life with more cowbell

I was back at Free Times Café last night for WordSpell – a bi-monthly women’s poetry/spoken word event, featuring an established poet, an emerging poet and open mic performances.

Features Vanessa McGowan and Jill Battson wove magic with their words for a packed room – and the positive, engaged energy was palpable throughout the evening.

I’d heard Vanessa McGowan perform her work before – and I’m always amazed at the powerful combination of sharp frankness, vulnerability and heart – and sly humour – that she brings to her pieces. Speaking of the marginalized in society – the homeless, the disabled, LGBTQ – McGowan’s words weave the personal into the political, the individual into the universal. I can’t recall the title of the piece, but it starts with a verse and chorus from “Angel from Montgomery” – the line “And remember that our deepest human desire is to matter” resonates in a big way. Her published works appear in a recently reprint run of Divine Cock-eyed Genius. Check out this vid of “On Other Chunks”, performed in front of the Toronto AIDS memorial in Cawthra Park.

Jill Battson wordsmiths with visceral, evocative language – observational and sometimes irreverently funny – from treasures stolen from a storage locker to being unwittingly hooked on Martha Stewart Living to the subtly erotic, a pleasure to hear and see perform.

I wasn’t able to stay for the open mic performances, but I will definitely be back. The sense of community and support among the audience and artists makes for a lovely, casual and comfortable space – and I especially love how we all shared in a reading of Margaret Atwood’s “Spelling” at the beginning of the evening, the inspiration for WordSpell’s name.

Look out for next WordSpell event in November.