Tears for Fears Poetry Remix recap

Did you miss the Tears for Fear Poetry Remix in July? If so, bummer! But not to worry - we have a recap for you right here.

Poets Neal Arbic, Valentino Assenza, Ronnie Blake, Spencer Gordon, and Sarah Pinder turned this event into an awesome night.

Check out Sarah's remix here on video.

Thought Spencer admitted he wasn't a huge Tears for Fears fan, he came up with some amazing work, including "The Year of Knife":

Something on your mind became a point of view, saying
get in line with the things you know: A for a heart, B for

a brain. You’d better love loving and you’d better behave.

The headlines said we’re free to choose, so belief was our 

relief, compassion the fashion, fear such a vicious thing.

And man, I slept so hard. I dreamt I could be happy; I never

dreamt so well. Only me and my shadow, dreaming I was

safe in life, happy as a mussel in a shell. But we could be

quite naïve, love: nothing ever changes unless there’s some 

pain. A horrific dream to know that we were broken, that yeah—

we were wrapped in chains. A for a heart, B for a brain: we’d better 

love loving and we’d better behave. Now, let’s get some honesty. 

This is the ‘Year of the Knife.’ My features form with a change

in the weather; the face we wear is cool. You give me pale

shelter: asylum from the bounds of family, shelter from the 

boy from school. Before, you were my enemy. Now life

is lust and liberty, our love the knife. Help me make 

the most of freedom and pleasure, my life in the suicide ranks.

And Henry Martinuk captured Ronnie Blake doing a live remix with music and words.

(video credit: Henry Martinuk / ChernozymVideo, 2014)

One week to go!

Line-up confirmed for July 23's Tears for Fears Poetry Remix!

 

The second instalment of Toronto Poetry Remix is coming up on Wednesday, July 23, and Tears for Fears are the focus this time around.

Five performers will be remixing Tears for Fears lyrics into original poetry, and they are free to choose any song and incorporate their own interpretation of the word "remix."

The line-up includes Neal Arbic, Valentino Assenza, Ronnie Blake, Spencer Gordon, and Sarah Pinder.

When: Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Where: Bar Radio, 615 College Street, Toronto
Start time: 7:30pm

About the performers:

Neal Arbic is the author of the novels WHITE and Mermaid Café. Neal has been published in leading magazines, and his latest publishing credits appear in the anthology The Caledon Collection (fiction) and in the anthology Stories From the Yogic Heart (non-fiction) which featured Madonna's yoga teacher and Sting.

Neal was the head writer and singer for A Neon Rome. His life was the inspiration for the Bruce McDonald film Road Kill, which won Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1989 Toronto International Film Festival and today is considered a seminal film in Canadian cinema.

He has also appeared on CBC radio and Bravo and Star!TV.

Valentino Assenza has been a published poet and spoken word performer based in Toronto for nearly two decades. He was the organizer of Cryptic Chatter, a poetry series in east Toronto, and is currently on the board of directors for the Art Bar Poetry Series, Canada’s longest-running weekly poetry-only series.

Valentino has published four chapbooks of his poetry – Wandering Absence (2004) and Il Ritorno (2006) with Labour of Love Press; and Quiet Confessions of a Loudmouth (2008) and Make Our Peace with Rattlesnakes (2009) with Lyricalmyrical Press. He also has had a number of poems published in journals such as Descant Magazine and Labour of Love Poetry Magazine.
valentinoassenza.wordpress.com

Ronnie Blake is a DJ, producer, and musician. He's been a lead singer, performance poet, actor, and music critic.
As singer and lyric composer for a number of Toronto based punk and new wave bands he toured Southern Ontario.

He developed a character 'Nuclear Apocalypse Guy' to perform poetry as part of the Exit Revue. He's also given readings on CKLN, CIUT and for a memorable event at the White Horse pub in Brixton. He has a number of electronic music projects that explore the art of the remix:https://soundcloud.com/the-protoplasm-population

Spencer Gordon is the author of the short story collection Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012) as well as the poetry chapbooks Conservative Majority (Apt. 9, 2013) and Feel Good! Look Great! Have a Blast! (Ferno House, 2011, shortlisted for the 2012 bpNichol Chapbook Award). He's co-founder/editor of the online literary magazine The Puritan and the micropress Ferno House. He lives in Toronto.

Sarah Pinder is the author of the poetry collection, Cutting Room (Coach House Books, 2012). Her writing has been shortlisted for the Expozine Small Press Awards and included in the anthology She’s Shameless, and magazines like Geist and Poetry is Dead. She lives in Toronto.

Can't wait to see you there!

Call for participants: Tears for Fears poetry remix

I'm excited to announce that the next poetry remix night will be happening at BAR RADIO on Wednesday, July 23, 2014.

TEARS FOR FEARS will be the focus of this next instalment. And you know you want to get involved because everybody wants to rule the world, right?

Right!




