Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Celebrations – A few reflections

As the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary comes to a close (hard to believe the autumnal equinox is almost here!), over the next weeks and months, we will be reflecting on the many celebrations, and gradually putting up material (particularly video) that has been created during the year. John has been our trusty videographer, and has accumulated a lot of footage, which he has already started to post on the blog and on our YouTube channel. An example of this is below – the video of our July reading of “These Fine Mornings” – Joelle Biele’s adaptation of the Elizabeth Bishop/New Yorker correspondence. Joelle herself has posted an audio-only recording of that reading on her website: www.joellebiele.com.

What I want to say about that reading, that event, was that it was great fun for me – and I think my fellow readers (John, Suzie LeBlanc and Harry Thurston) had fun, too. We had virtually no rehearsal (just one quick read through a few days beforehand), so it was a spontaneous effort, more or less – but the letters are incredibly lively and funny, the editorial process they describes so revealing, that it was a real pleasure and privilege to be part of it. I hope you can see how much fun we and the audience are having. To be able to do the reading in the sanctuary of St. James United Church in Great Village, the “high-shouldered and secretive” church that loomed over Bishop’s childhood, was also a privilege.

The biggest EB100 event in Nova Scotia (bigger even than the wonderful symposium in June) was the EB100 Arts Festival in August. John has already started to post some video of it on the YouTube Channel, and there is more to come. All of this takes time, of course – but we have lots of interesting material to share.

The Arts Festival was a roaring success and we will be seeing the impact of it in Nova Scotia for some time to come. Congratulations must go out to Joy Laking and Laurie Gunn and the Arts Festival Committee – all their hard work paid off wonderfully.


While the festival was the biggest event, it was not the last event. We are planning an official finale to the EB100 celebrations, to take place from 30 September to 2 October: “Home of the Long Tides”: The Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Closing Celebrations. You can find all the information about this event on the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia website: www.elizabethbishopns.org – and over then next few days, I will be posting information about each of the activities taking place during that weekend. We chose this time because it is near the anniversary of Elizabeth Bishop’s death, 6 October. As we began at the time of her birth, 8 February, we thought it appropriate to culminate our activities in early October.

While “Home of the Long Tides” is the big finale for the EBSNS, it is not the final event of the EB100 year – and we will continue to let you know about events and activities being planned. There will also be legacy projects emerging from EB100, for example, we will be publishing the winners of the Writing Competition, and, again, we will let you know about these projects as they unfold.

Reminder

Photograph by Laurie Gunn

This afternoon (Sunday, 18 September 2011) at 2:00 p.m. Sandra Barry will present "Contemplating Elizabeth Bishop's 'One Art'" at ViewPoint Gallery, 1272 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her talk is part of the photography exhibit One Art: Responses to "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop.

“These Fine Mornings: Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker”

These Fine Mornings is a one-act play by Joelle Biele, editor of Elizabeth Bishop and the New Yorker: the Complete Correspondence. It tells the story of Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker using excerpts from letters between Bishop and editors Charles Pearce, Katharine White, and Howard Moss. Woven between their correspondence are letters Bishop wrote to friends, internal magazine documents, poems, and questions and answers that appear on proofs. Actors do more than one voice.

The play was first read at the University of Chicago's International House and hosted by the Program in Poetry and Poetics and the Poetry Foundation. Directed by Bernard Sahlins, it featured Linda Kimbrough as Elizabeth Bishop, Bruce Jarchow as the narrator, Suzanne Petri as Katharine White, and Tim Kazurinsky as Charles Pearce and Howard Moss.

These Fine Mornings is being read by contemporary poets at a number of venues as part of the celebration of the centenary of Bishop's birth. Here is a link to an audio recording of the Great Village performance in July:

http://www.joellebiele.com/Images/Nova%20Scotia%20Reading.mp3

And here is a video recording:

Not the Same One, We Presume...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44431492/ns/world_news-weird_news/#.TmnDIezG-Jo.

