This free online study guide is presented by Words Aloud, an annual spoken word & storytelling festival in Durham, Ontario, and The Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library.

Produced By

Owen Sound Poet Laureate Liz Zetlin in collaboration with the Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival in partnership with The Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library’s Poet Laureate Project,  The Durham Art Gallery and the South Grey Bruce Youth Literacy Council.

About Words Aloud

Words Aloud is both a poetry collective and an annual spoken word festival.

Words Aloud Collective

Words Aloud, a Grey Bruce writer's collective, is a group of poets and poetry lovers dedicated to poetic performance as well as building a local audience for regional and nationally known writers. Since 1999, collective members have produced and promoted over 40 poetry events throughout the region. These have been staged readings in cafés, art galleries and at community events. For a list of events brought about by collective members prior to the first festival see this Web site maintained by poet Daniel Kolos. Anyone who organizes a reading or performance can become a member.

Words Aloud Spoken Word & Storytelling Festival

The festival grew from the desire to bring cultural events more characteristic of an urban environment to our rural, agricultural community. Our artistic vision is grounded in the belief that literary culture and agriculture are not mutually exclusive; that access to professional writing, theatre, and art, should be as much a right for all Canadians as access to professional physicians; and that the key to strengthening the arts nationally is to nurture them locally, by making poetry as important a part of municipality infrastructures as pipes, pavement and police.

We understand that the value of art and literature must be cultivated at all levels and in all parts of our community, and therefore the festival must be something to which every part of the community feels it can contribute.

Acknowledgements

Videos

Filmed at the 2007 Words Aloud 4 Spoken Word Festival based in Durham, ON. The videos were produced/directed by Liz Zetlin and Myke Dyer.

Words Aloud 4 Festival 2007

Presented by the Words Aloud Poetry Collective in partnership with the Durham Art Gallery.

Words Aloud gratefully acknowledges the support of – The Ontario Ministry for Tourism, Heritage Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the League of Canadian Poets, the Municipality of West Grey, and our generous sponsors: Mosaic, United Media Arts, Edgehill Country School, Ann Wylie Toal Designs, M’wikwedong Native Cultural Centre, Image Business, Millennia Books, The Garafraxa Street Bookstore, Spruce Ridge School, PEN Canada, The South Grey Bruce Youth Literacy Council, The Chicory Common Cafe, Rogers TV, RVS Drapery, Gary Byers, Dunlop, Johnson & Pust, Barristers & Solicitors, The Hanover Public Library, Above Stedmans, The Métis Centre, The Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library, The Colour Jar, Akimbo and our amazing volunteer community.