by Kortnee Stevens
The wrap up
for the Thin Air festival was held at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain, in
a large open hall that made whispers into echoes. A multitude of fruit and
vegetables were supplied (along with sprigs of what we suspected were rosemary
and thyme) and the lights bore down on a stage set with an upright bass and a
trumpet stand. Accompanying the 20-some poets who braved the stage (myself
included) were Derrick Gardner and Steve Kirby, two of the best jazz musicians
in Winnipeg. While it was nerve-wracking to stand under scalding stage lights,
playing along with a jazz accompaniment was more than refreshing, and the
evening offered quite the variety of poems. We had everything from walruses to
birds to woodchucks going at the speed of light to dogs to a beautiful
saxophone tune before our 10-minute break to toad...metaphors. The final act
featured pure improvisation as the man played a Djembe drum, first performing
with the inspiration of ‘forest fire’ and then to the word ‘harvest.’
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| Steve Kirby, Steve Locke and Derrick Gardner |
The entire
evening was a remarkable wrap up to a fantastic week, and I am so looking forward to doing this all
again next year.
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