(Of course, the original story called the inebriated animal an elk...)

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference: DAZZLING DIALECTICS: BRAZIL IN THE EYES OF ELIZABETH BISHOP

International Conference – Congresso Internacional

DAZZLING DIALECTICS: BRAZIL IN THE EYES OF ELIZABETH BISHOP

DESLUMBRANTE DIALÉTICA: O BRASIL NO OLHAR DE ELIZABETH BISHOP

November 9-12, 2011

Ouro Preto/Mariana

Minas Gerais, Brazil

In 2011, the birth centenary of Elizabeth Bishop is celebrated in many countries through recitals, poetry readings, academic meetings and other events. Her life and poetry are particularly related to three countries: the United States, Canada, and Brazil. In Brazil, besides the centenary, there is an additional reason to make this event significant: sixty years of the poet’s arrival in the country, an opportune occasion for re-readings of her work. Such re-readings will enable us to evaluate the poet’s relation with Brazil expressed in her poetry, prose, and vast correspondence.

The International Conference “DAZZLING DIALECTIC: BRAZIL IN THE EYES OF ELIZABETH BISHOP” has the purpose of gathering scholars interested in Elizabeth Bishop’s work. The event, which includes lectures, round-tables, panels, and readings has the intent to discuss the writer’s work, as well as its relevance in Brazil and abroad.

The event will address the following themes related to the author:

• Her poetic work and correspondence;
• Her work as translator;
• Translations of her work;
• Historical and biographical issues related to her life and work;
• Her interactions with Brazilian, American and Canadian Modernists;
• Gender issues: the poet and her contemporaries;
• Brazil in her work;
• Bishop and other travelers in Brazil.

Submissions:

• University professors, scholars and graduate students (MA and doctoral programs) can apply to present papers in panel sessions.
• Undergraduate students can apply to present posters.
• Deadline for submission and application fee payment: October 9th.

To submit your proposal:

1. Send an abstract of your paper or poster (maximum 200 words), in Portuguese or English, including information about your institutional affiliation, area of interest, address, telephone, and e-mail to congressobishop@gmail.com.

2. Make the deposit at Banco do Brasil, branch 3610-2, account # 51437-3, and send a copy of the receipt by e-mail tocongressobishop@gmail.com. For international participants, payment is due on the first day of the event.

Registration fees:

1. Participation with presentation of papers or posters

Categories	Up to 09/25	Up to 10/09
University Professors and scholars	R$80,00	R$120,00
Graduate Students	R$40,00	R$60,00
Undergraduate Students	R$20,00	R$30,00

2. Participation without presentation of papers or posters

Categories	Up to 09/25	Up to 10/09
University Professors and scholars	R$40,00	R$60,00
Graduate Students	R$20,00	R$30,00
Undergraduate Students	R$10,00	R$10,00

Certificates may only be issued upon payment of registration fee.

Information: congressobishop@gmail.com

http://congressobishop2011.wordpress.com

Organização/Organization committee:

Maria Clara Versiani Galery (UFOP)

Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida (UFMG)

Guiomar de Grammont (UFOP)

Elzira Divina Perpétua (UFOP)

Maria Clara Bonetti Paro (UNESP- Araraquara)

Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins (UFSC)

Regina Przybycien (UFPR/Universidade Jaguielônica de Cracóvia)

Ricardo Sternberg (University of Toronto)

Realização/Promoting institutions:

Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Apoio/Support:

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras: Estudos da Linguagem (UFOP)

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras: Estudos Literários (UFMG)

Our São Paulo Correspondent Writes --

Um Porto Para Elizabeth Bishop -- A Safe Harbour for Elizabeth Bishop

Em dezembro de 1951, uma poetisa norte-americana genial e deprimida desembarcou de um cargueiro no porto de Santos para uma breve escala turística e viveu no Brasil uma aventura pessoal que durou 15 anos. Esta peça é o encontro entre essa poetisa e o Brasil exuberante e inquieto dos anos 1950 e 1960.

