His name is Dead Crow.
That’s the avian-slash-human character conjured by Kootenay poet Sean Arthur Joyce for his upcoming show at the Front Room on Nov. 10. He’s a mash-up of the Raven Trickster from First Nations mythology and Morrigan, a Celtic shape-shifting goddess known to haunt battlefields.
And if that sounds weird to you, that’s part of the point.
“Since the advent of slam poetry, and with spoken word festivals now well established around the world, a new freedom to experiment seems to be opening up in poetry,” said Joyce.
“I saw the Dead Crow character as an ideal vehicle to combine narrative poetry and classic mythology with dramatic characterization.”
During the performance Joyce will be accompanied by composer and guitarist Noel Fudge — one half of the guitar/violin duo Freya — who will create a live soundtrack featuring original solo compositions while Joyce reads from his collection The Price of Transcendence.
The show follows Crow as he attempts to reconcile the contradictions of existence with a gravelly voiced cynicism, and provides the backstory on how he came to find himself in this predicament. Joyce has created a video version and plans to develop it into a full-length touring show.
Joyce has been touring, so far bringing Dead Crow to Kimberley and Nakusp. On Nov. 3 he’ll be at the Langham Theatre in Kaslo and on Nov. 5 he’ll be in New Denver at the Bosun Hall.
To view the Dead Crow video, visit bit.ly/2ezPBtQ.
