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For current info on my Hot-Sauced Words Shows please visit www.hotsaucedwords.ca

To contact me regarding Business questions please visit www.piquantproductions.ca

 Sorry for the inconvenience,

Best regards,

CreativeJames

WHAT MAKES HOT-SAUCED WORDS so unique?

  “Poetry is not so much about what it means… but about how it feels” Mary Oliver

My intent over the last few years has been to make poetry not just more accessible to the public, but to revive poetry as an entertaining and feeling event. Consequently the focus of the evening is on creating a communion between the artists and their audience in a light and often humorous ambience.

I start the show by establishing the format for the evening. 

Introduction

First Featured Poet (20 minute set)

(short break)

6 Open Microphone Poets (4 minutes each)(Sign-up by 7:45)

(Longer Break)

Second Featured Poet (20 minute set)

(optional second short break)

Poetry Themed Challenge

Closing

The featured poets (always a male and a female) are the key to the success of the show. These two artists provide the proven qualities of skill and delivery that inspire the listeners to open their hearts and minds. The open microphone set offers both new and experienced poets the opportunity to present other perspectives and nuances in shortened, but vital contributions.

After each poet reads I invite the audience to join me in providing positive responses about a favourite poem, perhaps a line or metaphor that was particularly moving, or any other aspect of performance deserving celebration.

It is in the Poetry Themed Challenge, based on a topic that I describe during the introduction to the show, that the audience is invited to play an integral role in the success of the artistic event. Individual participation in this is completely optional. Anyone can join in, but everyone in the audience is encouraged to help decide the two winners during the final act of the show.

Throughout the evening I elaborate on the theme to inspire people to explore the Themed Challenge. I leave small 3” x 4”pieces of paper and pens on the tables for this purpose. Any poem entered in the Themed Challenge is limited to what can be written on ONE of the provided pieces of paper (ok, you can use both sides).

 The show peaks at the end when participants are invited to come up and read what they’ve written. Once all contestants have performed their short pieces, the audience is asked to select their choice for FAVOURITE POEM and BEST PERFORMANCE.  

The winners receive a free drink as a prize and all entrants are encouraged to post their poems on my website www.creativejames.com until the next show’s winners are announced.

Each show averages about 2 1/2 hours in length, but the emphasis on camaraderie and communication make it fly by on an artistic high. There are 3 breaks because my overall intent is for people to celebrate the event together, so the more interaction the better. This also gives Themed Challenge writers some time to write their poems.

Admission is free, but audience members may contribute to a glass jar provided for this purpose. Any money raised is split between the featured poets. 

 Please come and help us celebrate the Art of Words together. 

CreativeJames Dewar 

HOT-SAUCED WORDS – Thursday Dec. 20th – 7:30 (note new start time! AND LOCATION!!)

Thursday December 20th !  at The Black Swan Tavern (second floor) Danforth and Broadview

doors open at 7:00

go to www.hotsauced.wordpress.com for details

“HOT-SAUCED WORDS – Thursday Nov. 29th – 7:30 (note new start time! AND LOCATION!!)

PLEASE NOTE that the NOVEMBER (TORONTO) HOT-SAUCED WORDS show

will be held on THURSDAY the 29th at ……   7:30 (one hour earlier from now on)

at our NEW LOCATION RAILS and ALES (752 DANFORTH AVE., just east of PAPE)

Thanks to LENNY at Rails and Ales

Check out the flier below for details. (if you can’t read it, just click on it to open)

featuring NASHIRA DERNESCH and JACOB SCHEIER.

BIOS of the FEATURES:

Nashira Dernesch

was raised in St. Jacobs, Ontario, and studied at the University of Toronto before being accepted into York University’s Creative Writing Program. She was co-editor of the literary journal Existere for three years. In 2006, she won the Art Bar Poetry Series’ Annual Discovery Night.

Her first published work, It’s No Secret You’ll Feel Better, sold out within the first two days of publication and is now in its second printing.

Jacob Scheier

is the author of More to Keep us Warm (ECW Press), his first full length poetry collection. The book has been included on the syllabus of two courses at Brandon University. His poems have appeared in several literary journals, including The White Wall Review and Descant, and have been aired on CBC radio.

Scheier was the winner of the 2003 Art Bar Discovery Night and formerly edited Existere, York University’s Journal of Art and Literature

PLEASE NOTE – NEW PLACE, NEW TIME, SAME WEEK DAY!!!!!!

Tuesday, October 16th HOT-SAUCED WORDS first MONTHLY SHOW “JACKS THAT THERMOSTAT” at DURHAM COLLEGE, OSHAWA

Thanks to the efforts of the WRITER’S CIRCLE on CAMPUS led by the tireless CLINTON DOCHUK, the FIRST HOT-SAUCED WORDS show will arrive on campus OCTOBER 16th at 8:00.
AND it’s an ALL OPEN MIC NIGHT!12 POETS are signed up so far. We have room for 5 more.

Email me to reserve your open mic spot or just show up and sya “JACK THAT THERMOSTAT!”

8:00 p.m. at E.P. TAYLORS PUB in THE STUDENT CENTRE at DURHAM COLLEGE, OSHAWA.