[In December, 1951, a great but discouraged American poet disembarked from a cargo ship at the port of Santos for a brief tourist stopover, and then lived a personal adventure in Brazil that lasted 15 years. This play is about the encounter between the poet and Brazil in the exuberant and troubled years of the 1950s and 1960s.]

Playwright: Marta Góes.
Director: José Possi Neto.
Starring Regina Braga.
October 22-23 (Saturday and Sunday), 8:00 p.m. (No Teatro)
SESC Santo André
Rua Tamarutaca, 302 (Santo André)
Tel: (11) 4469-1200
The play runs for 80 minutes
Box Office prices: from R$ 5,00 to R$ 20,00
(Tickets available on the network INGRESSOSESC beginning September 30 at 2:00 p.m.)

Our Denver Correspondent Writes --

Two-weekend Lighthouse Writers Intensive Workshop: Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Seeing

No poet has a finer eye than Elizabeth Bishop. The depth and precision of her seeing, and the extraordinary richness of her descriptions, are unsurpassed in American poetry. In this two-weekend reading-as-a-writer course, we’ll study what makes Bishop’s visual perception so remarkable, and we’ll explore ways to bring that level of seeing into our own work. Students will be asked to write one poem in response to Bishop's work and to memorize one Bishop poem. Our text will be the recently released POEMS.

This class is open to writers of all genres.

It will meet on two consecutive weekends:
December 3, 4, 10, and 11, from 1 to 4 PM.

Instructor: John Brehm, MFA
Starts: 12/03/2011
Time(s): 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Cost: $285.00 members / $315.00 non-members
Location: Lighthouse Attic - Attic (3rd Floor)
1515 Race Street, Denver, CO 80218

Great Village Welcomes the World at the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival

From 19 to 21 August 2011, Great Village, N.S., was a bee hive of activity. Hundreds of people flocked to the village to be part of the EB100 Arts Festival. People from the community and along the Fundy Shore, from all over Nova Scotia, from many parts of Canada and throughout the United States, and from the far corners of the world – from Australia to Brazil to Ireland – converged in the village for a big birthday party. Everyone gathered for one reason: to celebrate the life, art and 100th birthday of Elizabeth Bishop. A truly festive atmosphere, helped by the great weather, reigned supreme for three days.

Traffic jams in Great Village during the festival. Photograph by Grant Dickie of Great Village Antiques.

To try to account for all the bustle and fun would take many posts. John has begun to put up some video that he shot during those days – over time, more of it will appear, giving a glimpse of some of what happened. I have wanted to write something ever since the festival ended, but as soon as it was over, I went immediately into planning for the next EB100 events (one of which is already underway: the ViewPoint Gallery “One Art” exhibition, information about which has already been posted). We are planning a big EB100 finale, which will take place from 30 September to 2 October, which is fast approaching! Information about it will be posted very soon.

I do want to reflect a little, though, on those three days in August, when the world arrived at the doorstep of Great Village, gathered because of a curiosity about, keen interest in or utter devotion to Elizabeth Bishop. I want to thank the EBSNS and the Fundy Shore communities for embracing the festival so wholeheartedly. The main organizers of the event, Joy Laking and Laurie Gunn, brought together a phenomenal group of volunteers. They all deserve a standing ovation for their hard work and their lively, warm hospitality. I want to thank all the artists (authors, musicians, actors, painters, film-makers) who participated in a myriad of ways. Their creative energy and their amazing artistry were tremendous tributes to and honourings of Bishop. I want to thank the over 70 English as a second language summer school students from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, N.S., who came out to help build cardboard boats and float them in Logan Spencer’s pond. What a parade they made through the village carrying their boats and flags. I want to thank the Great Village Farmers Market for adding that truly “home-made” touch to Saturday.

