PAST STORE EVENTS - 2010

(go to 2011 and newly old events)

(go to 2009 and earlier events)

2010 Readings, Launches and Workshops

Jazz

Tuesday, December 21/10 8pm  $10

Joel Visentin Quartet, featuring Derek Ullenboom
With guests Curtis Nowosad Trio

Curtis Nowosad has quickly become Winnipeg's go-to drummer. At twenty-two, he has already performed in big band and small group settings with some of New York’s finest jazz musicians, including Stefon Harris, Marcus Printup, Ted Nash, Steve Wilson, Miguel Zenón, and his teacher and mentor Steve Kirby.

Christmas

Friday, December 17/10 7pm  $10

12 Days Before Christmas
A Christmas Survival Story with a Karaoke Twist
Jeannine DesRoches, with Süss and Tim Sieir

Jeannine DesRoches here, inviting you to my Show next Friday, December 17th at Aqua Books, at 7pm. It is a Christmas Story with a Karaoke Twist! Christmas is a hard time for many, but there’s always room for hope! There will be a draw of ten people before every song to see who will sing up on stage with the piano, guitar and me with your own live mic. If you are too shy to sing you can pass the mic to your right! Whether or not you sing I am sure it will be a good show. I want to tell a story, and to share the music and the talent of the musicians who will play with me. I have hired the best available, and I hope to repeat this show next year. Tickets for the show are $10, but if $10 makes you sing the Christmas Blues, then just make me an offer - this is a pay what you can show, and there's also the chance of winning a door prize and getting a gift for yourself or someone else. There’s no point in having a sing-along if there's nobody there to sing-along! Can you come to my show?

Click here for details

Jazz

Thursday, December 16/10 7pm

U of M Jazz Program Student Ensembles

Kids

Wednesday, December 15/10 7pm

Nanabosho and the Butterflies Launch
Author/storyteller Joe McLellan

When the world seems sad and family is so far away, a single butterfly can make all the difference. In the 11th story in the Nanabosho series, Joe and Matrine McLellan weave a funny and touching story of how the legendary friend and trickster created beautiful butterflies – bringing wonder and laughter to children everywhere.

Joe McLellan is a writer and storyteller. Joe and his wife Matrine have written several popular books featuring Ojibwe trickster Nanabosho.

Music

Tuesday, December 14/10 8pm  $10

Lady Troubadours
Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Jenny Berkel presents Ingrid Gatin, Demetra Penner, Julia Kasdorf and Claire Morrison

Jenny Berkel’s deep, resonant voice and truly poetic lyrics have been garnering fans ever since she started performing with her guitar three years ago. In that time, she has played with bands The Wandering Goose and Lady o’Lakes, toured across Canada, busked on the streets of Paris and Belfast, and been nominated for two music awards. This summer she released her first solo recording, Gather Your Bones. Jenny’s songs are both haunting and starkly honest, drawing their substance from personal experience and collective history, free of the all-too-easy cliché of folk lyrics. Her voice is also unique—deep and smoky, broad as the Manitoba prairie where she now lives.

Ingrid Gatin makes eclectic beautiful. Reaching top 20 on Earshot Charts across Canada, Ingrid is taking Canada by storm. Touring by train, writing music in a cabin in the woods, and making art in the Exchange District of Winnipeg are all influences that can be heard in the sounds of Ingrid's music. With accordion, piano, vocals, handclaps, foot-stomps, and tambourine, Ingrid has crafted her own eclectic and beautiful sound in the indie/roots music genre.

Workshop

Saturday, December 11/10 11am-4pm  $75

From the Ground Up: Planning and Writing a Publishable Story
Award-winning writer Jake MacDonald

Jake MacDonald will be teaching a winter writing program that focuses on story concept, story planning, plotting and development, writing, revising, submitting, dealing with editors, etc. -- the whole daunting but exciting project of building a publishable story. The six sessions of the program will cover both fiction and non-fiction and will run from November to April, starting November 6. (The second class is December 11) Tuition is $75 per class, or $390 for all six. Participants can drop in for specific classes if they wish but there will be continuity from one class to the next, so it makes sense to attend all six. If a midwinter escape causes participants to miss one or two classes, crib notes will be provided, if escapee provides Cuban cigars and an essay entitled "How I Spent My February Vacation."