Tears for Fears Poetry Remix is currently open to participants who are interested in turning the band's lyrics into poetry. However you'd like to perform the pieces is totally up to you! (Get a sense of what happened at the last event, Bauhaus Poetry Remix, here.)

Spots are limited to just six performers.

If you're interested in getting involved, please email me at lizworth@gmail.com and be sure to include a little bit of info about yourself.

Bauhaus Poetry Remix, Wednesday, May 14

"Bauhaus find an idea, dust it off, lick it dearly, stretch it, tear it, drench it in perfume, burn it, colour it darkly, splatter it with luminous green dots, take it for a walk through a waxworks of horror, lead it into safe temptation, feed it obscure and diluted hallucinogenic drugs, paint a crazy face on it and then - only then - consider it fit and pretty for the public airing. Sometimes they do all this without having an idea in the first place."

- Paul Morley, 1982

On Wednesday, May 14, Toronto Poetry Remix kicked off with five authors remixing Bauhaus lyrics into original works.

The Full Moon was in Scorpio, the night was dark and stormy, and the air was thick. In other words, the city seemed like it was setting the perfect scene for the night ahead.

The line-up, in order of appearance:

Jade Wallace
Jacqueline Valencia
Tony Burgess
Suzanne Alyssa Andrew
Liisa Ladouceur

The authors weren't given any direction other than to remix Bauhaus lyrics. They could work within specific songs or mix and match, and of course the results were completely unpredictable - and completely wonderful.

Jade Wallace put a positive spin on the band's typical gloom, trying to create poems that would even make Bela Lugosi smile.

Jacqueline Valencia put her words to music, creating a strange, spacey atmosphere. To close off her set, she pulled from a pack of tarot cards to cast fortunes with her words.

"Ecstasy," by Jacqueline Valencia
Nerve ends
crucifixion ecstasy
One eye’s closed
checked in agony
Will it stay shut?
Stigmata bleed
What
if
if
if
Holes in head
Indelicate Nerves.
Delicate Nerves
Indelicate Nerves
Delicate Nerves
Stigmata oh
Stigmata oh
Stigmata oh
Tell tale tongues
weep for me
Brittle spittle
The fabric of dreams
Nerves.
As you feel the twist
pumping heart
Nerves nylon /nerves steel
Nerves nylon/nerves steel
Nerves nylon/nerves steel
Sense of serenity splintered glass.
Look into your crimson orifice
random cutlery cuts
In holy remembrance
Nerves. Nerves.
in your splintered plight
Nerves. Nerves.
Stigmata oh
Stigmata oh
Nerves.
Nerves nylon/nerves steel
Nerves nylon/nerves steel
Nerves nylon/nerves steel
In scarlet bliss
Father, son, and holy ghost
 
In nomine patri et filii et spiriti sanctum
In nomine patri et filii et spiriti sanctum
 
Aleb
Aleb
Aleb
Aleb

(check out Jacqueline's blog to see more of her work!)

Tony Burgess followed up by telling us a story about hearing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" on the radio during a serious misadventure.

Suzanne Alyssa Andrew also brought a deck of cards to the stage. "I believe performance is a gift," she said, encouraging the audience to pick up the playing cards she threw out as she read lines off each one.


Suzanne Alyssa Andrew also used a deck of cards in her performance. "I believe poetry is a gift,"

"I Dare You," by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew

 

I dare you to be real.

Cut down the puppet strings,

The spotlight doesn’t last.

Take a look

Become the fear

And dance to the dark side of this tune.

I could be with you

But I dare you to be real.

Strip your feet of lead

Don’t go wavering or disguising

Let the intoxication evaporate

Come to me mashed and empty

I dare you to be real.

Like manic moths we could light up

Chinese lanterns, neon lights.

Mix Molotov cocktails

In the subterrain.

Turn to feather

Set free the past

Launch some other kind of madness.

I dare you to be real.

Burn your effigy

Take down your shielded pride

Cast off pretension

Or I’ll walk

And you’ll never find me in the labyrinth place.

Liisa Ladouceur closed the night with duelling fog machines and a powerful reading that she delivered with Suzanne's playing cards laying at her feet.

Liisa Ladouceur, photo by Liz Worth

 

Thanks again to the night's performers, the audience, and to Nocturne for hosting the first night of this new reading series!

 

The next event is in the works. If you're interested in staying up to date about upcoming Toronto Poetry Remix events, or getting involved, please send a note to LizWorth@gmail.com to get on the mailing list.

For now, I'll leave you with one last poem pieced together by Bauhaus quotes various band members gave to the press:

Dance absurd, by Liz WorthI'd written a dream out
on a piece of paper
to follow a beat with a
blank side,
passages of courage
dripping a lyric,
this battle between us.
I was press to
dance absurd,
confront a psychic power
as a definite identity.
Acting as a distanced observer
I cut the core of this
vast potential, a psychedelic fraction
of occult connotations,
a conversation made into a song.