Building the cardboard boats on the lawn of St. James United Church. Photo by Grant Dickie of Great Village Antiques

Without a doubt, the most popular activity (which is saying a great deal because every event or activity was fully attended) was the horse and wagon rides, up and down Scrabble Hill Road. Gordon Lewis, who represented “Pa” (Bishop’s maternal grandfather William Bulmer, think of the poem “Manners”), and Beth Terry who portrayed Elizabeth Bishop and provided a lively, lovely reminiscence of the village during the rides, deserve our heartfelt gratitude. There was also a delightful “Little Miss Elizabeth Bishop” at home in her grandparents’ house, portrayed by April Sharpe, with her mother Patti as “Gammie,” Bishop’s maternal grandmother. A costumed Dick Akerman offered historic walking tours, giving all who walked with him a deep understanding of the fascinating past of the village. Everyone entered into the spirit of that long ago time, but most of all they warmly welcomed the hundreds of people who rode the wagon, visited the house or wandered the village.

The workshops, author readings, village tours and concerts; the community lunch, supper, tea and receptions; the old-time church service; the wagon, boats, costumes, books, banners, baskets; the paintings and films were the trigger for all sorts of wonderful connections between and among people – everyone who came had one thing in common: Elizabeth Bishop – and she brought about connection with people from near and far. Bishop the world traveler who had an abiding tie with her family, her village and Nova Scotia was the catalyst for all manner of new connections, which will continue for years to come. Great Village was the site of this energized activity for three wonderful days in August 2011.

P.S. It is also important to thank our funders for their support. It was heartening to have funding from three levels of government: Canadian Heritage; the Province of Nova Scotia through Communities, Culture and Heritage, as well as Economic and Rural Development and Tourism; and the Municipality of Colchester, as well as the Colchester Regional Development Agency. Local businesses donated: Masstown Market, Oxford Frozen Foods, Wilson’s Fuel, Lowland Gardens. The Robert Pope Foundation, the Charles and Mary MacLennan Foundation, the Fundy Foundation. Individuals: Joy Laking, Suzie LeBlanc, Randall Sargent, Dick Lemon. If I have forgotten anyone, it is unintnentional. Our gratitude for all support is immense.

Our London Correspondent Writes --

THE TLS LECTURE

Elizabeth Bishop: dwelling without roots

Tom Paulin
Chaired by Fiona Sampson

Monday, 17 October 2011, 7 p.m.

Since her death in 1979, the reputation of Elizabeth Bishop has grown to the point that she is now regarded as one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. Her small body of work (she published only 101 poems during her lifetime) is distinguished by its precise description of the physical world, by grief, and by the struggle to find a sense of belonging. During her early childhood her mother was committed to an asylum, and she grew up first with grandparents and then with an aunt – ‘I was always sort of a guest,’ she wrote, ‘and I think I’ve always felt like that.’ In a talk chaired by fellow poet Fiona Sampson, poet, critic and playwright Tom Paulin, who has written extensively on Bishop, marks the centenary of her birth by exploring her genius.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this lecture.

Venue: Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House.

Fellows and Members: book your seats online or by ringing Hazel on 020 7845 4676. Seats for guests (one per meeting) must also be booked in advance.

A limited number of tickets will be sold on the door, from 6pm, on a first come, first served basis (£8/£5 conc)

Our Texas Correspondent Writes --

A TRIBUTE TO ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979)

by michele_miller

Please join us on September 22 for this special event to celebrate the 100th birthday of Elizabeth Bishop, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1949 to 1950, and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book award. Join the English department’s MFA students and faculty as they read selections from Bishop’s work and share what her poetry means to them.

The Wittliff Collections
The Alkek Library, 7th Floor
Texas State University
601 University Drive,
San Marcos, TX 78666
visit web site
call 512-245-2313

ViewPoint Gallery: Unique exhibition has artists respond to Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art"

Photo: The Walker, by Teresa Alexander-Arab

(Halifax, Nova Scotia) - ONE ART at ViewPoint Gallery is a group exhibition of twelve photographers and one contemporary composer. In it, these artists have responded to Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art." This exhibition's photographers were selected by an independent jury: Adriana Afford, Robert Barriault, and Anne Simpson.