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Theatre

Saturday, December 11/10 2pm  $5

Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents
Arsenic and Old Lace/Boston Blackie and the Fur Trade Double Feature
Starring Enid Barnes, Dean Harder, Tim Higgins, Chickie Hughes, Clint Skibitzky, and introducing Kelly Hughes as The Announcer

The Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents live radio plays from the medium's Golden Age, performed by a great cast and a live foley artist. Arsenic and Old Lace originally aired on Christmas Day 1946 and starred Boris Karloff. Boston Blackie was a favourite of young boys in the late '40s. Both plays will feature radio veteran Chickie Hughes, who was already a child radio star before either of these shows hit the airwaves.

Film

Saturday, December 11/10 7pm

Christmas Science Theatre 2010
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
- Chris Rutkowski and friends

Join science writer and UFO Guy Chris Rutkowski as he hosts a special screening of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, an amazingly bad 1964 movie about Martians who kidnap Jolly Old Saint Nick because Martian children need to celebrate Christmas too! Voted #82 on the Internet Movie Database worst 100 movies of all time, the low-budget cult classic is so bad, it deserves a live heckling, which is what we'll do during the screening!

Chris, Kelly Hughes and a few of their friends will share the mikes watching the film with you, adding improvised dialogue to help it along!

After, Chris will share a few of his favourite UFO and alien stories, and answer some of your questions about space stuff.

Prizes? Did we mention giveaways of pre-Christmas presents suitable for keeping or re-gifting?

So get into the true Christmas Spirit at Aqua Books on Saturday, December 11, 2010, at 7 pm. What a better way to celebrate the season than by sharing this experience with your family and friends?

Christmas

Friday, December 10/10 7pm  $10

A Special Occasion
Christmas with the Diabetics
Featuring Kami Desilets and Jonny Pancreas and the Diabetics

It's a very special occasion! And you're invited!

Come and celebrate the holidays at a cabaret extravaganza hosted by Kami Desilets. Kami will be joined by Jonny Pancreas and the Diabetics for an evening full of jazz, blues, showtunes, and classics. All your old faves are mixed in with some Chritsmas tunes, trimming the tree, hanging stockings, handing out presents, and some good old holiday cheer. Bust out your Santa hat, bring an appetite for some fresh holiday baking, and draw near to Aqua Books to make merry with all of your friends!

Theatre

Thursday, December 9/10 7pm

OPEN FRAGMENTS: The Theatre of Adhere and Deny 1997-2010 Launch
Editor Barb Stewart, with Adhere and Deny's Grant Guy

OPEN FRAGMENTS: The Theatre of Adhere and Deny (Lives of Dogs - Books by Artists, 2010) is filled with epigrams by Guy and others. OPEN FRAGMENTS documents in pictures the history of his quotational independent theatre since 1997.

Grant will do a short table top object theatre piece called The Shorter Spectacle (The Circus is Back in Town). Like The Prampolini Action and The Buster Keaton Action it will be a quiet tribute to Stuart Sherman.

Grant Guy, founder and artistic director of Adhere And Deny, has worked professionally in the arts since his graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1973. He is a director, designer, playwright, curator and arts programmer/curator, video producer, performance artist and writer. Grant has worked with and performed for everyone from Tarragon Theatre to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He has also programmed or produced curatorial projects for Video Pool, Ace Art, and Main/Access Gallery, and was the programmer and executive director for the 1986 International Intermedia Performance Festival. Grant was named the third recipient of the Manitoba Arts Council Arts Award of Distinction, a $30,000 award.

Education

Wednesday, December 8/10 7pm

Manitoba Social Sciences Teachers Association and Canada's History Society present
TeachMeet
Featuring John Evans, Jennifer Janzen, James Dykstra, Cindy Johnson-Gallego, Don McFayden, Margot Rumbolt and Linda Mlodzinski

Come and join us at the very first TeachMeet, an informal gathering of Social Studies teachers and others interested in the field, to meet others in the same field, exchange contacts, trade ideas, and come away with the idea that you're not really alone in what you're doing.