FREE PARKING, FREE ADMISSION.

If you need directions just check out the map on the Durham College website or email me – james@creativejames.com

HOT-SAUCED WORDS Poetry and Spoken Word – Thursday September 27th featuring KENNETH SHERMAN and CATHERINE GRAHAM

 

Kenneth Sherman

was born in Toronto. He has a BA from York University, where he studied with Irving Layton and Eli Mandel, and an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto. While a student at York, Sherman co-founded and edited the literary journal Waves.

From 1974-1975 he travelled extensively through Asia. He is a full-time faculty member at Sheridan College where he teaches Communications; he also teaches a course in creative writing at the University of Toronto.

In 1982, Sherman was writer-in-residence at Trent University. In 1986, he was invited by the Chinese government to lecture on contemporary Canadian literature at universities and government institutions in Beijing. In 1988, he received a Canada Council grant to travel through Poland and Russia. This experience inspired several of the essays in his book Void and Voice (1998), praised by American author Cynthia Ozick for its “luminous apprehension of art, history, and human connections.”

Sherman is the author of several books of poetry including the acclaimed Words for Elephant Man (1983) and The Well: New and Selected Poems (2000). His recently published book-length poem, Black River, (Porcupine’s Quill, 2007) has been called “a triumph” by The Globe and Mail, and “an astounding achievement” by The Danforth Review.

Catherine Graham

is the author of The Watch, Pupa and a forthcoming poetry collection (2008). She teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto where she was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award, Elements of Poetry at Sheridan College and through Descant’s SWAT writer-in-residence program. Her work has been anthologized internationally and published in The New Quarterly, Taddlecreek, LRC and The Fiddlehead.

Catherine teaches Creativity Tools for Strategic Thinkers at the University of Toronto and as creativity consultant has led her unique workshops through GlaxoSmithKline, BookExpo, U of T’s Spirituality at Work program and Environics Communications. Her poems are featured in Discovery Landing, Burlington’s new waterfront building and her work as a poetry coach is highlighted in Poet’s Market 2007.

She is Vice President of Project Bookmark Canada, a non-profit organization that seeks to mark the real places that serve as the settings for imagined stories. Visit www.catherinegraham.com

Hot-Sauced Words Thursday August 30th Featuring INGRID RUTHIG and STEVEN LAIRD

Ingrid Ruthig earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Toronto in the 1980s. After a decade of practice in Toronto, she retired from the profession to write full-time.

Her work has been published internationally, and across Canada in The Malahat Review, Descant, The Fiddlehead, The New Quarterly, and other journals and anthologies.

In 2005, her poetry won a Petra Kenney Award and the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival Literary Competition. She contributes reviews and interviews to Books in Canada, and co-edited LICHEN Arts & Letters Preview for eight years.

Her first collection of poetry, “A History of Falling”, is currently under consideration; a chapbook Synesthete II is available from Littlefishcart Press, and a book of essays on the work of Canadian poet Richard Outram will be released this year from Guernica Editions.
………………………

Steven Laird writes instruction manuals, tutorials, and other arcane documents related to business software for a living. But he’s also the Senior Editor and occasional columnist for Arts News Canada, a national online news and arts advocacy web portal.

Until its demise this year (2007), he was Poetry Editor for Lichen Arts & Letters Preview. His own first poetry collection, ‘Charlatan’ (Ronsdale Press, 2005), was a finalist in the George Lampert Memorial Award competition, and he also has a chapbook ‘A Sea Tale’ published by littlefishcart press in Peterborough in 2006. His second full-length collection, called ‘Stilt Dance’ is currently seeking a home.

Steven has written reviews, article, interviews and essays for Books in Canada, Canadian Notes and Queries, Writers Block, The Good Report, and Bookninja.

For a short time – about 3 years – he ran a bookstore and reading venue of his own in St. John’s, Newfoundland, called The Poet and Peasant Bookstore Café.

Please don’t miss HOT-SAUCED WORDS ..Thursday JULY 26th

Please don’t miss  HOT-SAUCED WORDS ..Thursday JULY 26^th  Featuring

TRINY FINLAY and DAVID HILLIS.   8:30 – It’s Not a deli 986 Queen West (near Ossington) 

 

Triny Finlay  is the author of Splitting Off (Nightwood Editions, 2004) and the chapbook Phobic (Gaspereau Press, 2006). Her poetry and reviews have appeared in various Canadian journals and magazines, including The Antigonish Review, Broken Pencil, CV2, The Fieldstone Review, The Fiddlehead, Grain, Idea&s, Modomnoc and Other Voices. Her feature review entitled “Back to the Modern: Three Ottawa Poets” recently won the 2007 Critic’s Desk Award at ARC Poetry Magazine. She has been featured on CBC.ca’s Words At Large and her work has been anthologized in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, Qwerty Decade, and Gaspereau Gloriatur. She holds degrees from Mount Allison University and the University of New Brunswick; currently, she is completing a PhD in Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.   

