PoeTrainers Head West – Ottawa – Toronto – Winnipeg – Edmonton – Vancouver

“The adventure has changed but certainly not the adventure as a group of PoeTrainers travel westward and inward bringing poetry to the public during National Poetry Month. Poets have always been attracted to a journey and this will be a most memorable week of the “best poetry event in 2015”.            –David C. Brydges,  Artistic Director, Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour

All Aboard! Clickity-clack…the Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour is about to begin.  What started out as one-poet’s vision will soon turn into reality. Despite some of the glitches of not being able to start the journey on the east coast and the last minute decision to skip the Toronto-Winnipeg leg due to recent derailments in northern Ontario, the adventure moves forward. As the promotional poster states: “26 poets. 5 cities. Epic Journey”

All Aboard! Photo courtesy: The Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour website.

Some of the PoeTrainers have already packed their bags and are heading their way to Ottawa for Wednesday April 15’s kick-off celebration. Others will join the festivities along the way with PoeTrain events also planned for Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. For those on the train, poetry will not only fill the Skyline Dome Car Lounge but will spill with musical notes into the Park Car as well.

One of the special passengers will be my kulturBOT 3.0, a robotic artwork created by Dr. David Harris Smith of McMaster University and Dr. Fauke Zeller of Ryerson University. This usual bard features a roving mobility system, a pasta strainer, a thermal printer, camera, and bicycle flag.

According to a Ryerson University Public Affairs Media Release, “this ‘self-publishing’ robot, will produce ‘found’ poetry derived from the writings of the geographer and fur-trader David Thompson…Images and poems by my kulturBOT 3.0 will be publicized via its twitter and Facebook accounts. See the links here.

An anthology of train-themed poems by PoeTrain participants is also expected to be produced and National Poetry Month will be celebrated with food-themed poems. DC Reid, a former president of The League of Canadian Poets will be the PoeTrain’s first poet laureate. Several other members of the league will be featured thanks to Canada Reading Tour funding via the Canada Council for the Arts. Paul Sanderson and Ian Ferrier will entertain as part of the Artist on Board program. Special thanks to all the sponsors who made this adventure possible. 

Clickity-clack! We’ll be back!

Follow this blog for future updates on the tour.

An earlier blog post on the PoeTrain appears here.

The official Great Canadian PoeTrain Tour website with a list of participants, scheduled events and sponsors appear here.

 

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