Pockets of Time: An Interview with Suzie LeBlanc about "I Am in Need of Music"

Another Exciting Launch for "I am in need of music"

I am excited to report that there was a large and enthusiastic gathering at the second launch of "I am in need of music" and "Walking with EB," on 22 October 2013 at Massey College in Toronto. Warmly hosted by John Fraser, the Master of Massey College, the programme included remarks by Mr. Fraser, Suzie LeBlanc, Sandra Barry, Linda Rae Dornan -- and a delighteful improvisational performance by musician/composer/conductor Dinuk Wijeratne and CBC Radio 2 host Tom Allan (Tom read Bishop's poem "Sunday 4 A.M." as Dinuk accompanied on the piano. Then, what everyone was waiting for, Suzie performed two songs from the CD ("Insomnia" and "Anaphora" -- settings by Christos Hatzis). Heartfelt thanks to John Fraser and Massey College for their generous support of this project.

The next launch will happen in Ottawa on 12 November.

Suzie LeBlanc and John Fraser (photograph by Alfred Villeneuve)

On 19 October 2013, in the Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, New Brunswick) magazine Salon Focus, Mike Landry wrote a delightful feature about the CD/DVD.

On 21 October, music critic John Terauds wrote a lovely review of the CD in the online Musical Toronto --
(http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2013/10/22/album-review-suzie-leblancs-love-affair-with-elizabeth-bishop-yields-rich-musical-offspring/)

Read John Plant's thoughts about his participation in the Bishop Legacy Recording on his blog:
(http://www.johnplantmusic.com/apps/blog/show/34563214-thoughts-on-my-concerto-and-the-bishop-project)

Remember, you can order the CD/DVD online at:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Suzie-LeBlanc/Performer/15333-2
or
http://www.musiccentre.ca/node/77772

Readers Respond to ECHOES OF ELIZABETH BISHOP

In June 2013, the EBSNS launched Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop: The Elizabeth Bishop Centenary (2011) Writing Competition. The editors have asked a some of our readers to provide a comment, a personal response, to the collection. We will post them over the next few weeks. We hope these readers’ responses will tempt you to buy a copy for your own library. It also makes a wonderful Christmas gift!

You find out more about Echoes on the EBSNS website:

http://www.elizabethbishopns.org/echoesofelizabethbishop.html

You can purchase online at: http://www.elizabethbishopns.org/publications.html or at Bookmark, on Spring Garden Road in Halifax, N.S.

{Note: The Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia will be selling copies of ECHOES at the Great Village Christmas Craft Fair on 2 November and at the Truro Farmers' Market on 16 November.}

 Image by Teresa Alexander Arab

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Response by Star Coulbrooke

In a recent letter, Utah writer Star Coulbrooke wrote about reading Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop. She has kindly given permission for us to excerpt part of that letter to post as her “comment.”

Star wrote, “I have just finished reading, in Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop, the Mary Verna Feehan essay. What an amazing talent for creating emotional realms of a child’s world — I felt as if I were travelling inside the girl who was sensing the adult surrounding of her previously insular and sheltered life, who was feeling their sympathy and concern, with the limited knowledge of worldly behavior, just her child’s perceptions, dreamlike and trusting. A lovely, simple piece with deep layers of insight. I am glad to have a few minutes this morning to delve into the book again …. I finished Echoes last Saturday and wrote about the Anne Pollett piece in my journal, about her mother being “unshakably positive” and always believing in the goodness of others. It was as if she were my sister, because she described my mother’s traits. Mine died in 1999, at 88, having never said a negative thing about anyone she ever met. She lived through the Depression too, as Anne Pollett’s mother did, and was always grateful for the most basic amenities. I believe she instilled that kind of gratitude in me as well, because I have always deeply appreciated the basic comforts of my own fortunate life.”

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Star Coulbrooke is responsible for Helicon West, a bi-monthly open readings/featured readers series in Logan, Utah. Her poems appear in journals such as Poetry International, Redactions: Poetry and Poetics, and Sugar House Review. Her most recent poetry collection, Walking the Bear, published by Outlaw Artists Press, is a tribute to the Bear River. Star directs the Utah State University Writing Center.

I AM IN NEED OF MUSIC -- Wonderful launch in Halifax on 6 October 2013

What a wonderful gathering it was on Sunday afternoon, 6 October 2013, at PIPA Restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the launch of "I am in need of music," the Elizabeth Bishop Legacy Recording presented by Suzie LeBlanc, and "Walking With EB," the documentary film by Linda Rae Dornan. It was truly inspiring and deeply moving to bring together so many of the artists and supporters of this wonderful project, a homecoming for all who gathered. I have still not fully processed all that happened, but I wanted to share some photographs of the event, taken by Susan Kerslake. Before I do that, I want to remind you that you can order the CD/DVD set from CentreDiscs: http://www.musiccentre.ca/node/77772.