Craft Sale

Saturday, December 4/10 11am-5pm

Crafty Minions
The Handmade and Vintage Sale
23 vendors and music by Songwriter-in-Residence Jenny Berkel

One of Winnipeg's biggest indie craft sales features the city's hottest established and emerging crafty superstars including Head in the Oven Creations, Marathon 1981, Lady Tees, Just the Goods, Julrei, Midkid, Paper Girl Productions, Mrs. Glockenheimen, Velvet Vixen , Tumanov Regalia, Inspyred Creations, Dizzie Dame, Hello Goddess, Boomerang 360, Velvet Jeanie , Of Course You Can, Echo Creations, CJ Tennant, Husavik, Sea Bee, and more. Banish all thoughts of rows and rows of crocheted slippers or washcloths or ponybead keychains...think, instead, vintage-inspired handmade dresses, leather and ribbon wrist corsets, funky jewelery made of vintage silverware, tiny ceramic apartment buildings and octopus tentacles, retro aprons hand-embroidered with sassy 80s pop lyrics, handmade natural skincare luxuries, wall-art created from bass strings and recycled children's books, silk-screened courier bags and babywear, weird and wonderful stuffed animal-ish creations of all sorts, and much more. This is the new world of gorgeous guerilla DIY craft, right here at Aqua Books.

It's never too early to begin your holiday shopping, it's never the wrong time to pick up something completely unique and beautiful for yourself, and it's always the right time to support local artisans and crafters, and maybe even become inspired yourself.

Admission is free.

Poetry/Craft

Saturday, December 4/10 11am-5pm

Nestallation
A Reading and Book Presentation
Jennifer Still and Jennifer Beaudry

As a part of Aqua Books' Crafty Minions Handmade and Vintage Craft Sale, Jennifer Still and Jennifer Beaudry will take over one of the writers' studios and create a "nestallation" that draws from their recent collaboration, Nest (JackPine Press, 2010).

Screenprinted in a laced concertina design, Nest is hand-assembled with salvaged 1970s vintage materials including kitchen wallpaper, couch upholstery, owl needlepoints and baby yarn. Each limited-edition copy is wrapped in a needle-felted slipcover.

Guests are invited to join in a sewing-circle style reading and book talk with the opportunity to add their own stitches/layers to the room.

Jennifer Still and Jennifer Beaudry were born in Winnipeg in 1973 and have been crafting together since learning how to tie rollerskate shoelaces. Jennifer B. applies her nimble hand to photography, willow furniture building, knitting, bookbinding, sewing, felting, and most recently, quilt-making. Jennifer S. writes poetry and papers her walls in a tall yellow house in Winnipeg. Nest will appear in her second collection, Girlwood in spring 2011, with Brick Books.

Writing

Friday, December 3/10 7pm

National Novel Writing Month
Thank God It's Over Party

Poetry

Thursday, December 2/10 7pm

Interruptions in Glass Launch
Poet Tracy Hamon, with Jonathan Ball and John Toone

Tracy Hamon was born in Regina and grew up traveling between there and her parents' farm near Edenwold, Saskatchewan. She holds a BA Hon and a MA in English. She is currently the Program Officer for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. Her poetry has appeared in numerous Canadian literary magazines including Grain, Wascana Review, A Room of One's Own, sub-TERRAIN, and Event as well as numerous anthologies. Her first book of poetry, This Is Not Eden was released in April 2005 and was a finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Portions of Interruptions in Glass won the 2005 City of Regina Writing Award and has been shortlisted for two awards in the 2010 Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Jonathan Ball is the author of the poetry books Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009) and Clockfire (Coach House, 2010). He holds a Ph.D. in English with a focus in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary. His film Spoony B appeared on The Comedy Network, and his writing has appeared in The Believer and Harper’s. He is the former editor of dandelion and the former short films programmer for the Gimli Film Festival.

John Toone’s first collection of poetry, From Out of Nowhere, was published by Turnstone Press in spring 2009. He published two kids’ books in fall 2009, Catch that Catfish! and Hope and the Walleye. His poems also appear in the story Sixgun Quixote in book one and book two of The Imagination Manifesto (Alchemical Press). John is a past president of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild.

Workshop

September 30 - December 2/10 7pm $225

Aqua U. presents
Through the Looking Glass
A YA fiction writing intensive with Anita Daher

Tickle your muse and develop skills as Anita Daher leads you on a journey into the world of writing picture books, children’s periodicals, middle grade and teen novels, with a primary focus on YA. Take your vitamins and prepare to absorb in-depth information on the genre, and the children’s writing and publishing industry in Canada. There will be exercises, assignments, dynamic interaction, and at the end—a party!

The workshop is limited to 12 people. There will be no class on Remembrance Day.

