House of Parlance Blog

Sandy and I went down to the Rio Theatre on Broadway near Commercial Drive on Saturday night to check out the finals of the IWPS. It was a pretty amazing event from the moment I hit the corner and saw a huge crowd of people milling around the usually deserted theatre. It was cold but the place was positively hopping. Local literary luminaries like Hal Wake were in attendance rubbing shoulders with beatboxer CR Avery and slam poets from across North America.

The event was totally rocking and all the poets were pretty stellar.

Anis Mojgani was really good. His understated delivery and beautiful imagery really set him apart from the rest of the poets. He finished in second place to Ed Mabrey from Columbus, Ohio who laid down three inspired poems. It was really touching to see Ed’s reaction to the news that he had won. It was pretty clear that he was deeply touched and humbled by his victory. I checked out Ed’s myspace page and there’s lots of people from the midwest who are giving him mad props for winning. So, that’s awesome. Congratulations, Ed!

On Sunday afternoon before the Superbowl we met with Anis and Maureen Gillis to discuss our work on an ambitious writing project. Anis has begun working on a book that we hope to publish some time in 2008. Maureen Gillis will be editing the project.

We can’t wait to see the work that they produce.