from: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Properly+paid/5151081/story.html
Properly paid
By Jack Locke, Calgary Herald July 24, 2011

Funding a poet laureate position can be the wisest investment a government makes. A poet can, and often does, help a community see the daily flaws and foibles that are commonplace. A poet can put those things we take for granted into a new perspective. A poet can illuminate the tiniest detail of daily life so that citizens become more considerate. A poet can help our technologically lusting world from becoming inhumane.

As Calgary’s city council debates the details of creating a poet laureate, I’d have to admit the principle is a great one. However, if city council does not see the great benefit from adequately funding such a position with municipal funds, then they should forgo the position.

An annual $10,000 contribution by the city is like the dandruff that falls from my scalp, almost imperceptible in the global scheme of things. If the city municipal corporation cannot pay a poet a decent sum, then $10,000 solicited from private funders is frankly an insult.

Calgary’s poet laureate should be compensated in a manner commensurate with Calgary’s reputation as a world-class city.

Jack Locke

Jack Locke is poet-in-chief at the Foundation for Public Poetry.

Garth Martens has won the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for “Inheritance and Other Poems.” Martens is a 28-year-old, Victoria-based writer whose work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, Grain, Island Writer, and the anthology Leonard Cohen: You’re Our Man. He serves on the editorial board for The Malahat Review and works on a construction site in Kelowna, BC. His experience with machinery features prominently in his poetry. “Inheritance and Other Poems” is a selection from his work-in-progress manuscript entitled The Motive of Machines.

http://www.montrealprize.com

The early entry deadline for the competition is April 22. The final deadline is
July 8, 2011.

The Montreal International Poetry Prize will award $50,000 for a single poem in any style and in any English dialect. We will also produce an annual global poetry anthology – something curiously missing from our cultural environment.

To reflect its global perspective, the Montreal Prize has assembled an editorial board of accomplished poets from Australia, Canada, England, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Malawi, Nigeria, Northern Ireland and the US.

These poets will select 50 poems for the competition’s shortlist, which will be published in a unique global poetry anthology, representing the very latest work from around the world. From these finalists, Andrew Motion will select the winner of the prize. The international nature of our advisory board is a further expression of our global mission and includes Ben Okri, Don Paterson, and Jeet Thayil, to name a few.

As the Montreal Prize is a grassroots non-profit in its first year, we’re appealing to those interested in promoting poetry to help spread the word about our project. So we’re hoping that once you’ve had a look at our website at http://www.montrealprize.com, you’ll consider informing your students, friends and colleagues about this ambitious, fun and hopefully inspiring new project for poets everywhere. You can also find out more about us at http://montreal.about.com/od/montrealartsculture/a/montreal-poetry-prize-50000-poems-international-contest.htm.

http://www.montrealprize.com

The early entry deadline for the competition is April 22.

Penn with paper, Möe Clark standing.

Yesterday, on a day when the sky bore down, flooding Canada’s poetry capital, Westmount, Quebec, Penn Kemp(London, Ontario’s Poet Laureate) and Möe Clark(2010 Leonard Cohen Poet In Residence at Westmount High) did the dazzle at Westmount Public Library. Before that, Penn gave workshops at Westmount High and to a large, enthusiastic crowd at the library. I wish I had such energy. Special thanks to Donna Lach and the Westmount Library, Principal Michael Cristofaro and teacher Ryan Ruddick from Westmount High, the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada, the Canada Council, the Foundation for Public Poetry, and the Westmount Independent for publicizing the event.

Penn Kemp at Westmount High.

Penn presenting a master class at Westmount Library.

Do you know your Muse? This workshop will explore new ways of reaching the source of creativity. Through sounding and guided meditation, we will tap the glorious energy and source of Inspiration. Participants will develop an abundance of ideas and images, an enhanced awareness of structure and form, and more ease in showing or performing work if you choose. Although the focus will be on writing, these techniques can be applied to the visual arts as well. Please bring pen and paper or your favourite journal.