The CD has also received a wonderful review in the online music magazine, "I Care If You Listen" (http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/magazine/) -- one needs to subscribe to this magazine to see the review.

And now for some photos from this wonderful celebration of the completion of an extraordinary work of art:

The attentive audience.

Our blog master John Barnstead.

Left to Right: Alexander MacLeod (our amazing reader of Bishop's poems), Suzie LeBlanc (our incomparable singer), John Barnstead, Sandra Barry, Alasdair MacLean (one of our amazing composers), Linda Rae Dornan (our inspiring filmmaker), and John Plant (another of our amazing composers).

Thank you to all those won attended -- it felt like a family gathering. Thank you to the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia for sponsoring this wonderful event. Thank you to the amazing artists who worked on this project. Thank you to Suzie LeBlanc and Linda for their creative visions. Thank you to Elizabeth Bishop for her transformative art.

The Atrium at PIPA -- we aspire to great heights.

The next launch is in Toronto on 22 October at Massey College. We'll be sure to post some photos of that event. There will also be a launch in Ottawa on 12 November. Stay tuned for more updates.

Readers Respond to ECHOES OF ELIZABETH BISHOP -- Part Six

In June 2013, the EBSNS launched Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop: The Elizabeth Bishop Centenary (2011) Writing Competition. The editors have asked a some of our readers to provide a comment, a personal response, to the collection. We will post them over the next few weeks. We hope these readers’ responses will tempt you to buy a copy for your own library. It also makes a wonderful Christmas gift!

You find out more about Echoes on the EBSNS website:

http://www.elizabethbishopns.org/echoesofelizabethbishop.html

You can purchase online at: http://www.elizabethbishopns.org/publications.html or at Bookmark, on Spring Garden Road in Halifax, N.S.

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Response from Carmel Cummins

I really want to say very little. All I want to do is keep quoting from this fine book.

We ingest geography. (Mary Jo Anderson)

I won’t drop you. I’m showing you our world. Look out there, baby. That’s our slide shining like the Milky Way. (Moya Pacey)

When you are as fond of a certain place as I am of my grandfather’s cabin, you’ll know the slight feeling of dread as you pull away from it. (Aaron Holland)

There’s something about the ocean, that makes me “me”. (Maria Duynisveld)

I like to sit on the branch and feel the air on my neck…today I am whistling along with the wind. Yes I can whistle.  Most girls can’t. (Lauren Kruisselbrink)

Someday, in this place, I will pass from this world to the next. (Elizabeth Schofield)

One day I will probably have to leave Neil’s Harbor. I’m a small town girl with big dreams. (Dakota Warren)

In Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop, both adult and younger writers offer with clarity and humour, an awareness of all our love and longing for what might be home. This book is a celebration of that theme but, as befits echoes of Elizabeth Bishop, there is awareness too of the heart’s complexity and of what is painful and dangerous, especially in the writing from young people as they grapple with what life presents to them. Just the title of Tiffany Vincent’s piece “On the Out [In]side Looking In[Out]” wonderfully evokes such struggle, or Sarah Giragosian’s, The parsonage, a massive New England colonial, has three spots from which a person can jump and possibly land intact… But, as with Bishop, there is a rich sense that fine writing on any theme can offer its own transcendence. There are also beautifully-reproduced images, the small scale taking nothing from, for example, the haunting image of “The Walker” by Teresa Alexander Arab or the colourful delight of “Low Tide” by Joy Laking. The editors, Sandra Barry and Laurie Gunn, have performed a great service, for contributors and readers, in bringing this book into the world. 

I still have my In The Village t-shirt from 2011! It emerged from a drawer on Sunday last to be worn on a walk that ended in our returning to my own village by a road I seldom use.  I saw Inistioge with new eyes and was startled by the fresh pleasure and joy another perspective brought. Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop has roads we haven’t walked, even though we think we know the terrain well. No need to have worn the t-shirt to enjoy this book – just an openness, like Bishop and Yeats, that the heart of living (and writing) is the heart.

Image by Bruce Gray

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Carmel Cummins is a writer from Co Kilkenny, Ireland. She lives in a village called Inistioge. A poetry group that evolved from the class given by the American poet Jean Valentine in Kilkenny in 1991 has been the main source of support for her work. Her  poems have been published in national magazines, in The Kilkenny Anthology, (1991);  Inkbottle; New Writing from Kilkenny, (2001); and in a chapbook, Woodstock Promenade, (2009). She was awarded first prize in the Black Diamond Poetry Prize in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Listowel Poetry Collection Award in 2013. Her latest publications are, for prose, Townlands, a habitation, ed. Alan Counihan, (2012) and, for poetry, Science meets Poetry 3, eds. Jean Patrick Connerade and Iggy McGovern, (2012) and the Kilkenny Broadsheet, (2013). She loved her visit to Great Village in 2011, the wonderful creativity and inclusiveness of the EB 100 celebrations, and the privilege of staying in EB House.