The Pivot Legal Society-sponsored Justice Rocks festival is coming up, and they’re looking for volunteers. Hey, there’s swag in it for you, not to mention the chance to schmooze with the impecunious, yet famous, staff of the Pivot Legal Society and the future Mayor of Vancouver, semi-notorious rock god and blogger Dave Eby.

Here’s the call for volunteers in full:

In case you haven’t heard: on August 30, 2008 Pivot is hosting Justice Rocks, a free, all-day music festival in East Van’s Strathcona Park! Justice Rocks aims to bring together all things progressive: social and environmental justice movements, independent music, and, of course, Vancouverites!

There are two important ways you can help make Justice Rocks a huge success: purchase a virtual ticket and/or sign up to volunteer.

Virtual Tickets:

Here is how it works - we have partnered with GiveMeaning to offer virtual tickets to Justice Rocks. Virtual Ticket holders will receive a Justice Rocks t-shirt and a tax-receipt, as well as a special invitation to the Justice Rocks AfterParty - join the band members, volunteers, and organizers for the party that starts after the concert!

We will also be awarding fabulous prizes to the top three people who get their friends to purchase virtual tickets, so get your friends to buy their tickets today!

Volunteers:

We’re looking for site volunteers, organizers, promoters, videographers – you name it – to help with the lead up to the event, the concert, and the after-party.

Aside from connecting with other awesome folks who are also volunteering, and helping to launch the first year of a great event, Justice Rocks volunteers will also receive a free Justice Rocks t-shirt, 2 tickets to the after party, and special identification at the event.

To take part in this fantastic festival of social change fill out this form or visit the Justice Rocks website and let us know how you’d like to help!

If you have any questions about virtual tickets, volunteering or if you’d like more information about the event feel free to email pwrinch AT pivotlegal DOT com for more information.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Peter Wrinch
Pivot Legal Society
604-255-9700
www.justicerocks.org

FYI:

Passed along by Shebeen Club member Monique Trottier

Memory Festival Launch Party

Remembrance Day: Sunday, November 11, 2007

1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Listel

1300 Robson Street, Vancouver

Free admission

The Memory Festival is a free-floating series of public events focussed on public and private memory, and the questions that surround acts of memory and forgetting.

Vancouver book designer and writer Barbara Hodgson is appearing with slides from her new book Trading in Memories, http://www.tradinginmemories.com

Trading in Memories is Barbara Hodgson’s collage of souvenirs and travel stories from around the world about lost and found art picked up off the street, treasures discovered at flea markets and documents uncovered from between the pages of other finds.

Other special guests presenting readings, slide shows, exhibits

and salubrious conversation include:

Stephen Osborne, writer

Faith Moosang, artist

John Paskievich, photographer

Dan Francis, historian

Mary Schendlinger, writer

Goran Basaric, photographer

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, artist

Sandra Shields, writer

Jamie Long, playwright,

Craig Hall, actor

David Campion, photographer

Katherine McManus, university administrator

Anne Grant, photographer

Festival homepage:

http://www.geist.com/memoryfestival

This will be our monthly meeting for November: note that we will NOT be doing our regular third Tuesday meeting at the Shebeen!

UPDATE: we will indeed be having our meeting; it’ll be the first official launch party for Colleen O’Connor’s book Cry of the Phoenix. Soon to be a major motion picture, and she promises to tell all! Come and enjoy a freewheeling evening with a home-grown success story, Shebeen Club regular Colleen O’Connor.

Writing.wise—a rip roaring, rip snorting, profane, world shaking, rabble rousing…event for writers in Vancouver is being presented by the Society for Technical Communication Canada West Coast Chapter, Masters of Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus, Vancouver Comicon, The Shebeen Club, Simon Fraser University Writing & Publishing Program, and FrogHeart Communications.

Meet a diverse panel of writers and engage in a lively discussion about stories and narrative in games, comic books, new media, books (fiction and non fiction), and song.

Kaare Andrews is a writer and artist who has worked on comic books such as the Incredible Hulk, Ultimate X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Gen¹³ and the Matrix. He won “Outstanding Comic Book Artist” at the Joe Shuster Awards in 2005. And, as a filmmaker, he’s directed a number of award-winning short films.

Mira Sundara Rajan, is a musician, author of “Copyright and Creative Freedom,” and the Canada Research Chair in Intellectual Property Law at the University of British Columbia. She has consulted on copyright matters in the United States, United Kingdom, India, European Union, and Russia.

Sue Thomas, a UK expert in new media, is the author of the book “Hello World travels in virtuality” and others. She is the program leader for the Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media (at De Montfort University). Her students collaborated with Penguin Books on ‘A Million Penguins’. She’ll explain how that blockbusting experimental wikinovel produced some surprising results.