Anita Daher has been entrenched in the book publishing industry for more than fifteen years. She feels “place” infuses her writing, and is grateful to have lived in communities like Summerside, PEI, Moose Jaw, SK, Churchill, MB, Baker Lake, NU, and Yellowknife, NT. Her short stories have appeared in Prairie Fire Magazine, and she is author of seven youth novels, including Arthur Ellis and Manitoba Book Award finalist Spider’s Song (2006), and Arthur Ellis, Hackmatack and Diamond Willow finalist Racing for Diamonds (2006). She has led workshops across the country, and has been a popular presenter at conferences and festivals. When not teaching, presenting, or working on her own stories, Anita edits teen novels for Great Plains Publications. Anita was Aqua Books' inaugural writer-in-residence in 2008.

Workshop

Wednesday, September 15 - December 1/10 6:30pm

Aqua U. presents
Forging the Muse
A workshop series from poet Chandra Mayor

This workshop is appropriate for beginning or intermediate poets and is limited to 10 people.

Does the Muse of Poetry come to you at night, streaming with the moon through your windows, the unseen hand guiding your pen as you fill page after page with (probably rhyming) verse of unspeakable beauty and profundity, while you, the passive vehicle for this marvel, surrender yourself up to the voices of Truth and Light?

Nope, me neither. `(And if that is indeed your poetic process, you’ll probably hate my course).

“Poetry is the way we give name to the nameless so that it can be thought,” said Audre Lorde. This 12 week course will help us understand how that happens – how each of us can transform images, ideas, and emotions into words that truly communicate in our writing. We will focus on the craft of poetry and of language (image and metaphor, place and point of view, voice, form poetry, line breaks, and how to give effective readings). We’ll learn how (and why) editing and workshopping is so important. We’ll explore personal mythologies, the world(s) of publishing, performativity, and whatever else seems interesting. We’ll play, and take risks, and create a community of writers – we won’t (and shouldn’t) always agree with each other, but we’ll each understand more about what we write, why we write, and how to get closer to the poems we really want to write. The course will include lots of reading, lots of discussion, and most importantly, lots of writing (and lots of feedback).

I don’t really believe in the notion of ‘the muse.’ But I do believe in inspiration, hard work, the creative urge, and learning the skills to express it. And I do believe, absolutely, that poetry can (and does) transform the world, and ourselves. Let’s light the fires and figure out how.

Chandra Mayor’s writing has appeared in several anthologies, including Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, and Post-Prairie. Her first book, August Witch: poems, was short-listed for four Manitoba book awards and won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. She received the 2004 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer, and the following year her novel, Cherry, won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. The title story from her most recent book, All the Pretty Girls (conundrum, 2008), was shortlisted for a 2008 CBC Literary Award, and the collection itself won a Lambda Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. Chandra Mayor lives in Winnipeg.

Workshop

September 28 - December 1/10 7pm

Aqua U. presents
Writers’ Support Group
Facilitated by Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Kerry Ryan

Ready to share your writing, but not sure where to start? Looking for an extra set of eyes but can’t commit to a writing group?

Writers working in all genres are invited to take part in a series of drop-in,workshop-style sessions hosted by Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Kerry Ryan. Participants will be expected to both share work and give feedback to others.

Six sessions will take place over the fall. Participants can sign up in advance for workshop slots (everyone will be guaranteed three slots, but they’ll be assigned first come, first served), and are welcome to attend any/all sessions to comment on others’ work.

All participants who wish can take part in a public, wind-up reading at Aqua Books on December 1. The workshop is limited to 16 people.

Kerry Ryan lives and writes in Winnipeg. Her first collection of poetry, The Sleeping Life, was published by The Muses’ Company in 2008 and nominated for the Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry in 2009. She has had poetry published in a number of journals, including Prairie Fire, Grain, Room, CV2 and Carousel. Her second collection, Vs., is forthcoming from Anvil Press in fall 2010. Kerry is Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for September-December 2010.

Launch

Tuesday, November 30/10 7pm

Matrix of the Blended Family Launch
Author Gina DeBrincat

Matrix of the Blended Family is a personalized and intimate story of the trials presented in being part of a blended family. It takes a fresh look at different problem solving methods. The ideas in the book are offered in four different categories corresponding to the four seasons. Each season symbolizes a season in the life of a blended family. It starts with Autumn and the issues that deal with the death of ideals and the traditional family. The Winter section of the book addresses the struggles for survival in the blended family. The Spring category tackles the techniques that can be used to develop a healthy blended family and the Summer section depicts the picture of a successful blended family. The book is meant to be read and used repeatedly as a resource for families, to bring insight and provoke thought and ideas for specific issues that arise in the blended family situation.

