivaldis Kenins’ style strove to reconcile the romanticism of his nature and the neoclassicism of a French training. The concertante style, dominant in his musical speech, was stabilized by counterpoint. The plethora of notes and the tendency to over-emphasis gave way in the 1960s to greater transparency and leaner outlines. His counterpoint recalled his academic training, but his fugues gradually became more sophisticated. In his compositions of the 1970s, Kenins broke consciously with the conservative image he had defended so assiduously.

In 1989 RCI, as part of its Anthology of Canadian Music series, released a four-CD set devoted to Kenins’ music (4-ACM 33). Included on the set was a conversation between Kenins and Montreal critic Eric McLean. A further CD, Music of Talivaldis Kenins, was issued by Centrediscs in 1997 (CMCCD-5997); CBC Records featured his music on Ovations, Vol. 3 (PSCD 2028-5). Kenins was a member (and president 1973-4) of the Canadian League of Composers, and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.

Claude Debussy was born 1862 at St. Germain-en-Laye, France. From the age of ten on, Debussy was a brilliant student at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique, where he won the highest prizes for composition – including the Prix de Rome for his cantata L’Enfant prodique. He wrote for the piano as no one before him had ever dreamed of: Sometimes the notes were bunched together, while other times they were laced at the ends of the keyboard; and pedals were used to make notes and harmonies shift and blend. He found inspiration in the same images as those that attracted the French Impressionist painters – clouds, rain, wind, water, sunlight, and shadow. The result was a new and magical world of sound that inspired several generations of classical and jazz musicians.

Debussy reached his musical maturity during the closing years of the 19th century, when the Late Romantic period of Liszt and Wagner was coming to an end and many composers were looking for new musical paths to take. He took his inspiration from many artistic sources; Wagner’s music, the art and music of the Orient, Impressionist painters such as Degas, poetry, and the sinuous lines and pastel shades of contemporary Art Nouveau. From these sources, he forged a musical style that is both original in its harmonies, rhythms, and musical tones, and often quietly beautiful.

Debussy’s influence on the music of the 20th century, from the concert hall and opera house to the world of jazz, has been immense. His finest works, including his orchestral masterpiece La mer and many of his piano pieces, sound as original and effective today as they did a century ago.

Watch the website for updates on the guest stars and schedules!

We gratefully acknowledge our funders: Canadian Arts Presentation Fund, Canadian Heritage; Arts Festival Program, Province of New Brunswick; City of Fredericton; The Fredericton Community Foundation; UNB College of Extended Learning; New Brunswick/Quebec Cooperation Program.

“Northrop Frye is Moncton’s most famous son, and we want to celebrate his amazing legacy with the entire community,” says Dawn Arnold, Chair of the Frye Festival. “Frye wrote a lot about how literature helps us to train our imaginations, develop critical thinking skills and the power of literature to create a tolerant and civil society. In 2012, the Frye Festival will continue to feed imaginations will all our regular Festival fare, but we are also thrilled to add exciting projects to our program, like public art, a 24-hour playwriting competition and much more.”

The Frye Festival is pleased to announce the support of Canadian Heritage, as part its Building Communities through Arts and Heritage program, for Frye’s centennial celebrations. The program is designed specifically to increase opportunities for local artists and artisans to be involved in their community and for local groups to commemorate their local history and heritage.

Bronze sculpture of Northrop Frye
The Frye Festival has commissioned three local artists to create a life-size bronze sculpture of Northrop Frye. The commission was awarded to Darren Byers of Byers Harrison Studios Inc. who will be collaborating with artists Fred Harrison and Janet Fotheringham. The three have partnered to create the artwork, which will feature Northrop Frye sitting on a park bench with a book open on his lap. The sculpture will be installed in front of the Moncton Public Library (Downing St. entrance), and the Festival’s hope is to unveil the sculpture in time for Frye’s birthday in July.