Shari Ulrich recently released her latest solo album. A member of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, a Juno award winner, and a fixture on the Vancouver music scene, Ulrich has performed with Pied Pumkin, Ulrich Henderson Forbes, and Valdy & the Hometown Band. When she’s in town, Ulrich teaches songwriting locally.

Ian Verchere is known as the developer of over 30 game titles including two million-selling titles for Electronic Arts, SSX Tricky and NBA Street V2. He’s also a founder of Radical Entertainment; an author, “V0N 1B0; General Delivery, Whistler, BC; a creative consultant for Roald Dahl’s literary estate, and a scriptwriter (with Douglas Coupland) who’s sold his work to Disney.

Moderator

kc dyer is the author of four contemporary and historical young adult novels which have been published in Canada, the US, the UK, and Thailand. The conference and the writing contest coordinator for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, dyer is a skilled, capable moderator with experience in and opinions on all aspects of the writing scene.

Logistics

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Radha Yoga and Eatery (728 Main St., yoga on the edge and above the Brickhouse Bar)…

Door opens at 6:30 pm, and the event starts at 7 pm.

Tickets are $15/$20 and available through

 http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=47&EID=1960    

For the latest updates about the event, you can check out the writing.wise blog at: http://writingwise.vox.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
5/31/2007
CALL FOR SPOKEN WORD
POETRY SUBMISSIONS

The Word On the Street Festival invites poets to read their work at The
Poet’s Corner, Library Square, on Sunday, September 30, 2007. Poets will be
given a 7minute spot to perform in, between the hours of 12:00pm and
5:00pm. Submissions should include a SASE if you wish your material to be
returned and artists are also strongly encouraged to send an audio tape or CD of
their performance.
Sorry, no email submissions!

Please send submissions to

Poet’s Corner
c/o
442 Cardiff Way
Port Moody V3H 3T1

Deadline for entry is July 15, 2007*

* See us at the Wax Poetic/Coop Radio table at Summer Dreams (We’ll take submissions there too!)

Help us promote literacy and celebrate Canadian literary arts at Library
Square, downtown Vancouver.

The Word On The Street is an annual one-day festival celebrating literacy
and the written arts. Held in five cities across Canada simultaneously -
Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax - The Word On The Street
celebrates reading and writing with free exhibits, performances, readings
and hands-on activities every September.

Last year, Vancouver’s The Word On The Street attracted over 40,000
visitors, and hundreds of participating exhibitors, authors, and performers
to Library Square for literary readings, cookbook demonstrations, music,
contests, panel discussions and much more.

We invite you to join us and become part of Vancouver’s favorite annual
celebration of words and reading.
For more information, call us at (604) 788-8340 or email srduncan  at shaw dot ca
http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/vancouver.php

Vancouver Writes on February 23rd

(Vancouver, January 15, 2007) The Vancouver International Writers Festival presents Vancouver Writes—an evening of competitive wordplay that will bring together people interested in writing with established authors to produce “instant literature”. Join host Billeh Nickerson, authors Caroline Adderson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Kevin Chong, Steven Galloway, Zsuzsi Gartner, Genni Gunn, C.C. Humphreys, Nancy Lee, Billie Livingston, Miranda Pearson, Bill Richardson, Timothy Taylor and many more of Vancouver’s finest for the first edition of Vancouver Writes.

Teams of eight participants will collaborate with one well-known Vancouver writer acting as coach and editor to come up with a piece of prizewinning fiction or poetry. There will be three contests during the evening, and writers will switch teams after each contest, giving participants the opportunity to work with a variety of writers. Vancouver jazz ensemble Mother of Pearl will help the participants get into the groove.

The Vancouver Writes judges will choose a winner for each contest and prizes will be awarded to the team. After the three sessions a grand winner will be announced, which will be published in The Tyee, BC’s on-line newspaper. Then the real fun will begin—live music, drinks, and a chance for the contestants and published writers to mingle and talk. For more information or to register go to www.writersfest.bc.ca.

Vancouver Writes is part of the Winterruption Festival, a showcase of food, arts and culture on Granville Island (February 23–25).

Vancouver Writes

February 23 @ 7:30 PM

Performance Works

Tickets: $20/18 students & seniors

Tickets are limited

Call 604-681-6330 or log onto http://www.writersfest.bc.ca

Winterruption 2007

February 23–25, 2007 on Granville Island

www.winterruption.com

-30-

For downloadable photos go to http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/media/author-photos.php

For more information contact Ann McDonell 604 681 6330 ext 104

Development & Marketing Manager

Vancouver International Writers Festival

dmm at writersfest.bc.ca

-note that this is unpaid-

VANCOUVER CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL 2007

We are delighted to announce that the second annual Cherry Blossom Festival will take place in Vancouver, Canada, during March and April 2007.