ONE ART participants are: Teresa Alexander-Arab, Binnie Brennan, Marla Cranston, Heather Francis, Laurie Gunn, Rena Kossatz, Sandy Leim, Irene Miller, John D. Scott, Roxanne Smith, Sandi Wheaton, and Monika Wright.

The composer is Ian Crutchley, who was commissioned by ViewPoint Gallery to create this sound installation. This is the first time ViewPoint Gallery has collaborated with a composer. The artists are local, national, and international, and range from first time exhibitors to artists with considerable exhibition experience. The work in the exhibition is richly contrasting, varied, and all linked together by the poem "One Art."

There will be a series of events accompanying the exhibition. The première of Ian Crutchley's sound installation "How To Lose Things: Lessons From Elizabeth Bishop" will be on Sunday, September 4, at 2 p.m. On Sunday, September 11, at 2 p.m. there will be a panel discussion about the exhibition that includes several of the artists, one of the jurors, Robert Barriault; and Sandra Barry, Bishop Scholar and co-founder of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. On Sunday, September 18, at 2 p.m. Sandra Barry will be giving a presentation "Contemplating Elizabeth Bishop's One Art." On Sunday September 25, at 2 p.m. the Gallery will be presenting a reading series of Elizabeth Bishop's poems read by Brian Bartlett, Lorri Glenn Neilsen, Alex Pierce, and Margo Wheaton.

All events will take place at ViewPoint Gallery.

This exhibition is part of the EB100, a year long celebration of the centennial of the birth of Elizabeth Bishop.

ONE ART opens at ViewPoint Gallery (1272 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia) on Thursday, September 1, 7-9 p.m. The exhibition continues until October 2. The Gallery's hours are Tuesday - Sunday 12 - 5 p.m., and Thursday - Friday, 5 - 7 p.m.

For online press kit please see: http://viewpointgallery.weebly.com/media.html

For more information contact:
Roxanne Smith (902) 469-9756

ViewPoint Gallery is an artist-run non-profit co-operative, whose members are photographers working together to nurture and promote their artistic passion and the practice of their craft, to exhibit and market their work, and to actively engage in the cultural life of the broader photographic community.

EB100 ARTS FESTIVAL -- Rev. Dan Gunn speaks on "Home"

[An excerpt from the Old Time Church Service held at St. James United Church, Great Village, Nova Scotia, on Sunday, August 21, 2011. -- JB]

EB100 ARTS FESTIVAL -- Sandra Barry's Reading -- Part 1

[With this post we begin a video survey of the many events that took place during the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival, held in Great Village, Nova Scotia, August 18-20, 2011 -- JB]

Elizabeth Bishop Festival in Great Village: Fun for All Ages!

Our Truro correspondent writes:

Great Village's William Austin had a great time participating in Saturday's cardboard boat race on Spencer Pond during the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival in Great Village. [Monique Chiasson - Truro Daily News]

It was obvious something special was happening in Great Village on the weekend.

Cars lined the main streets, people packed St. James United Church to listen to poetry and indulge in community meals, while others flocked to the Elizabeth Bishop house and a unique race took place, to name only a few events.

The weekend-long Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival was in full swing on Saturday.

Perhaps the most enthusiastic group of people was the cardboard boat racers. About 70 participants spent three hours constructing the boats out of only cardboard and duct tape. They then took turns racing the rudimentary boats in nearby Spencer Pond.

"I'd like to see more of this kind of stuff," said nine-year-old Marshall Field of Great Village, who was a participant in the race.

The youngster also took advantage of the festival to learn more about Elizabeth Bishop.

"I know she went to my school," he said, referring to Great Village Elementary school.

For more on this story, see Monday's Truro Daily News.