Janet Fotheringham has extensive experience in molding and casting and has been doing life sculpture since 1996. Darren Byers has worked as a furniture maker for over 25 years and as a sculptor for the last 18 years, producing commissions and private work throughout North America and Fred Harrison has worked on many murals throughout Canada. In April 2011 Darren and Fred completed “The Workers Memorial” in Saint John, a larger than life size bronze monument to honour anyone who has suffered physical or mental injuries or who has died while on the job in the greater Saint John area. This will be the first time that all three artists have collaborated.

24-hour playwriting competition
The Frye Festival is inviting amateur and established playwrights to take part in a unique 24-hour competition. From 4 pm on Friday, April 20 to 4 pm on Saturday, April 21, individuals will have the chance to prove their writing skills as they write a one-act play about Northrop Frye and/or his ideas. Participants will be fed, caffeinated and encouraged, and will participate in the official language of their choice in one of two categories: student and other. Four winners (one for each language and each category) will walk away with $500. Plays will be judged by Governor General award-winning playwrights Catherine Banks and Herménégilde Chiasson, along with local celebrity and playwright Marshall Button.

The model for the Festival’s 24-hour playwriting competition is based on an established model by the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, which has been organizing their event for 15 years.

Special issues of ellipse magazine
A special issue of ellipse magazine will be published to mark the 100th anniversary of Frye’s birth. Under the direction of Jo-Anne Elder, ellipse is mandated with promoting literary translation and intercultural awareness. The Special Edition will feature new writing by authors from the Maritimes and across Canada, all of which will honour this great thinker. An official launch reception will be held on Saturday, April 28 at 4 pm at Moncton City Hall.

Frye Centennial Talk and Conversation between Frye and McLuhan
Professor Ian Balfour of York University will present an original talk on Northrop Frye, the man and the ideas. However, before his presentation, two local actors will present a short, hilarious conversation between Northrop Frye and his contemporary, Marshall McLuhan.

The Frye Festival is also planning many more events and community projects, which will be unveiled throughout the year.

About Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye was one of Canada’s most prominent and celebrated public thinkers and a pioneer in literary criticism. He wrote extensively about symbols in literature and about structure, and his theories attracted international attention. He was considered one of the greatest scholars and thinkers of the 20th century, hailed as the “modern Aristotle” and the “Einstein of the Humanities” after his death. He is also “one of the top dozen most-cited intellectual writers of all time,” with the likes of Plato and Shakespeare.

Frye was born on July 14, 1912 in Sherbrooke, Québec. He was seven years old when he moved with his family to Moncton, New Brunswick, where he developed many of the ideas that he would go on to explore the rest of his life. In 1929 Frye won a typing contest and left Moncton to study at the University of Toronto, where he remained as student and teacher most of the rest of his life. Over the course of his life he wrote more than 20 books, lectured at more than 100 universities around the world, received 39 honorary degrees, won the Governor General’s Award for Literature, was a Companion of the Order of Canada, had a postage stamp created in his image and in 2010 the Northrop Frye School in Moncton was named in his honour.

About the Frye Festival
The Frye Festival is Atlantic Canada’s largest literary happening and Canada’s only bilingual international literary Festival. The 13th edition of the Festival will take place from April 23 to 29, 2012 in the Greater Moncton area. The complete list of authors will be unveiled February 20, 2012. More information about the Festival and its mission is available at www.frye.ca.

Upcoming Events
Pop & Frye with George Elliott Clarke
Monday, March 19, 2012, Navigator’s Pub, Moncton

Pop & Frye with Herménégilde Chiasson (La vieille femme près de la voie ferrée)
Wednesday, March 29, 2012, Théatre l’Escaouette, Moncton

Narrators for the night will be: Amanda Curti, Louise Edwards, Maggie Pitts, Ian Mauro, John Murchie, and Zacharias Kunuk. Our featured orators will spin a range of ten-minute tales about new babies and no running water, Italian grandmothers, lying mothers, pleasure principles, weird science, and straddling the gap between the Stone Age and Digital Age.

Amanda Curti is a student at Mount Allison University; Louise Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Physics at MTA; Ian Mauro is a Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Environmental Change at MTA; John Murchie is the former coordinator of Struts Gallery; and Maggie Pitts is a Geographic Information Systems Analyst.