Exercises from Penn’s book on creativity, What Springs to Mind, give participants direct experience and practical suggestions for spurring the imagination and honing writing skills. Read more on http://www.mytown.ca/whatspringstomind/. Inspiration will present itself through the kind of coaching that is only possible in a small group and in such a safe setting! Penn shares deep common ground through decades of experience in various realms: the literary arts; community and peace activism; conservation and deep ecology.

About Penn:
Penn Kemp has published 25 books of poetry and drama, ten CDs, six videopoems and a DVD: www.myspace.com/pennkemp, http://www.mytown.ca/pennkemp/. Penn is an enthusiastic practitioner of the creativity she teaches; she has been giving workshops for forty years. An intrigue with ancient mythology has taken her on many journeys. Her latest CDs of EcoPoetry are Luminous Entrance and Darkness Visible. Penn presents her Sound Operas on www.chrwradio.com/talk/gatheringvoices. You can read more on http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/kemp/ and www.myspace.com/pennkemp . The Association of Canadian Studies and the Canada Council sponsored Penn’s reading tours throughout India and Brazil. She has performed at arts festivals and conferences around the world, including two Findhorn Arts Festivals and the Glastonbury Goddess Conference. Penn was Canada Council writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, 2009-10.

The workshop will be followed by a separate special performance by Penn Kemp and Möe Clark
(Leonard Cohen Poet in Residence at Westmount High)

7:30 P.M., Thursday, Sept. 30 Westmount Room
Admission: $5

Co-sponsored by the Westmount Library, Playwrights Guild of Canada,
Montreal Poetry Centre, Foundation for Public Poetry (http://publicpoetry.wordpress.com)

Penn Kemp, photo by Charles Earl

Möe Clark

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Penn Kemp and Möe Clark

Thursday, Sept. 30, 7:30 PM

Westmount Room, Westmount Public Library 4574 Sherbrooke St. West

Admission: $5

Penn Kemp, Poet Laureate for London, Ontario &

Möe Clark, Leonard Cohen Poet in Residence, Westmount High School Westmount Public Library is the site of the first Quebec performance by London Ontario’s newly crowned poet laureate and playwright, Penn Kemp, who will be reading from her Sound Opera. She will be joined on stage by Möe Clark, the first Leonard Cohen Poet In Residence at Westmount High.

Penn Kemp will also be providing a master class workshop at the Westmount Library from 4:00 – 5:30 PM, on Sept. 30. For more information or to register, people can call (514) 484-0254 or email jjlocke1957@gmail.com

The Leonard Cohen Poet In Residence program was started last year by the Foundation for Public Poetry to honour Westmount’s Leonard Cohen on his 75th birthday. The reading is co-sponsored by the Westmount Library, Playwrights Guild of Canada, the Foundation for Public Poetry and the Montreal Poetry Centre.

The man who spent 18 years in prison for disclosing details of Israel’s nuclear bomb production was recently re-arrested for supposedly breaking conditions of his bail. “Continued punishing of Vanunu is a travesty,” says Jack Locke, Foundation spokesperson.

“First, Vanunu’s original crime hurt no one. Expressing ones words, at least in free-democratic countries, is not supposed to be a crime punishable by imprisonment.” The Foundation notes that even the pre-perestroika Soviets released Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Some of Vanunu’s poetry can be read at:

http://www.vanunu.com/poems/index.html

CLICK HERE to read what Amnesty International says about Vanunu.

L.C. Poet in Residence Moe Clark(center), teacher Rob Green and young Westmount High poets

Wow. The Leonard Cohen Poet in Residence at Westmount High(Moe Clark) has finished term 1. Starting in Feb. and concluding in May, Moe did a stellar job. And the students were phenomenal: improving their performances, writing, and confidence. Special thanks to teachers Ryan Ruddick, Rob Green and Principal Michael Cristofaro. Special thanks to all supporters of this project, the Westmount High Alumni Assoc., Friesens Corporation, and many others.

Now, back to the fundraising and planning efforts. Volunteers welcome. Contact Jack at publicpoetry(at)gmail.com

If you are in the neighbourhood, do stop in.
Möe Clark, the first Leonard Cohen Poet-in-Residence at Westmount High School, performs her work and discusses her career at Atwater Library’s Lunchtime Series.

Place: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount, QC.
FREE ADMISSION