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Celebrate Black History Month
Sunday, February 19, 3:00 PM
The Elmdale House, 1084 Wellington St. W
The Dusty Owl Reading Series is celebrating Black History Month with a reading by celebrated poets John Akpata, Jacqueline Lawrence and Joanne John. This event is a fundraiser to help send a group of Ottawa youth to the Black Youth Congress.
John Akpata is a writer and poet who lives in Ottawa. He first learned to read and write at the age of three. He has written poetry his whole life. After graduating from Carleton University with a degree in English Literature, John Akpata began to live the life of a true poet. He focused all of his energy into writing and performing, and vowed to make a living off of his art. In 2003 John Akpata was a member of Ottawa’s first ever Slam Poetry team, and travelled to Chicago to compete in the National Poetry Slam. He became the Ottawa CBC Poetry Face Off Champion in 2004. Also in 2004, John Akpata placed second in the World Indie Finals at the Canadian Spokenwordlympics – Canada’s inaugural international poetry competition. John Akpata is Ottawa’s Capital Slam Poetry Champion for 2005, and competed with Ottawa’s team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word 2005 in Vancouver.
Jacqueline Lawrence is a diversity strategist by day. On Saturdays, she is one of the hosts/producers of CHUO 89.1 FM’s Black on Black. She is also the Program Director for 3Dreads and A Baldhead’s Literary Series that has hosted readings with writers such as Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes, Lawrence Hill, Beverly Manley, Rachel Manley and Lorna Goodison. In between these activities, she manages to follow her spirit to scribble poems. As a poet, Jacqueline received the Editor’s Choice Award from the National Library of Poetry for her submission to their River of Dreams anthology. Along with her writers’ collective “Write on the Edge”, they have published two chap books. In October 2006, Jacqueline released her fist solo chapbook, Surrender. She has enjoyed sharing selected pieces from her pending collection “invisible visibility: on being black, fat and a woman” with audiences in Ottawa, Toronto and Jamaica.
Joanne John
is a local writer whose dabblings range from playwriting to poetry. In 1995, she won 2nd prize in the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Contest for her poem ‘On Wellington Street.’ She subsequently wrote and co-produced her play
Stories of the Shell
(1998), with the Great Canadian Theatre Company and the National Arts Centre. Her poems and plays have been performed at Arts Court, the AfriCanadian Playwright’s Conference and the Harbourfront Festival, and she has been a member of the NAC’s playwrights unit. Her poems appear in the online publication, The Sentinel.
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[lang_fr]
Infos seulement en anglais…
Celebrate Black History Month
Sunday, February 19, 3:00 PM
The Elmdale House, 1084 Wellington St. W
The Dusty Owl Reading Series is celebrating Black History Month with a reading by celebrated poets John Akpata, Jacqueline Lawrence and Joanne John. This event is a fundraiser to help send a group of Ottawa youth to the Black Youth Congress.
John Akpata is a writer and poet who lives in Ottawa. He first learned to read and write at the age of three. He has written poetry his whole life. After graduating from Carleton University with a degree in English Literature, John Akpata began to live the life of a true poet. He focused all of his energy into writing and performing, and vowed to make a living off of his art. In 2003 John Akpata was a member of Ottawa’s first ever Slam Poetry team, and travelled to Chicago to compete in the National Poetry Slam. He became the Ottawa CBC Poetry Face Off Champion in 2004. Also in 2004, John Akpata placed second in the World Indie Finals at the Canadian Spokenwordlympics – Canada’s inaugural international poetry competition. John Akpata is Ottawa’s Capital Slam Poetry Champion for 2005, and competed with Ottawa’s team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word 2005 in Vancouver.
Jacqueline Lawrence is a diversity strategist by day. On Saturdays, she is one of the hosts/producers of CHUO 89.1 FM’s Black on Black. She is also the Program Director for 3Dreads and A Baldhead’s Literary Series that has hosted readings with writers such as Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes, Lawrence Hill, Beverly Manley, Rachel Manley and Lorna Goodison. In between these activities, she manages to follow her spirit to scribble poems. As a poet, Jacqueline received the Editor’s Choice Award from the National Library of Poetry for her submission to their River of Dreams anthology. Along with her writers’ collective “Write on the Edge”, they have published two chap books. In October 2006, Jacqueline released her fist solo chapbook, Surrender. She has enjoyed sharing selected pieces from her pending collection “invisible visibility: on being black, fat and a woman” with audiences in Ottawa, Toronto and Jamaica.
Joanne John
is a local writer whose dabblings range from playwriting to poetry. In 1995, she won 2nd prize in the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Contest for her poem ‘On Wellington Street.’ She subsequently wrote and co-produced her play
Stories of the Shell
(1998), with the Great Canadian Theatre Company and the National Arts Centre. Her poems and plays have been performed at Arts Court, the AfriCanadian Playwright’s Conference and the Harbourfront Festival, and she has been a member of the NAC’s playwrights unit. Her poems appear in the online publication, The Sentinel.
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