Special guest Zacharias Kunuk is the Nunavut-based Director of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner. Kunuk is visiting the region under the auspices of Mount Allison’s Centre for Canadian Studies and the Department of Geography and Environment. He will be screening films on February 5th and 6th, details of which can be found on the Mount Allison website.

The Baked Ham takes place at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch #26, 15 Lorne Street, Sackville, New Brunswick and is open to the public. There is a suggested donation of $5.00 and all proceeds go towards funding future speakers for the Baked Ham Community Speaker Series.

This series hopes to create an informal environment to share ideas and conversation on a variety of topics. Admission is open to the public, though it is a licensed event. Baked Ham is supported by the Owens Art Gallery, Struts Gallery, and CHMA radio, 106.9FM. For more information contact: info@redesignsackville.com or lgarnett@mta.ca. You can also visit our Facebook page.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Deadline February 21

As part of the W(here) Festival, community members and local artists are encouraged to submit an idea for a field trip or performative walk in Pictou County, NS.

Field trips may take place anywhere and be between 1 and 2 hours. Through walking and talking, this project seeks to discover new stories about “place” in Pictou County and share local knowledge in an artistic way.

Lead us to a special place, start a conversation or tell us a site-specific story. Is there something to do when we arrive? What makes this place special? Delve into history or make your own.

Field trips can be informal or staged. All forms of presentation are encouraged from historical research and tour, to on-location performance and site-specific sculpture. Artists, poets, storytellers, historians, filmmakers, environmentalists and star-gazers are all welcome to submit their idea for consideration by February 21st. Three walks will be selected and an honorarium of $250 paid to field trip hosts.

Through visiting local sites and listening to local stories, the goal of Walking in Place is to encourage new ways of thinking about “here”.

Your proposal should include:

- 1 page description (where you will take us? what will we talk about? what will we see?)

- 100 word biography (who are you, what do you do or make?, CV encouraged but not necessary)

- images, video, audio (Images and other media can add rich content to your proposal)

Some ideas:

- lead us through the night and tell us about the night sky

- read a poem you have written in the place it was inspired

- play us a piece of music on location

- take us on a boat tour, a picnic, a hike and tell us a tale

- lead us in a drawing class or another workshop in an interesting place

How to Submit:

Email your submission to wherefestival@gmail.com by Feb 21 2012 with the subject “Submission”. Documents may be Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe PDFs (.pdf). Pictures .jpg only please.

If you would like to discuss your idea before you submit, please contact Mary directly at wherefestival@gmail.com, 647 389 6393, or arrange a Skype chat. She is happy to discuss any questions you may have about this project and the festival more broadly.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

W(here) Festival – June 26th to June 30th 2012

Where? Here.
Placing rural art practices on the map in Pictou County
In June 2012 the W(here) Festival* begins and ends on its feet, exploring ideas of place, art, and community. Taking place in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, local and visiting artists will lead audiences in a series of “field trips” engaging participants in an interactive way. In addition, the festival will feature an exciting evening of local artist talks, a special roundtable discussion about place-based art, and a public video drive-in downtown.

Discover new terrain, new histories, and new possibilities for artistic thinking at the W(here) Festival this spring in Pictou County. All events are free and family friendly.

Visiting Artists

Marlene Creates is an acclaimed environmental artist and poet who lives and works in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. Born in Montreal, Creates studied visual arts at Queen’s University (ON). For over thirty years her work has been an exploration of the relationship between human experience, memory, language and the land, and the impact they have on each other. http://www.marlenecreates.ca

Sheilah Wilson was born in Caribou River (NS) and studied photography at the Instituto Allende (Mexico) and visual art at NSCAD University before receiving her Masters of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College (UK). Wilson’s work is an investigation of the seam that binds experience to language, story to teller and fantasy to history through photography, site-specific public art and performance. http://sheilahwilson.com

