TITLES

Jason 'Blackbird' Selman

 

poetry by Jason 'Blackbird' Selman
$14 - 6" X 8" trade paperback
112 pages
with artwork by
 

As your eye scans each poem’s lithe, lettered lines, an airplane touches down on a narrow landing strip. a needle slices into a jazz record’s waxen groove. suited musicians improvise on Oscar Peterson’s hymn to freedom. a traveler wanders through narrow, moonlit streets. freedom becomes a flight of imagination, a silver-winged melodic arc linking cities distant as habana, bridgetown, montréal. these flights are recorded here, in the jazz poems and wayfaring lyrics of Jason “Blackbird” Selman.

extraction

order it online @ navigating customs

EXTRACTION! : comix reportage
edited by Frédéric Dubois, Marc Tessier & David Widgington
$20.00 - 7.75" X 8.75" trade paperback
 
 
 

Take 4 journalists. Send them on assignment to each investigate a mining project by a Canadian company in 4 extractive sectors: GOLD. BAUXITE. URANIUM. OIL. Have the reportages converted into scripts destined for graphic interpretation. Give the scripts to 4 award-winning comix artists to illustrate and EXTRACTION! is the result
Comix journalism will never be the same!

 

picture this

purchase the book at your local independent bookstore

or

order it online @ talking book

Picture This! : posters of social movements in Québec (1966-2007)
edited by Jean-Pierre Boyer, Jean Desjardins & David Widgington

$32 - 7.5" X 9" - 360 pages - fully bilingual

French version available February 2008 by Lux Éditeur

These 659 posters, assembled for the first time in one album, offer a veritable journey through Québec’s social history and political imagination of the past four decades.

This collection of union, political, community, feminist, sociocultural and anti-globalization posters brings to our collective memory the popular struggles that have marked the history of social movements in Québec. It gives a voice to those who, through the strength of their commitment and creativity, have contributed to a more humane, just and democratic world.

These images taken from the streets are much more than a mirror of our combined aspirations: they are an invitation to move ever forward. The posters portray demanding, accusatory, irreverent and hopeful actions and offer as many original—sometimes radical—proposals on how to improve the lives of our society’s downtrodden, mistreated, exploited and marginalized groups and individuals.

navigating customs

order it online @ navigating customs

Navigating Customs : Travel Stories by 13 young writers <25
edited by Dana Bath & Taien Ng-Chan
$14.00 - 5.25" X 7" trade paperback with flaps (168 pages)
+ 16-page chapbook by Cleo Paskal
tendril anthology series -- book 3 --
 

"What's the difference between exploring and being lost? The journey is the destination." -- Dan Sheldon

 

talking book

purchase the book at your local independent bookstore

or

order it online @ talking book

Talking Book : blues, jazz, dub, rap, song and freedom in the literature and orature of Montréal's Kalmunity Vibe Collective
edited by Kaie Kellough (author info) & Jason "Blackbird" Selman (author info)
$20 - 5.5" X 7.5" - 240 pages
 

Two percussion players, one trap drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, a keyboardist, and three horn players cram onto a floor-level stage. Twelve vocalists squat stage right, waiting for their chance to touch the mic. The air crackles with anticipation. In the crowd, Blacks, Browns, Whites are packed together so tightly that, as in the Langston Hughes poem about riding the New York subway, there is “no room for fear.” One person inhales another’s language. Welcome to Kalmunity’s Live Organic Improv at Sablo Kafé.
This anthology collects the words and thoughts of Kalmunity’s rappers, dub poets, jazz poets, singers, and musicians as they reflect on collective improvisation, freedom, love, history, politics, and the divine.

 

the hero book

order it online @ the hero book

by Scott Waters (author info)
$15 - 5.5" X 8.5" paperback with flaps 64 pages
an illustrated memoir (colour & b/w images)
 

"Deviant behaviour and homosocial elements in a military society."

 

 

north of 9/11

order it online from rabble.ca

autonomous media

North of 9/11 (author nearly censored by Concordia University)
by David Bernans (author info)
$18 - 5.5" X 8.5" paperback 256 pages
fiction

North of 9/11 is political science at its best. Centred at Concordia University in Montréal during the tumultuous months following 9/11, this historical novel lays bare Canada’s complicity in the American-led war on terror and related state-sponsored repression of dissent. With its focus on a small group of pro-Palestinian activists and their Zionist antagonists, the novel brings to life the realities and subtleties of politics in our times. Bernans’ poignant description of the relationship between a conservative father and his radical daughter is reminiscent of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral.
David Noble, historian & author of Beyond the Promised Land

Maps of Our Bodies

purchase the book at your local independent bookstore

Maps of Our Bodies : & the borders we have agreed upon
by Taien Ng-Chan (author info) with musical collaboration with Scott W. Gray
$14 - 6" X 6" paperback with flaps
poetry, spoken word, video (includes multimedia CD)

Maps of Our Bodies draws on themes of travel, location/ dislocation, and that old workhorse, love. These poems and prose poems are a series of maps and meditations on the act of traversing space, both physically and emotionally; together, they sketch out a narrative arc about the course of a relationship, from its intense and sleepless beginnings to the negotiations of boundaries and space, to separation over long distances and a solitary road trip across the huge expanse of land that is Canada.