David Hillis is a young poet from Uxbridge, Ontario who is relatively new to the poetry scene. His poetry received both first prize, for The Bookstore, and the second place honourable mention prize for Apocalypse Now in the Penstrokes poetry competition. David enjoys writing poetry and playing music. He will be moving to Montreal in the fall to attend Concordia University to study Philosophy and Creative Writing. David’s poetry employs rich, gripping language to describe the conflict of the human condition.

Personal note: I first became aware of a very talented emerging poet, David Hillis, at the open mic at a Hot-Sauced Words show in Uxbridge earlier this Spring. This is his first ever feature in a Toronto venue and combined with the fabulous poetry and delivery of Triny Finlay, this phenomenal pairing of poets is not to be missed.

HOT-SAUCED WORDS Thursday JUNE 28th Featuring BARBARA HUNT and DUNCAN ARMSTRONG

 

 

 

BARBARA HUNT

 

Barbara Hunt is a dry-eyed nostalgic who delivers contemporary bites of naked truth wrapped in a rich appealing texture. She writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction from her home in Port Perry, Ontario where she regularly contributes to a local monthly magazine, FOCUS IN SCUGOG. She has been published with CBC Radio One, The Globe and Mail, Metroland, Esteem and Homemakers Magazine as well as several anthologies.

 

She is a board member of The Writer’s Circle of Durham Region, the Canadian Society of Children’s Writers, Illustrators and Performers, Professional Writers Association of Canada, Canadian Poetry Association and the League of Canadian Poets, she has cultivated a wide circle of connections with artists, writers, teachers and students. She collaborates with both public and catholic schools as well as local libraries and offers her own in-class poetry workshop, POEM-MANIA. She instructs writing classes at the adult level as well and will be teaching Camp Write-On (July 9 – 13th) in Oshawa.

 

DUNCAN ARMSTRONG

 

from 1991 to 1999 Duncan was the force behind Bushwack Theatre. When it folded in 2000 he wrote a huge novel – in 2002 – jumped back into the poetry/spoken scene – he’s had work published in CV2, Labor of Love, Renaissance Conspiracy anthologies, been featured on HOWL, and hit stages all over the city from Cafe May (is it still there?) in the West end & the Renaissance Cafe in the east end – in 2005 performed at Pride for the first time – featured in shows at The Black Swan, Cryptic Chatter at Renaissance Cafe, George Harvey High School; hit open stages at Word Jam, Dimentia 5, Diamond Cherry, Poetic Justice; hosted the Coffeehouse Cabaret scariest nights: Halloween & Valentine’s; workshopped fiction with Rosemary Aubert, & Caro Soles; did the U. of T. Poetry Master Class with David Donnell; was one of the judges for the Ellis Mystery Novel of the year 2007 -

for more info check: http://duncanarmstrong.coffeehouse.ca

 

 

HOT-SAUCED WORDS Poetry and Spoken Word Performances

WHAT MAKES HOT-SAUCED WORDS so unique? “Poetry is not so much about what it means… but about how it feels” Mary Oliver 

My intent over the last few years has been to make poetry not just more accessible to the public, but to revive poetry as an entertaining and feeling event. Consequently the focus of the evening is on creating a communion between the artists and their audience in a light and often humorous ambience. 

I start the show by establishing the format for the evening.  IntroductionFirst Featured Poet (20 minute set)(short break)6 Open Microphone Poets (4 minutes each)(Sign-up by 7:45)(Longer Break)Second Featured Poet (20 minute set)(optional second short break)Poetry Themed Challenge Closing 

The featured poets (always a male and a female) are the key to the success of the show. These two artists provide the proven qualities of skill and delivery that inspire the listeners to open their hearts and minds. The open microphone set offers both new and experienced poets the opportunity to present other perspectives and nuances in shortened, but vital contributions.After each poet reads I invite the audience to join me in providing positive responses about a favourite poem, perhaps a line or metaphor that was particularly moving, or any other aspect of performance deserving celebration.  

It is in the Poetry Themed Challenge, based on a topic that I describe during the introduction to the show, that the audience is invited to play an integral role in the success of the artistic event. Individual participation in this is completely optional. Anyone can join in, but everyone in the audience is encouraged to help decide the two winners during the final act of the show. Throughout the evening I elaborate on the theme to inspire people to explore the Themed Challenge. I leave small 3” x 4”pieces of paper and pens on the tables for this purpose. Any poem entered in the Themed Challenge is limited to what can be written on ONE of the provided pieces of paper (ok, you can use both sides).  The show peaks at the end when participants are invited to come up and read what they’ve written. Once all contestants have performed their short pieces, the audience is asked to select their choice for FAVOURITE POEM and BEST PERFORMANCE.  The winners receive a beverage of their choice as a prize and all entrants are encouraged to post their poems on my website www.creativejames.com until the next show’s winners are announced.  

Each show averages about 2 1/2 hours in length, but the emphasis on camaraderie and communication make it fly by on an artistic high. There are 3 breaks because my overall intent is for people to celebrate the event together, so the more interaction the better. This also gives Themed Challenge writers some time to write their poems.  

Admission is free, but audience members may contribute to a glass jar provided for this purpose. Any money raised is split between the featured poets.   Please come and help us celebrate the Art of Words together, CreativeJames Dewar