Curator

Mary MacDonald is an artist, arts administrator and curator hailing from Pictou. Mary graduated from Mount Allison University (BFA 2006) and is presently studying towards a Masters of Fine Arts in Criticism & Curatorial Practice at OCAD University (Toronto). Most recently as Assistant Director of Eastern Edge Gallery (St. John’s), Mary organized the presentation of exhibitions and events, facilitated community programming, and produced the graphic design for the gallery. http://mfmacdonald.wordpress.com

The W(here) Festival is a part of Mary MacDonald’s graduate thesis work and ongoing research and is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

* Pronounced Where Here Festival

Money received from Canadian Heritage is invested to assure that the Capitol Theatre’s Presents Season, which has evolved over the past ten years, is balanced and varied. Marc Chouinard, the Capitol Theatre’s General Manager is grateful for this Federal government’s contribution: “While playing the central role as southeastern New Brunswick’s only state of the arts facility, we feel that the Government’s continued support to our organization helps us compliment the offering of other performing arts centres in the region. This government’s commitment to culture is important to not only those working in the creative economy, but necessary to enhance the quality of life of all Canadians.”

Two exciting seasons under way!
Offerings from the following sectors remain priorities for the Capitol Theatre: Family/youth, contemporary dance and classical ballet, world music, East Coast/Acadian music, English Theatre, classical music. The primary focus of the theatre’s 2012-2013 Season entitled When I grow up, I’m going to run away and join the Circus is of course, circus performances. “Since Moncton held the World Junior Athletics Championship in 2010, a burgeoning circus audience was nourished with the creation and performances of Circus Stella in our region,” said Chouinard. The circus acts proposed for 2012-2013 are from the East Coast, Quebec, the United States and China.

The 2013-2014 Season We are the world promises to be equally exciting with the presentations of an eclectic group of world music artists. Chouinard adds, “These shows will increase the visibility and enhance the promotion of world music in the region as well as foster a greater sense of connection to cultures from around the world.”

For more information on the Capitol Theatre as well as the many shows and events, please visit the website www.capitol.nb.ca.

4 – A celebration of our seasons
The theme for this semester is 4 – A celebration of our seasons. Whereas the previous themes Pétcudiac and Resurgo Redux focused on the history of our community, and Hey! We live in a Diverse Community focused on the present day, 4 will be focused on the beautiful and varied environment of the region. According to school director Tim Borlase, “the goal is to show our appreciation of our land by creating a collective piece of theatre that presents the beauty and feeling of an entire year’s cycle in the Moncton area. As more and more Canadians arrive in our communities, this theme will show the rhythms of the seasons and how aboriginal cultures in NB created a culture and lifestyle that related to them. It will also show how adaptations became modified as new people settled in the region.”

A curriculum made for all ages
The school’s curriculum focuses on the Department of Education interwoven themes of creation, appreciation and performances. Students are led through stimulating journeys in improvisation, storytelling, script analysis, characterization, voice production, movement and mime.

The Rising Stars class is for children in grades 3-5 (Feb 4-April 28, $240); On Stage is for children in grades 6-8 (February 4-April 28, $300). For those who want to work in video, The Creators – Camera! Action! will give you the tools. This class will take place from February 6 to May 1 ($300). The Master Class (Grades 9-Adult) will help the students bust out of their 9-5 job and delve into the world of drama! For students with theatrical experience who wish to further hone their skills, they can audition for Encore! People from grade 8 teenagers to adults are accepted in this class ($310). It will start on February 7 and end on May 1st ($310). There is an additional opportunity for adults in the form of short courses in directing, technical production, playwriting and clown for people. These workshops are $100 and are offered according to participants’ availability.

There is a discount available for early registrations (10% before January 21), seniors, post-secondary students and teachers (20%). There is also a 30% for a second family member based on the lower tuition fee. A bursary for each class is provided for those who have an interest in theatre but limited financial means.

More information as well as a registration sheet is available at www.capitol.nb.ca. People may also contact Tim Borlase, Director or Lynne Surette at 506-383-6200 or tim@capitol.nb.ca lynne@capitol.nb.ca for further details.