Advertisement
Join us for the launch of Domenica Martinello's Good Want and Simina Banu's I Will Get Up Off Of (Coach House Books) at Bar Le Ritz PDB on Wednesday, May 29th. The evening will feature a reading by both authors, who will be joined by beloved local poets T. Liem and Gwen Aube, a conversation hosted by Tara McGowan-Ross, a Q&A, and a signing.The event is free and open to all. Books will be available for purchase at the event and the authors will sign copies of their books.
Doors 7pm
Readings 8pm
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
GOOD WANT
What if poetry and prayer are the same: intimate and inconclusive, hopeful and useless, a private communion that hooks you to the thrashing, imperfect world?
Good Want entertains the notion that perhaps virtue is a myth that’s outgrown its uses.
Exploring the value and shame ascribed to our desires both silly and serious – artistic, superficial, spiritual, relational – these poems grapple with deeply rooted questions: How can there be a relationship between goodness and godliness, if god is a character with shifting allegiances and priorities? Is clarity worth the pain of redefining your experience of the world? Is privacy the same as secrecy the same as deceit? Each caveat becomes a prayer, ritual, invocation, dream, or confession, requiring a blind faith that feels increasingly more impossible to sustain.
Good Want looks inward, at once both sincere and tongue-in-cheek, to confront the hum of class and intergenerational trauma. Playing with and deconstructing received notions of ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ and ‘god,’ these poems open up a series of further possibilities: empathy for difficult people, acceptance of our difficult selves, and joy in every difficult thing.
About the author:
Domenica Martinello holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was the recipient of the Deena Davidson Friedman Prize for Poetry. She currently lives in Montreal.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I WILL GET UP OFF OF
Overthinking simple actions leads to overwhelming poems about what one can lean on if promised help doesn’t help.
I Will Get Up Off Of is a book about trying to leave a chair. How does anyone ever leave a chair? There are so many muscles involved – so many tarot cards, coats, meds, McNuggets, and memes. In this book, poems are attempts and failures at movement as the speaker navigates her anxiety and depression in whatever way she can, looking for hope from social workers on Zoom, wellness influencers, and psychics alike. Eventually, the poems explode in frustration, splintering into various art forms as attempts at expression become more and more desperate. What is there to lean on when avenues promising help don’t help? Bell may want to #talk but does it want to listen? I Will Get Up Off Of explores the role art plays in survival and the hope that underlies every creative impulse.
About the author:
Simina Banu is a writer and musician living in Montreal. She likes investigating the inexpressibility of feelings, of anxiety and depression against the backdrop of capitalism, technology and the internet. I Will Get Up Off Of is her second book. She has also written POP (Coach House, 2020), and several chapbooks.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly would like to acknowledge that our events and bookstores are located on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Many of us refer to Montreal as our home, but it is named Tiohtiá:ke. It has always been a gathering place for many First Nations and continues to be home to a diverse population of Indigenous peoples. We are grateful that creating and sharing stories has been a part of this land for thousands of years.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
LE RITZ PDB IS WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE, WITH A METAL RAMP ON THE INSIDE OF THE FRONT ENTRANCE. THE BAR IS LOCATED ON THE GROUND FLOOR, ITS ENTRY FACING DIRECTLY ONTO JEAN-TALON OUEST. WASHROOMS ARE ALSO WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE AND GENDER-NEUTRAL.
Please email [email protected] if you have any questions!
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bar Le Ritz PDB, 179 Rue Jean-Talon O, Montréal, QC H2R 2X2, Canada,Montreal, Quebec
