Monday, May 31, 2010

Another meeting?

Hi all,

Should we meet June 22nd to go over what we have written for the spoken word night in August and discuss whether or not we want a practice night? We could discuss what we want to do over the summer - break or continue to meet. Please let me know what you think!

Susan

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Hello folks! Mini-update seeing as no-one else is jumping in. We had four of us last night and just got right to it without a writing warm-up exercise. Kay shared poetic pieces around her Kenyan experiences and other personal pieces of the heart. Some great stuff there for spoken word night. Sue shared a gutsy, wrenching slam poetry style piece and due to my tired brain, I am unable to recall the others. Margaret and I didn't share our writings but contributed to the feedback which appeared to be helpful. It sounds like the spoken word night may be better in the fall as we need someone to get an alternate location if Pierre's is out. I chatted to Christine about her place so that may be an option. We should get a sense of how many want to continue through the summer so post your thoughts folks! Nicole has already so let's follow suit so we know wether to carry on through the summer. Any ideas for June meetings/facilitators? It wasn't the same without the 'regulars' and irregulars. Hope to connect in the next meetings however it works out. Ciao for now.

Missed meeting

Hi all,

How did the meeting go last night? I totally forgot - I'm so bummed! I've been busy with domestics (house painting, gardening etc) and lost track of the date. I missed my meeting today, too. Ooops! Is anyone else in disbelief that it's the end of May already?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Spoken Word Night Postponed

Pierre from the Bean Tree is dealing with some unusual circumstances so we won't be able to have our spoken word night on May 28. Perhaps we can discuss at the next meeting what date in June would work best for everyone.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Kimberley Literacy champions

If you know someone in Kimberley who deserves recognition for their work in advancing literacy, you can nominate them as a Literacy Champion. Everyone nominated will be recognized in September as part of International Literacy Day. Nomination forms are available at a number of locations in town, ie Centre 64, the Library, grocery stores, Black Bear books etc. The deadline for nominations is June 4th. You can nominate as many people as you want. This is a Kimberley Community Literacy Committee initiative.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

What's my excuse?

Tuesday night's writing group started out with a prompt provided by Nicole. Although she couldn't make the meeting, we appreciated her prompt and spent a lot of time laughing at the results. "You're late for work because you overslept, but your boss hates over-sleepers. He does love entertaining stories, so create the most outlandish excuse as to why you were late." We had a lot of fun with it, excuses ranging from a lack of clean underwear, bank robberies, flooding toilets, runaway babies, indiscretions with members of the boss's family, Lego in unfortunate body orifices and extra long vacations.

We spent the rest of the time critiquing personal work, and got about half way through the group, so we'll have to continue with that another night. Heather shared her lovely story about Faith and cute poem about Queen Calamity and King Crab, we heard two chapters from Sue's mystery: secret messages, Chinese tea, large-muscled hit men and creepy pulp mills. The description of setting was distinctly Canadian, and very well done. Mike presented the extended version of his Laundry poem, expanding the visual image of what life in a mill town in England was like, and the final piece of the evening was Nola's entertaining engagement with a canoe (she'd give Don a run for his money with her outdoor adventure writing), her perfectly matched gum boots and lipstick and the expansion of her adventure gene.

We had a vote as to which night would work for the oral presentation at the Beantree. Most can make May 28th, but Margaret, Joanne and Don can't (correct me if I'm wrong) - we could go ahead with the 28th or reschedule for later in June. We did decide to bring the writing that we want to present to our next meeting to fine-tune/practice. Which brings me to the next point.

We decided that the next meeting, May 25th, will be dedicated to the presentation, so we won't have a facilitator or a designated assignment. Anyone who can't participate at the Beantree, please still come to the meeting - bring along any writing that you'd like to share and your sharp wit.

Also, we'd like to welcome Kay to Write On. Great writing, Kay! We look forward to hearing more.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Slam

Did anyone check out the slam poet on the weekend? I had a potluck, so I missed it.