toronto is good!

gregory alan elliott

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:38:10 +0000

Ultra prolific artist and all around friendly helpful neighbour.

If you've been to Toronto you've probably seen Greg's art. From little hearts decorating buildings, poetic catch phrases on the side walk, graphic design for Not Far From the Tree, to giant snoetry(snow poetry) Gregs art is absolutely everywhere. A simple google search of his name should give you an idea of the volume of his creativity.

Photo by: Shawn Caza

Thanks Greg for adding the lovely joyful suprises around our city.

Cytopoetics Events

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:18:01 +0000

This blog is pretty darn comprehensive in covering all the poetry events in the GTA.

Phoenix Poetry Workshop

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:45:09 +0000

The Phoenix Poetry Workshop is held the first Saturday of every month at 2:30 pm. It's a free event at the College/Shaw library which is open to any and all who wish to share their poetry.

Once upon a time when I did write poetry this was one of my favorite events as it was:

- An encouraging and friendly environment
- People grew to know each other and their poetry fairly well
- honest constructive feedback on each others writting was possible.

Ian Kamau

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:39:49 +0000

After a series of promising mix-tapes and features on other notable albums Ian Kamau dropped a master piece debut album. I really can't give it enough praise. It might be easiest to classify the music as hip hop, but the songs on the 'One Day Soon' album eschews much of what has become standard in hip hop.

I do wish there was more artists making music at this level. The lyrics are poetry of the highest degree, fiercely honest, open-hearted and thoughtfully crafted with healthy doses of love and compassion.

Check out the full album here. It really is a work that deserves to be heard in full. You might also want to check out the video on the Beautiful City post which contains a great live performance by Kamau.

Given the Speed of Trees

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:02:41 +0000

This is my final mix for Given the Speed of Trees:

http://www.archive.org/download/GivenTheSpeedOfTrees/Given-the-speed-of-trees.mp3

'Right click' + 'save as' to download the mp3 or download all aduio stems as a zip (331MB) if you want to make a remix. It's 100bpm in the key of B.

It's a song I composed using the Creative Commons sample library at ccmixter.org. I then found a couple of poems in my old note books dealing with change, rebirth, the tention between the individual and culture/tradition, and creating in the digital age.

As CCmixter lists samples by tempo and key I thought it would be easy to mix something together. While that is probably true, I ended up working on and off on this for the past few months. I May have been a little over-ambitious in how many different sounds I tried to blend together but it was damn fun. Hope you enjoy the results. I also encourage you to dive in yourself and be an active participant in the free culture Creative Commons encourages.

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0).

List of samples

Ana (Instrumenta... by Vieux Farka...
B Calm Violin 2 by Dimitri Art...
Code plays shaku by Nitropox@CC...
Guitar Harmonics by DoKashiteru
music improvement by FORENSIC
010908 cordes 01 by Morusque
Groovy Tom Hop by PorchCat
Unwind, unwind (... by debbizo
Waffer Thin by Alex
Surprise ME by mykleanthony
Waiting for... by projectQUES...
Waiting For by BarryMorgan
Percussion Loops... by annabloom
Baptism (Re-engi... by debbizo
Emerge from Dish... by snowflake
Jazz/Blues In A ... by unreal_dm
By Slapbass http://www.freesound.org/us...
REGGAE WAH GUITAR RIFF NORM.wav http://www.freesound.org/sa...
By DKifer http://www.freesound.org/us...
uke_bminor_strum.wav http://www.freesound.org/sa...
By Anton http://www.freesound.org/us...
fast_8bar_key-d1.wav http://www.freesound.org/sa...

Evalyn Parry

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:12:24 +0000

Evalyn Parry writes and performs poetic, political, theatrical songs / engaging long-format ballads infused with history and contemplation of modern issues which can't be described as anything short of awesome.

I was blessed to see her perform from Spin on a recent Art Spin. She was the first stop in the art crawl. After the performance, amazed by what we had just witnessed, my partner and I looked at each other and wondered: "How is anyone else supposed to top that?"

Go see her perform as soon as you get the chance! Take a listen to the songs on her web site on your way.

Urban Emanations by Llyod Mangal

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:24:47 +0000

A few weeks ago I was approached by Lloyd while waiting for a friend who was using a bank machine. He wanted to know if I was a musician or an artist. It eventually came out that he was a poet. I told him that I'm into poetry. He then produced his 'Urban Emanations' chap book. He offered it to me for $5 with the disclaimer that the money would go towards paying his room for the night. We talked a bit about creativity and inspiration. Our brief conversation piqued my interest, he seemed like an interesting guy and the poetry collection appeared to be well put together.

He's been living on the 'fringe' in Toronto for the last 20 years, and the poems all deal with observations and experiences from that vantage point. Urban Emanations is the work of a unique and intelligent individual. An except of a poem is on homelessguide.com

I highly recommend finding a copy of his poetry. Llyod told me I could try and contact him at Trintiy St. Paul where he is a volunteer, so I've used them for the contact info.

Knees - afx productions

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:27:13 +0000

Cute short written by Kate Dawson about obsessing over a crush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZi9KhrO_ks

Toronto Love Lettering Project « Lindsay Zier-Vogel

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 00:29:07 +0000

Since 2004 Lindsay Zier-Vogel has been placing love letters around the city.

The letters take the form of one-of-a-kindl collage art pieces with poetry.

a love letter to Roncesvalles

Inspiring! Hope I'll find one some day.

Toronto Poetry Slam

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:12:24 +0000

There was a time I thought it was wrong to give a poem a score. That was before I understood the points aren't the point of the slam. It took me a while to realize it's still the poetry that is the point. I love poetry, but the slam made me love to experience poetry again.

A long line of poets, real people, vying for your attention by speaking their mind and opening their hearts through crafted prose and rhyme, three minutes at a time, keeps things lively and leaves your soul feeling fine.

What really clinches it for me is the poetry that is created by the event itself, as the diversity of the community becomes evident and yet I realize I feel a resonance between all the individuality.

There's a whole lot of poems online here, but do check out the live event for the true experience and the oppurtunity to share a bit of yourself through spoken word. Just be sure to get there early as seats go quick.