Our Wolfville Correspondent Writes --

In celebration of the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary, Musique Royale is in Wolfville at the Manning Memorial Chapel, Acadia University, August 23. The 7:30 p.m. performance is part of a weeklong tour of the province with soprano Suzie LeBlanc, violinist David Greenberg and the Tempest Baroque Ensemble, with guest harpsichordist Alex Weimann. Harry Thurston will recite excerpts from the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop during each performance.

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) is a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most acclaimed poets of the 20th century. She spent much of her childhood in Great Village, NS, at the home of her maternal grandparents. Although technically an American - she was born in Worcester, died in Boston and is buried in Worcester - Nova Scotia was the centre of her spiritual and aesthetic universe.

“At the Fishhouses” was inspired by a visit to Lockeport Beach in the late 1940s. A few fish houses are still in existence along the Long Cove Road. Bishop being an acute observer, the poem begins with a detailed description of a fisherman, netting, and his fishing tools. The end of the poem takes us away from the visible, where time and place dissolve and imagination takes over.

The flow of music and words at the concert aims to transport the listener to a new environment through the use of time, melody, harmony and rhythm. Interspersed with recitations by Harry Thurston, the musicians will perform works by Dowland, Purcell, Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Mozart, plus a Cape Breton and Acadian medley arranged by David Greenberg, and The Silken Water is Weaving and Weaving by Alasdair MacLean.

The Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival, August 19 to 21 in Great Village is a gathering of writers, musicians, painters, actors, filmmakers and other artists who will present wonderful readings, workshops, exhibitions and concert performances in celebration of the centenary of Bishop’s birth. The opening concert of Musique Royale’s At the Fishhouses tour is the final event of the arts festival.

Tickets for the Wolfville concert are $20 at the door, students $10. Call 582-3933 or click here for further information.

[from Wendy Elliot's report in the King's County Advertiser and Register, August 13, 2011.]

FIRST ENCOUNTER XXXV: ELIZABETH BISHOP IN SONG

Rosalee Peppard celebrates the life of poet Elizabeth Bishop (Courtesy Rosalee Peppard and Mayflower Music) www.rosalee.ca

Rosalee writes:

"In November 2009 I was invited to join master storyteller, Claire Miller, at her home for a house concert. Afterward she introduced me to Sandra Barry. We had a delicious chat and when I mentioned that we owned our ancestral home in Great Village, Nova Scotia, she passionately introduced me to Elizabeth Bishop. EB had wafted around my psyche for a couple of years but we hadn’t met. In 2008, I had even arranged a tour of EB House (of which I was previously unaware!), for a couple who had stayed with us and subsequently gifted us with the then new Library of America EB “bible”, which they had worked on.

"In that fateful meeting with Sandra, I learned of EB’s upcoming centenary celebrations which included multimedia expressions of art celebrating EB’s art. Since my work has been to transcribe women’s stories into song, Sandra and I seemed destined to broach the subject as part of the centenary celebration. In an early telephone conversation with Sandra, she said that while her poems had been set to music by many illustrious composers throughout the years and especially for the centenary, to her knowledge, no one had written EB’s life story in song. Her advice: read Elizabeth, not about Elizabeth. The gauntlet had been dropped. So I set to.

"For a year I did EB immersion. I was tossed on the Fundy tides of her dramatic life. My mind was chilled by the depths of her insight and calm wit, and my soul exhaulted by her wealth of our language and its nano-precision. How to paraphrase, to transcribe into poetry and music a literary and lush life such as EB’s? The more I read, the more surprising similarities I found with my own life. My “Peppard People” are from Great Village. Though not as tragic, I had been separated from parents at an early age. I have allergies and like EB anaphylactic to cashews. I am very sensitive; I too have an “artistic temperment”. I have an addictive personality. I Love poetry and literature. I Love music of all kinds. I’m artistic and have a good sense of humour. We met on many common pages of our life books.

