Mom’s the Word was created out of a Saturday morning writers’ support group. Getting together to share their experiences, six women performers struck upon the idea to write about what they were going through as mothers trying to maintain their careers, their individual identities and their relationships with their partners. The result is an evening of hilarious stories, bittersweet monologues, poetic reflections and revelatory anecdotes. Touching tales of giving birth to a premature baby are balanced against comic, ribald rants on diaper soup; whispered, hesitant conversations about sex after children; and the desperate confessionals of the over-stressed.

More info here.

February 27 to March 8, 2020
Palace Theatre
710 Dundas Street
London, ON N5W 2Z4

Daniel Canty will lead a workshop called “Found in Translation” at Passa Porta in Brussels, Belgium.

Workshop held in French and Dutch. More info here.

Thursday, February 27, 2020
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Rue Antoine Dansaert 46,1000
Bruxelles, Belgium

Danielle LaFrance, author of JUST LIKE I LIKE IT, will facilitate a workshop called, THIS IS HOW DISTANT I AM: A WORKSHOP INTERSECTING THE WORKS OF HELEN CHO, THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA’S “DICTEE,” AND THE SELF ABOLISHED THROUGH THE WRECKAGE OF CONTEXT. This event is free but space is limited. Please contact audaingallery@sfu.ca to register. More info here.

Wednesday, March 4
6 to 8 p.m.
Audain Gallery
149 W Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1H4

Growing Room 2020 will take place on the traditional, unceded, and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish peoples (Vancouver, British Columbia) from March 11 – 15, 2020. More info here.

Talon authors Dina Del Bucchia and Mercedes Eng will be participating in this year’s festival. Here are the events they’re participating in:

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Something Funny
Fox Cabaret, 7pm – 9pm
Madeline Terbasket, Kayla Czaga, Alicia Tobin, Dina Del Bucchia, Soo Jeong, and Tin Lorica. Hosted by Savannah Erasmus.

Friday, March 13, 2020

So You Think You Can Slam 2: Back 2 The Slam
Beaumont Studios, 7pm – 9pm
Ayan Ismail, Erika Thorkelson, NASRA, Madeline Terbasket, Lucia Misch, Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros, and beni xiao. Hosted by Dina Del Bucchia and jaye simpson.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Criminalized Verse: The Crossroads of Sex Work and Poetry
Native Education College, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Justin Ducharme, Mercedes Eng, and Cassandra Blanchard. Moderated by Amber Dawn.

Sunday, March 15, 2020
Transmuting Trauma
Rennie Hall, Emily Carr University, 4pm – 6pm
Maneo Mohale, Alessandra Naccarato, Addie Tsai, and Corinne Manning. Moderated by Mercedes Eng.

Meet the author: Talon author and translator David Homel will be at the Bibliothèque de Pierrefonds on March 11.

More info here.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020
7 p.m.
Bibliothèque de Pierrefonds
13 555 Boulevard de Pierrefonds
Pierrefonds, QC

Impromptu on Nuns’ Island
Comedy/Drama by Michael Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriou
Directed by Donna Challis

Synopsis: An opera diva, Patricia, meets her Waterloo singing Salome at the Opera Bastille in Paris.
In an impromptu get-together in her Nuns’ Island penthouse, on the afternoon of her return from Europe, h
​er mother (a popular Montreal stage and television actress pushing 70), and her idealistic committed-to-new-work daughter goad her. What is the sense of an international career if your art doesn’t contribute to change (or at least to widespread pleasure and inspiration) in the society you live in?

March 24 to April 4, 2020
BCP Little Theatre
102 26th Street
Battleford SK

Oana Avasilichioaei will perform from Eight Track at VERSEFEST Ottawa.

More info coming soon.

March 28 to 29
VERSEFEST
Ottawa, ON

Dina Del Bucchia will read with Adèle Barclay, and Kyla Jamieson at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC. The writers will read from their own work, engage in a discussion about writing and craft, and then open up to a Q & A from the audience. More info here.