The accompanying CD, Roadmaps, is a word/music collaboration between writer Taien Ng-Chan and musician Scott W. Gray of The Sally Fields. These 13 songs explore a range of musical styles from traditional pop guitar and percussion to technological soundscape. Enhancing the CD are six videos, featuring a contribution by cartoonist/animator Joe Ollmann.

autonomous media

autonomous media

buy it from rabble.ca

buy in $US from AK Press

Autonomous Media : activating resistance and dissent
edited by Andrea Langlois and Frédéric Dubois
$20.00 - 5.5" X 8.5" paperback (168 pages)
communications, media studies, non-fiction
second printing + in translation into French by Lux Editeur

"Autonomous media activists deploy their weapons of choice – video cameras, spray cans, blogs, laptops – to liberate “meaning-making” from PR specialists and corporate board rooms. As they engage, connect, and project the voices of people around the world who are demanding freedom and justice, they crack open spaces in which social movements can grow and genuine democracy can flourish."
— Naomi Klein

the dead beat scrolls

the dead beat scrolls

The Dead Beat Scrolls: The Incomprehensible Teachings of Harvey Christ Redeemer
by Reverends Norm, Anna Montana, Joalien & Randy Peters
$25.00 - 7.5" X 8.5" paperback (240 pages) includes CD
humour, religion, fiction (200+ illustrations)

"Harvey Christ's paradoxical expression of both reverence and rebellion, low budget mystique wrapped in the baroque imagery of Catholicism, and a general bohemian respect for the absurd mirrored perfectly a time when all [in Montréal] were living in 4-bedroom apartments with 12-foot ceilings whilst scrounging for milk money."

-- Rufus Wainwright

 

for everyone at the back

for everyone at the back

by Kirk Johnson author info
$14.00 - 3.5" X 5.75" paperback with flaps (104 pages)
 
poetry

During the Bolshevik Revolution, a young activist woman loses the cherished book of poems she has carried in her undercoat pocket since the battles began. She referred to it for comfort while hidingout
behind the crumbled ramparts of the citadel. She remembers reading “Notre-Dame” while standing in line for a cup of soup. She penned her
first poem on its printed pages shortly after the massacre and inked-in flowers right after the last frost. This is her lost book. Found. It is personal reading for anyone left behind.

In this bold collection, Kirk Johnson is part archivist, biographer and archaeologist. Extracted from speeches, conversations, letters, manifestos and memoirs that chronicle the Bolshevik Revolution and the violent overthrow of the Russian Monarchy, the metrics of his historical method defy tradition. Though grounded in documentation, Johnson is more modern troubadour: his poems are part songs, part folk tales.

 

lettricity

lettricity

by Kaie Kellough author info
5" X 6.5" paperback (112 pages)
$15.00
poetry

 

"Kaie Kellough declares Cool Age Québécitude, / remixing urban vibes with négritude. / His poetry, spare chic Shakespeare, shakes / CanLit with reggae riff, steelpan quakes."

-- George Elliott Clarke

rising to a tension

Rising To A Tension : new short stories by 13 young writers <25
edited by Neale McDevitt & Tom Abray
$14.00 - 5.25" X 7" trade paperback with flaps (168 pages)
+ 16-page chapbook by Elisabeth Harvor
tendril anthology series -- book 2 -- short fiction
 

throw the captain overboard

 

by Mia Rose Brooks author info
$14.00 - 5.5" X 6" trade paperback (48 pages)
+ CD of spoken word performances (with musical accompaniment)
written & spoken word

"The moody lyricism in throw the captain overboard!, as I soon discovered, balances print and sound with a rare and remarkable grace." mRb

out of print

counter productive
counter productive : quebec city convergence surrounding the summit of the americas
compiled by David Widgington & Luca Palladino
6" X 7" trade paperback with flaps (132 pages)
+ CD of sound art, radio documentaries, speeches, music, etc.
 
 

Running With Scissors

Running With Scissors : new poetry by 19 young writers <25
edited by Andy Brown & Meg Sircom
$14.00 - 5.25" X 7" trade paperback with flaps (78 pages)
+ 16-page chapbook by George Elliott Clarke
tendril anthology series -- book 1 -- poetry
 

Companion Pieces

 

by Kirk Johnson author info
5" X 7" trade paperback with flaps (64 pages)
out of print
poetry

Montreal Up Close

Montréal Up Close : a pedestrian's guide to the city
by Kirk Johnson & David Widgington
$13 - 6" X 9" trade paperback (76 pages)
incl. 2 fold-out colour maps, archive + recent photos, index, biblio.
french transtlation by XYZ editeur isbn 2-89261-327-2

" A deeply researched book, chock-full of walking tours, colour foldout maps and insights into the history, society and architecture of Montréal. " -- Lonely Planet

cumulus press - 1998-2008