"The more I read EB’s poetry, the more I found I became irritated and rather depressed. I felt as if I were riding along the road through her dream world full of shadows of shame and sorrow. The light licks of humour were not enough to awaken my soul of its sadness and sadness for EB. I felt at the bottom of her bottomless glass, thirsting for a reality that had been ever-evaporating. As she wrote to Anne Stevenson, “There is no “split.” Dreams, works of art (some), glimpses of the always-more-successful surrealism of everyday life, unexpected moments of empathy (is it?), catch a peripheral vision of whatever it is one can never really see full-face but that seems enormously important. ... What one seems to want in art, in experiencing it, is the same thing that is necessary for its creation, a self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration. (In this sense it is always “escape,” don’t you think?)”

"Then I read her prose. I was home. Fascinated. She wrote place and characters from the inside out and insisted I “come in”. I was in my ancestral village, with every one of my senses filled with life. There. Yet there through Elizabeth. She was it and is it. Her song would have to reflect that: that when you go to Great Village, you go to Elizabeth Bishop, and when you read Elizabeth Bishop, you read Great Village.

"I continued and read Elizabeth’s letters. The grounded reality. The solid opinions. The wealth of language and languages. The apologies. The later stark allusions to childhood horrors and hurts. The bitter resignation of connection with her uncle. Then the artistic insights: The love of visual art and many kinds of music, and which ones. A person who filtered life through her acute senses, raw, dramatic earth shaking keeping the most precise, minute, details as microscopic mosaic word tiles with which to express life. And yet, in the flow of her writing, the ever present self-questioning and second guessing. A pervasive sense that there is no ground.

"Then I went back to her poems with her “key” and was enriched. Got the wit. Revelled and marvelled in the imagery. It was if she opened a back stage door and I saw the fragility and the humour of the flimsy, rough supporting 2 x 4’s that were holding the painted Set up on the stage of her and my life. Wow. Elizabeth Bishop’s voice was powerful and absolutely unique. And so, with those seeds, the song began to write itself..."

More about the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival

Travelers on the seashore route that connects Masstown, Great Village, Bass River, Economy and Five Islands have been admiring the stunning flower baskets and colourful banners on roadside poles, and perhaps wondering “What’s the occasion?”

The Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival is a once in a lifetime happening that is raising the level of pride for all the communities of the Cobequid Bay Shore. The Festival, August 19, 20 and 21, features many free events open to everyone (full details at www.elizabethbishopns.org) plus writers’ workshops and three excellent concerts.

Volunteers from all of these communities have been planning together for two years to make this festival happen. Joy Laking, one of the local artists, designed the t-shirts and banners. "For over thirty-five years” says Laking, “I have lived and worked in the area and there has never been an event like this that includes all of the local communities. The banners and the flower baskets represent our pride in our area and our willingness to work together to keep our shore a wonderful, beautiful, vibrant place to call home."



Starry Night in Great Village, Painting by Joy Laking
(This colourful and expressive image is the one presented on the Arts Festival brochure and the banners that line the shore road. It has also been put on T-shirts, which will be for sale at the festival.)

Although most of the concerts and readings are taking place in Great Village, the ancestral home of beloved poet Elizabeth Bishop, there is also a full day of children’s activities in Bass River on Saturday, August 20, organized by the Bass River Heritage Society. A jamboree of Maritime blacksmiths will be on hand, forging metal, and providing the ring of the hammer on the anvil. Karen MacFarlane, the president of the Bass River Heritage Society is delighted to host the blacksmiths as a tribute to Mate Fisher, the Great Village blacksmith who moved to Bass River in Elizabeth Bishop’s day. It was the constant rhythm of the hammer that provided stability in Elizabeth’s fragmented world and it is the sound that underlies her most famous story called “In the Village.”