We invite poets from around the world to submit one unpublished haiku inspired by the beauty of the cherry tree. Submissions must be received by January 11, 2007.

Top selected haiku will become part of a permanent stone Haiku Memorial at Burrard SkyTrain Station in downtown Vancouver under the cherry tree planted in 2006 to commemorate the inaugural festival. The Haiku Memorial will be
unveiled at the festival’s opening mid March and selected haiku will also be displayed on TransLink city buses and SkyTrain cars for a period of two months.

In addition, top selected haiku will win free copies of “Haiku Journey,” a new computer game from Hot Lava Games that features 540 English-language haiku by 45 poets around the world, selected by Michael Dylan Welch.

Other works of merit will be published on the VCBF Website and featured at readings throughout the festival.

You may find submission details at http://www.vcbf.ca/ by following the link to haiku.

We look forward to receiving your haiku and thank you for your participation as Vancouver so enjoys and appreciates your writing.

Respectfully,

Linda Poole
VCBF Creative Director

Carole MacRury
Michael Dylan Welch
Edward Zuk
Haiku Committee

The Haiku Invitational is made possible with the support of the Canadian Society for Asian Arts.

from Gawker comes word of NaDruWriNi, which isn’t officially called that but should be: ’tis the National Drinking and Writing Festival, ’tis, but even we Canuckistanis shall co-opt it, for lo, we are very co-opterative up here at the socialist roof of the world, and lo, we drink more than they do, so there.

Alas, the glorious day has passed, but as they point out on the site, the next Festival is a mere 51 lost weekends away. Think of it as physical training and carry a notebook small enough to fit in your pocket so it sticks with you when you lose your purse, as you surely will around word 2,800, if I can believe what my shockingly disreputable friends tell me.

Naturally, you’ll want to pay attention to your choice of booze. Feeling feline? Go with gin. Working on a piece about the high life? See if you can’t round up a crystal Champagne flute and magnum of Cristal, or at least a couple of straws and a jug of Cribari. Working on a murder tale? Well then, what’s their poison? Kimveer Gill had Jack Daniels for breakfast his last day on Earth; Christian Brando had three Negronis and then shot his sister’s lover; Robert Frisbee drank something like seven French 75’s and a bottle of wine before bludgeoning the poor, foolish little old lady who paid for his cocktails.

Yeah, just a little something to set the mood.

I would post excerpts, if only I could read the handwriting. Click and decipher for yourselves. This is what Gawker found, from last year, and it’s representative:

observation #5

 

i was going to write about
an old man i saw
but am now so drunk
that i cannot concentrate enough
do do so
or remember him
h9old on
giveme a sec.

Is that a word, “SIWC-ers?” You’re the pros; you tell me!

In any case, welcome to the Shebeen Club blog. We’re an association of writers, editors, publishers, bloggers, book artists, and everyone and anyone else whose world centres around the written word on the page or on the pixel. See the Hinterland’s Who’s Who page on the right-hand side for more information about who we are and what we want from you and the rest of the world. The Nobel Prize for Literature would be nice…

If you’d like to get the advance announcements for our monthly meetings, please leave me a comment saying so and fill out the email box: your email remains hidden, but I will be able to retrieve and add your email address to our database. No, of course we don’t sell, rent, or loan out our lists, so your privacy is safe with us.

By the way, local authors who will be having books come out in 2007, or publishers and editors launching a new magazine, are particularly invited to leave that info in the comments: we’re happy to host you for a reading to help with the launch. We are ALL ABOUT supporting local talent.

If any Shebeeners are interested, we can do a carpool. Please drop me an email or put a comment on this blog entry and I’ll organize it.

Lorraine

The Powell River Festival of Writers annual Fall Fest is coming up fast.

Nov 4, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the French Club, 5110  Manson, we will gather for a full day of inspiration. For only $40, you will learn from the best in their fields:

Daniel Wood, “Writing Non-Fiction That Sells”
Sheila Munro, “How To Write Your Memoirs”
Wayne Lutz, ” What Self-Publishing Has Taught Me”

Author bios, registration forms and  details on the writing contest to win your registration can be found at: http://www.festivalofwriters.com/

Call or email me if you have any questions and please pass this on to your friends.
Join us for the pure pleasure of being surrounded by authors, their ideas and their books.

May each day bring new inspiration into your life.

Barb Rees/President

Powell River Festival of Writers
#14-7624 Duncan St.
Powell River, BC,V8A 5L2
Phone: 604-485-2732
Toll Free: 1-866-373-2607