For most, a poem likely conjures up memories of rhyming verses about love or nature. For others it represents stanzas of words that they can’t understand.
Armstrong writer Calvin White’s new book of poetry, The Bodies and other Political Poems, published by Vancouver’s Now or Never Press, is an example of poetojournalism. Instead of photos creating the journalistic reporting, White uses poetry forms.
In the book, he reports on wars, crimes, relationships to others, and the issues that inhabit our deeper selves.
Ottawa novelist Christian McPherson calls the book, “a gleaming machete, marching us like riot police into the human mind… looking at our atrocities, but ultimately writing about hope.”
White launches his book in Vernon March 5 with a free concert.
Daniel Stark, an accomplished drummer and specialist on the sarod, an Indian stringed instrument, will join White in the special evening billed as The Performers.
“Stark will open the concert with dynamic hand drum renditions followed by the melodic and entrancing sarod,” said White. “He has been performing and holding workshops for 20 years and has a reputation for conveying the essence of musicality.”
White will join Stark on some collaborations and then finish the concert with his own performances of selected poems from his book.
White has previously taken the stage with similar performance pieces throughout the Okanagan with his performance troupe, Cirque De La Vie, which also performed at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
White launches his book in Armstrong Feb. 23 at the Oddfellows Hall, at 7 p.m. The Vernon performance takes place at 7 p.m. March 5 at the Okanagan Centre For Spiritual Living, 2913 29th Ave. Seating is limited for both performances.
