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WordStorm’s 15 Minutes of Infamy season wraps up at Old City Station Pub

Comox Valley poet laureate Natalie Nickerson is among the performing poets
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Comox Valley poet laureate Natalie Nickerson is among the poets performing at the 15 Minutes of Infamy season finale on June 20. (Photo courtesy Georgia Nickerson)

WordStorm Society of the Arts’ 15 Minutes of Infamy spoken word performance series is wrapping up its 2017-18 season with a fundraiser for Literacy Central Vancouver Island.

Wordstorm artistic director Carla Stein said her group is working to “make an even larger contribution to the community via wordcraft,” and that Literacy Central Vancouver Island was a natural recipient of their charity.

“They’re an organization that’s also working to support literacy in all sorts of different ways and support people who may not have had the opportunity to enjoy the fullest amount of education that they might need in this day and age and are doing a lot of good work on the Island,” she said.

“And so we thought that we would help support them as well.”

This is the second year that the series is ending its season with a fundraiser. In 2017 WordStorm raised money for Pull Together, which assists First Nations in preparing legal arguments against pipelines that affect their territory.

The event takes place at the Old City Station Pub Green Olive Room on Wednesday, June 20. It will hosted by Susan Pederson and feature Comox Valley poet laureate Natalie Nickerson as well as local poets and spoken word artists Stein, Margareta Guri, Andrew Brown, Ian Cognito and Stephen Novik, with music by Donna Konsorado. Stein said she hopes to fill the venue.

“As it’s a fundraiser for literacy, the theme of the event is literacies, and that’s literacies of all sorts of different varieties,” Stein said.

“So it may be literacies about race, about gender, about literacy itself. It’s open to interpretation and so all of the performers that we have on board are going to be envisioning that in their own way.”

This is Nickerson’s first 15 Minutes of Infamy event. She said her work will comment on “aesthetic literacy.”

“Poetry in general, I think, is aesthetic by its nature, so I want to sort of evoke questions of that nature; present the audience with the notion that poetry is a participatory experience because aesthetic intelligence requires participation…” she explained.

“I’m hoping that the experience will bring to light these ideas that aesthetic intelligence is a sensory and emotional, intellectual experience all at once.”

Stein said the past year went “amazingly well” for 15 Minutes. This year marked the formal amalgamation of 15 Minutes and WordStorm. Meetings have moved from the Nanaimo Bar to the Green Olive Room, giving attendees and performers a dedicated space free from interruptions. Also, the number of performers has dropped from eight to seven and the first 15 minutes are now set aside for open mic, with participants advised to register in advance.

“We’re also trying to provide more of a venue for emerging and local poets in that way,” Stein said.

“Not necessarily poets but people who are doing all sorts of wordcraft are welcome to be at the open mic.”

After breaking for the summer, 15 Minutes of Infamy makes its return in September and Stein said organizers are on the lookout for new performers.

“We’re looking for people that may have a little bit of a different twist into the work that they’re doing, maybe a little bit of an edge to it,” she said.

“We’re open to a lot of different possibilities. We don’t like to limit ourselves.”

WHAT’S ON … 15 Minutes of Infamy season finale at the Old City Station Pub Green Olive Room on Wednesday, June 20 at 7 p.m. $5 admission.



arts@nanaimobulletin.com

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