++ July 26, 2005 ++
Things are going well in toronto. i've been exchanging ideas with dub poets klyde broox, sankofa, and lillian allen. i've received a bit of a
crash course in dub history and in the craft of dub poetry, and also been deeply engaged in discussions of how to translate an oral medium into print. how does one capture the body, voice, movement, and overall dynamism of live performance in what is essentially a silent, static
medium?

I have also been investigating a book published by the toronto author and poet john sobol. the book is called "digitopia blues," and while it is rife with limiting generalizations about african american culture, while it seems based on a resuscitation of an exhausted old stereotype: african-descended cultures are oral, body-and-feeling centered cultures; euro-descended cultures are literate, intellectually abstracted bodiless cultures, it nonetheless provides some valuable insights into uses of the oral poetic voice, and into the relationship of music to oral poetry. yesterday morning sankofa and i did a presentation at a housing project called "mahogany place" out in brampton (i think the suburb was called
brampton) for a group of 42 kids, all between the ages of 4 and 12, and nearly all of jamaican descent. the kids were rambunctious (having just
eaten lunch and ingested some sugar in the process), but they quieted when the presentations started. in that environment, a poet depends on
gesture, expression, narrative development, and crowd participation if he wants to hold his audience, far more so than if he is performing for
adults.

The dub poets' collective space was officially launched last wednesday, and i was asked to read a few poems. it was interesting, reading for a
fairly intimate audience (too intimate for a microphone); reading for poets i have long admired, and having them listen closely and in close quarters to what i was saying. i was far less anxious than i had expected, and the poems came off fairly smoothly. but overall the time i've spent here has been very rewarding: in montreal there is limited intergenerational interaction - especially with poets in the black community, so the opportunity to exchange perspectives, ideas, knowledge with poets who have more experience has been rewarding.

-- kaie

++ July 27, 2005 ++
Last night (tuesday, the night i do my radio program in montreal), we held a little event downstairs at ellington's music & cafe. the venue holds about 60 people. it has golden wood floors, yellow and green walls, and is populated by potted palms. the event was organized in conjunction with an excellent toronto poet named spin, and a percussion player (who sat in with kalmunity a year ago when we played in toronto) named benny.

Every tuesday spin gives a writing and poetry performance workshops to a group of teenagers - mostly black and latino - at a bookstore that is not far from ellington's. benny, on the other hand, leads a traditional afro-colombian drumming ensemble made up of kids aged approx. eight to thirteen. all of the kids' families had at some point come to canada as refugees. benny maintained the ensemble as a tool to keep the kids in touch with their root culture, their community, and themselves. in any case, spin agreed to bring his group of kids to ellington's, and so did benny.

Another former toronto poet (now located in sri lanka), named krisantha sri bhaggiyadatta, was in town and agreed to join us. he recently produced a book & cd titled: "cheqpoint in heaven" (email to get a copy ravan@eureka.lk, uppress@yahoo.com). all of the kids shared poems, as did some "elders" like myself, krisantha, and lillian allen. finally, the colombian drummers played, and we wound the night up talking about poetry, music, and what it's like living in various canadian cities. the kids were particularly curious about montreal, and i did my best to increase their curiosity.

-- kaie

Watch Kaie Kellough perform on CBC's Zed-TV.