Tuesday, March 31
3:15 to 5:15 p.m.
University of the Fraser Valley
Room B121
Abbotsford, BC

Arleen Paré will read from Earle Street at the Mayne Island community library. More details to come.

Saturday, April 11
Time TBA
411 Naylor
Mayne Island, BC V0N 2J2

The City of Vancouver Public Art Program is pleased to announce the screening of twelve videos commissioned for the outdoor screens at the NE corner of Robson and Granville Streets.

The twelve videos were commissioned as part of our Platforms series in 2011, 2014 and 2016. A different video will screen every month from February 17 until the end of 2020, or until the upgrade and replacement of the Robson and Granville video screens occurs. Information on the artists and artworks, exhibition timeline and background information on the Platforms series can be found below.

EXHIBITION TIMELINE

Her Story by Krista Belle Stewart will screen from February 17 – March 15, 2020
Girl in the City by Diyan Achjadi will screen from March 16 – April 12, 2020
Barnacle City by LAIWAN will screen from April 13 – May 10, 2020
(A Sense of Place) by Emilie Crewe will screen from May 11 – June 7, 2020
RIPPLES by Nicolas Sassoon will screen from June 8 – July 5, 2020
The Place Between Us by Jason Nielsen will screen from July 6 – August 2, 2020
Tidal Pool by Curtis Grahauer will screen from August 3 – 30, 2020
Harbeck Homage by Lisa g. Nielsen will screen from August 31 – September 27, 2020
Canoe by Donna Szoke will screen from September 28 – October 25, 2020
Wood Work by Carol Sawyer will screen from October 26 – November 15, 2020
Reconciliation by Jeremy Borsos will screen from November 16 – December 6, 2020
Making Circles: The Chilkat Dancing Blanket by Emilie Crewe will screen from December 7 – 27, 2020

More info here.

Arleen Paré will launch Earle Street at Munro’s Books. She will be joined by Jane Munro, who is launching her new collection, Glass Float.

Tuesday, April 21
doors at 6:30 p.m., readings start at 7 p.m.
Munro’s Books
1108 Government Street
Victoria, BC, V8W 1Y2

Penny and Ezra Lamb are home-schooled by their parents on a hippie colony near Uranium City until the police discover it also happens to be the largest marijuana grow-op in Saskatchewan. Legoland is how their pot-smoking elders always described the outside world, and the Lamb siblings are dying to get there.

More info here.

April 22 to May 9
The Bailey Studio
2373 Rosstown Road
PO Box 796,
Nanaimo, BC
V9R 5M2

Based on true events, Daisy is a political drama that presents the moment in TV history that ushered in the age of negative advertising and forever changed how we elect our leaders. It also tells the more cynical tale of how a nation got led into war, distracted by the “packaging” of a seemingly peaceful U.S. president. Daisy explores the art and science of political manipulation, the forces at play on public consciousness in our mediated world, and the impact that fear has had on our democracy.

April 29 to May 17, 2020
International City Theatre
330 E. Seaside Way
Long Beach, CA 90802

Arleen Paré will read from Earle Street at Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria. More details to come.

Friday, May 8
7:15 p.m.
Hillside Coffee and Tea
1633 Hillside Avenue
Victoria, B.C.

Talon authors Arleen Paré, Mercedes Eng, and Margaret Christakos will read at Knife | Fork | Book on May 14 in Toronto.

Arleen Paré will read from her new book, Earle Street, Mercedes Eng will read from my yt mama, and Margaret Christakos will read from Charger.

Thursday, May 14, 2020
time TK
Knife | Fork | Book
ARTSCAPE YOUNGPLACE
180 SHAW STREET
MEZZANINE LEVEL
Shaw St, Toronto, ON M6J 2W5

Scarborough’s The Guild Festival Theatre will present David French’s Salt-Water Moon.

August 12 to 22
The Greek Theatre
Guild Park & Gardens
201 Guildwood Parkway
Scarborough, ON

Bill Richardson will read from I Saw Three Ships at this year’s Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts.

Details forthcoming. Visit the festival’s Facebook page here.

August 13 to 16, 2020
Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
5511 Shorncliffe Avenue
Sechelt, British Columbia