In Great Village, the festival includes a farmer’s market, readings by well-known authors Don McKay, Michael Crummey, Joan Clark, Anne Simpson, Sheree Fitch, Sandra Barry, and Mary Rose Donnelly) and three evenings of eclectic concerts. On Friday Lenore Zann presents a dramatic reading of a play about Elizabeth Bishop, “Running to Paradise,” with music by Rosalee Peppard. Saturday’s concert features Susan Crowe, Cindy Church and Raylene Rankin and on Sunday there’s a Musique Royale concert, “At the Fishhouses,” with Suzie Leblanc and Tempest Baroque. Throughout the festival there will be horse and wagon rides, guided walks and also Elizabeth Bishop House tours. On Sunday morning there will be an old-fashioned church service and a blueberry tea.

The Board-to-Boat Competition challenges everyone along the shore to participate. Families, young people (8 and up), community groups and Fire Departments, even the Colchester County Council, are invited to build a cardboard boat on site in Great Village and then there will be a walking parade of boats up to Logan Spencer’s pond where the actual racing begins at 5 p.m. on August 20. Prizes for the fastest, the prettiest and the best sinking will be awarded! Registration is $20 at Danny Smith’s Store in Great Village, refunded after participation in this event.

And there’s more: a display of paintings done recently in the area on a special artist’s weekend in June, and a book sale presented by Bookmark, Halifax’s beloved independent bookseller. Information, sales and registration can be found at the Great Village Legion. Elizabeth Bishop would be proud of her village, and happy to greet visitors to explore the wonders of the West Colchester Shore.

News from Truro

Joy Laking

Joy Laking is interviewed by Monique Chiasson of the Truro Daily News about the upcoming EB100 Arts Festival:

http://www.trurodaily.com/News/Local/2011-08-05/article-2694555/Life-of-literary-icon-to-be-celebrated/1

Radical Readings in Great Village at the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Arts Festival, 19-21 August 2011

On August 20 and 21 a half-dozen award-winning and beloved Atlantic authors will read from their latest work, and in a rare departure from tradition they will interview each other instead of being questioned by a neutral host. There could be fireworks! Olga Milosevich of CBC Radio One will be on hand to moderate, and there is no fee for excellent seats in St. James United Church, Great Village, at 1:30 p.m. each afternoon. On Saturday afternoon, 20 August, the readers are Anne Simpson, Don McKay and Michael Crummey; Sunday’s roster, 21 August, includes Sheree Fitch, Joan Clark and Sandra Barry.

Crummey, Clark, Fitch, McKay and Simpson will also offer writing workshops from nine to noon Saturday morning for budding authors of fiction, poetry and children’s books. At a cost of twenty dollars, this is another rare opportunity and the classes are filling up already; for information, interested writers-in-training should swiftly email ebfestival2011@gmail.com listing their top two choices.

Books are only one part of this three-day Elizabeth Bishop Arts Festival, which includes three special concerts (see the links at the top of the page for information about the concerts), feasts and historic tours. On Friday, August 19, there are events for children, a book launch (Mary Rose Donnelly’s new novel, Great Village, published by Cormorant Books) and presentation of the winning stories from a writing competition on the theme of home.

The winner in the open category will be a long way from home: award-winning poet Moya Pacey is coming from Canberra, Australia, to read her story and receive her prize. Moya says, “I have always been drawn to Elizabeth Bishop’s writing—her poetry and prose. Like me, she was a traveller and lived in a different country from her birth place for a long time but the memories of her childhood place stayed with her always—strong and potent. I am very excited about the award and feel honoured that my short memoir piece was chosen. The piece is very close to my heart. When I wrote it, I found I had such a strong recall of the close and closed community of my birth place that I was able to replay the memory of the night fifty years ago that my youngest brother was born. The memory came straight from what Elizabeth Bishop called the ‘memory machine’.”

That memory machine will be in high gear as the people of Great Village welcome folks from near and far to visit Bishop’s childhood home on the occasion of her hundredth birthday.

Check out the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia website for more details.

In the Realms of the Visual --

http://ilikeyourart.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/graphic-interpretation-of-in-the-waiting-room-by-elizabeth-bishop-draft1/

[A graphic interpretation of "In the Waiting Room," by "LJKA" -- JB].