by Shaun Hunter
Join me for Writing the City: a literary Jane's Walk in Calgary on Saturday May 7, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. We'll meet in Harley Hotchkiss Park beside the old courthouse on 7th Avenue.
This year's route is new, and I've dug up many fresh literary connections on Calgary's landmark Stephen Avenue.
Here's a sneak preview of this year's walk in Avenue magazine.
by Shaun Hunter
Pearl Miller's house at 526-9th Avenue SE. The literary history cabaret, Writing the East Village took place at Loft 112 (535-8th Ave SE) directly to the north of the site where Miller ran her brothel in the 1920s. (Photo: Calgary Public Library Alison Jackson Collection)
Pearl Miller's house at 526-9th Avenue SE. The literary history cabaret, Writing the East Village took place at Loft 112 (535-8th Ave SE) directly to the north of the site where Miller ran her brothel in the 1920s. (Photo: Calgary Public Library Alison Jackson Collection)
Many of these works were featured at Writing the East Village: A Literary History Cabaret held at Loft 112 on March 29, 2016.
Early Days
Sir Cecil Denny, The Law Marches West (Dent, 1939)
Cheryl Foggo & Clem Martini, “Chapter Six,” Noir on Eighth (yycpennydreadful.ca, 2015)
Between the Wars
Nancy Jo Cullen, “526 – 9 Avenue SE,” Pearl (Frontenac House, 2006)
Deborah Willis & Kris Demeanor, “Chapter One,” Noir on Eighth (yycpennydreadful.ca, 2015)
Roberta Rees, “Iodine,” Long After Fathers (Coteau, 2007)
1970s/80s
Karen Connelly, “To Strike the Eye and Sound the Heart,” in Last Call (Rocky Mountain Books, 2010)
Bruce Hunter, “The Many Happy Returns of Kenny Dawes,” Country Music Country (Thistledown Press, 1996)
Contemporary
Max Ciesielski & Kris Demeanor, “One Dime at a Time,” Shelter from the Storm (CD, 2015)
Karen Connelly, “Shelter on the Banks of the Bow,” Come Cold River (Quattro Books, 2013)
Rosemary Griebel, “Walking with Walt Whitman Through Calgary’s Eastside on a Winter Day,” Yes (Frontenac House, 2011)
Rosemary Griebel, “Of Memory and Place: East Village,” (unpublished, 2014)
Jill Hartman, “Simmons Ltd. Beds Mattresses Springs Pillows,” A Painted Elephant (Coach House Books, 2003)
Aritha van Herk, “Rough,” In This Place: Calgary 2004-2011 (Frontenac House, 2011)
George Webber, Last Call (Rocky Mountain Books, 2010)
Robin van Eck, Rough (Stonehouse Publishing, 2020)
by Shaun Hunter
Sidewalk stamp from the King Edward Hotel. The stamp is gone, but the King Eddie remains in its new incarnation as part of the National Music Centre (Photo: Courtesy of the Calgary Public Library Community Heritage and Family History Collection)
Sidewalk stamp from the King Edward Hotel. The stamp is gone, but the King Eddie remains in its new incarnation as part of the National Music Centre (Photo: Courtesy of the Calgary Public Library Community Heritage and Family History Collection)
"I felt like I was seated in the centre of a landscape watching an open train filled with characters travel through time and space around me."
This is how Calgary author Cheryl Foggo described Writing the East Village, a literary history cabaret I organized last month along with Lisa Murphy-Lamb at Loft 112. A standing-room crowd of readers, writers and East Village residents gathered to explore one of Calgary's oldest and most storied neighbourhoods.
The evening started out with a view of the pristine landscape at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers in 1875, and ended with a song written last year in a collaboration between Kris Demeanor and residents of the Calgary Drop-In Centre.
In case you missed the cabaret, I've posted a list of the works featured that night – and a couple of photographs of what was a magical evening of story and history.
And thanks to our fabulous guest authors and readers: Kris Demeanor, Zoey Duncan, Cheryl Foggo, Gina Freeman, Steve Gin, Rosemary Griebel, Jill Hartman, Lisa Murphy-Lamb, Roberta Rees, William Taylor, Aritha van Herk and John Veldhoen.
(Photo: Blair Carbert)
(Photo: Blair Carbert)
by Shaun Hunter
Thanks to Jennifer Friesen at Metro News for this fine piece about Writing the City: Calgary through the Eyes of Writers.