Grab your lunch, slip out of work/class, and hoof it over to the Teck Gallery at SFU Harbour Centre to hear a diverse array of local poets. On the third Wednesday of each month for the past year (except July and August), a mid-day reading series called Lunch Poems has taken place at SFU’s downtown campus. On Wednesday, March
20, 2013, SFU English professor Stephen Collis will read with former Writers’ Studio poetry mentor, Rachel Rose — both accomplished poets with new books out this year.
Lunch Poems was the brainchild of poet and Writers’ Studio graduate, Renee Sarojini Saklikar and Shauna Sylvester, executive director of SFU Public Square. “We got to chatting at a dinner in November 2011, and she invited me to come read at SFU,” explains Renee. They had a good turn out with a variety of students, staff, Writers’ Studio mentors, and even a former premier.
From there the idea snowballed, filling a void of poetry readings in the downtown core during lunchtime. Their muse — whose book was read at the inaugural event — is Frank O’Hara and his book Lunch Poems, commissioned by San Francisco bookstore-cum-publisher City Lights, as part of their avantgarde Pocket Poets series.
Here at SFU, a committee of volunteers arrange the monthly reading series. In addition to Renee, this team includes: Katherine McManus of the SFU’s Writing and Publishing Program; the director of the Writers’ Studio (first Betsy Warland and now Wayde Compton); Robin Prest, manager of public programming for SFU’s Centre for Dialogue; and Kim Gilker, SFU alumnus and employee of the International Centre of Art for Social Change.
The inaugural event took place on March 28, 2012, and featured Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Evelyn Lau, SFU alumnus and poet Daniela Elza, and more than 100 listeners with their lunches. One year later, attendees will be treated to what Renee describes as “pairing of lyric and language” poetry with Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose.
Renee calls Wayde Compton a “poet sommelier,” as he couples distinctive yet complimentary styles, and usually pairs an emerging poet with someone established.
Stephen Collis and Rachel Rose will both be reading from their latest books of poetry.
Collis’s book, To the Barricades, is hot off the press this month, and now he has to decide which poems are “reading poems.” To the Barricades is a continuation of The Barricades Project, a Life-Long Poem, which typically takes decades to write and is published over multiple volumes. This project began with Anarchive (2005) and The Commons (2008).
To figure out his reading poems, Collis says he will “lock [himself ] in [his] office, pace around, and read aloud” in an effort to “hear how it sounds and feels together.” He notes that it is important to combine the temporal and spatial, making an effort to have it echoe back to earlier in the reading so listeners feel fulfilled and it leaves them thinking.
Rose’s third book of poetry, Song and Spectacle, was published in the fall and shortlisted earlier this month for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. She says it explores “how we live and see others and look with an unflinching eye at the world around us.”
Rose’s world has changed drastically in the past year. She has opened new professional doors, writing the libretto for the first lesbian opera, premiering as part of the Queer Arts Festival in August. She’s exploring more song-writing, combining her poetry with her brother’s musical talents.
Lunch Poems @ SFU has featured various poets over the past year including George Bowering, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Garry Thomas Morse, and Renee Saklikar, who emphasizes the that the event is about community building. “It’s strictly one hour, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., and completely free.” Readings are followed by a Q&A session.
