About this Event
The sun has sprung back to our hemisphere, and Minstrels & Bards is ready to celebrate! On Tuesday, April 23rd, 6:45-7pm, at the Tranzac, a host of talented writers & musicians are performing for your pleasure. Michael Fraser, a beautiful, award-winning poet, dub poet extraordinaire, Clifton Joseph, and amazing singer/songwriters, Aidan Devine, and oh-I-am-so-happy Sarah Greene, one of the great people who run the Tranzac. Catherine Raine and Derek Webster are also reading.There is a bar in the Southern Cross Lounge and light snacks. The Tranzac is fully accessible. While the event is free, we pass the jug and recommend a $10-15 donation for the features. It’ll be a fabulously full evening. I will be starting at 6:50pm. Please note: Sarah is performing first, at 7pm, if you’re a Tranzac-er and would like to catch her set. Hope y’all can make it out to enjoy the show!
Bios
SARAH GREENE is a songwriter, writer and former music journalist (for NOW Magazine, Exclaim!, The Coast and other publications) from Toronto. Her songs are intimate, concise and idiosyncratically classic. Working in warm, soulful country-tinged folk-rock ballads, Greene examines loneliness, vulnerability, and the tugging poles of freedom and attachment in her songs. She released two recordings as the front woman of mid-2000s indie-folk band The Pickups before putting out her debut solo album, Toronto Blues, in 2011. Greene's long-awaited sophomore album, Being Real (featuring Paul Kolinski, Tania Gill, Michael Herring and Dani Nash) is due out later this year. Greene is the Director of Residency Programs for Tranzac, a not for profit community-run venue in Toronto. She is also the program coordinator for Folk Music Ontario's Folk In Film Festival.
Dubzz/poet/at-Large CLIFTON JOSEPH is a Toronto-based poet and journalist. A founding member of the dub poetry movement in Canada, he has performed widely across Canada, the USA, UK, Caribbean and Europe. He’s published “Metropolitan Blues” and released “Oral Trans/Missions” and “Shots On Eglinton”, two albums of poetry&music. His sonic approach to poetry attempts to bring out the power and musicality of words. He toured his last album in Egypt, Paris, London, Southampton, Wales and Berlin. His latest release is a 7-inch vinyl “Subtarrenean Dub” on the BSMT Local 254 label.
MICHAEL FRASER is published in Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 and 2018. He has won numerous awards, including Freefall Magazine’s 2014 and 2015 poetry contests, the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize, the 2018 Gwendolyn Macewen Poetry Competition, and the League of Canadian Poets’ 2022 Lesley Strutt Poetry Prize. His latest book is With My Eyes Wide Open published by Exile Editions.
AIDAN DEVINE Is a regular, workaday Canadian actor who’s made his living plying that trade for thirty years in Montreal and then Toronto. He’s also spent time on the stand up comedy circuit. But mostly he loves to write and sing songs. He’s exited to be part of this evening’s thoughtful entertainment and looks forward to coming with you all.
Highlights
Derek Webster’s new collection of poems, National Animal, is published by Vehicule Press. His 2015 collection, Mockingbird, was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poems in Canada. He received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied with Carl Phillips, and was the founding editor of Maisonneuve magazine. He lives in Montreal and Toronto.
Catherine Raine is a writer, artist, and educator. Inspired by nature and mindfulness, her work often combines images, text, and spoken word. In 2020, she self-published Visualizations for Heartbreak, which is a series of illustrated meditations that are devoted to anyone seeking comfort after a deep loss. Catherine’s writings and artwork can be found on her website, www.c-raine.com.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto, Canada
CAD 0.00