Gina DeBrincat is first and foremost a wife and mother. She is a licensed minister of music, a singer, teacher, and she administrates and owns a physiotherapy clinic with her husband. In whatever medium she finds herself in, Gina's mandate is to "facilitate others to be what God has called them to be."  For the present, Gina thrives with her family, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Music

Saturday, November 27/10 1:30pm

send + receive presents
Artist Talk with Keith Rowe (UK/France)

send + receive: a festival of sound is thrilled to present groundbreaking artist Keith Rowe as part of our 12th edition, November 23-28/10. For more information on send + receive and the other exciting events at this years festival (performances, exhibitions and more), please visit www.sendandreceive.org.

Keith Rowe(b.1940) is a formative figure in the development of electro-acoustic free improvisation. As a founding member of UK based ensemble AMM* (1965 – present, with Rowe departing in 2004) he turned convention on its head by placing the guitar on the table in front of him and utilizing implements such as springs, fans and short wave radio to expand the instrument’s potential for sound creation. He has truly developed a new language for the guitar, one that he continues to develop and evolve to this day through continued performances and recording projects.

This talk is a rare and exciting opportunity to hear the ideas and experiences of such a compelling and vital senior artist. As a musician, visual artist (painter) and engaging and thoughtful speaker, this afternoon will be a treat to those familiar and unfamiliar with his work alike, including musicians, free-improv, jazz and noise enthusiasts and anyone interested in expanding their creative horizons.

*AMM are a legendary and groundbreaking free-improvisation ensemble formed in London, England in1965. Members through the years have included Rowe, Eddie Prevost, Lou Gare, Cornelius Cardew, John Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Lawrence Sheaff and Christopher Hobbs.

Film

Saturday, November 27/10 7:30pm

Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival Awards

The Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival is the third largest festival in North America dedicated to showcasing the best indigenous film and video from across Canada, the US and around the world. Both on and off screen, WAFF’s mandate is to celebrate and cultivate indigenous storytelling. Aqua Books is pleased to be the venue for the Ninth Annual Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival awards ceremony.

Music

Friday, November 26/10 10pm   $10

Songwriters in Concert Series
Juno-nominated singer-songwriter Dean McTaggart

Dean McTaggart's professional career started as the lead singer/songwriter for the Canadian rock/pop band The Arrows in 1981. An independent release Misunderstood was followed by two albums for A&M records which produced the hit singles Meet me in the Middle, Talk Talk, and Heart of the City. When the band broke up in 1986 Dean went on to be a staff songwriter penning many hits including Darkhorse, a number one in Canada for Amanda Marshall (which Elton John called "a sure fire hit" on Rosie O'Donnell, Birmingham, a top twenty song worldwide for Amanda Marshall, as well as hits for Anne Murray, Australian super star Tina Arena, Terri Clark, Kelly Coffee, Johnny Reid, John Berry, The Guess Who, John McDermitt, Wynonna Judd, The Rankin Family, Danny Brooks, Shakura S'Aida and many others. Dean has twice been nominated for a Juno for Songwriter of the Year and has received many SOCAN and ASCAP awards. Over the years, Dean has been kept busy producing, recording, writing and playing live both solo and with a band. His new CD is Drop the Needle in the Groove.

Theatre

Tuesday, November 23/10 7pm

Manitoba Association of Playwrights presents
Around Thirty: A New Generation of Playwrights in Manitoba
Playwrights Jessy Ardern, Daniel Thau-Eleff, Ginny Collins and Owen Perkins, hosted by Conrad Sweatman

Kids

November 16-19/10 School Program

November 20/10 3pm Public Show $6 kids/$8 adults/$20 families

YAP Theatre (South Africa) and Aqua Books present
African Folktales with Erik de Waal
Magical Story Theatre for Young Audiences

150,000 kids on 5 continents can't be wrong!

South African Erik de Waal has enthralled children on five continents with his energetic story theatre productions featuring South African folktales. Experience an enchanted world of talking zebras, galumphing elephants and lying lions as traditional South African folktales come to vibrant life at the hands of a master storyteller and puppeteer. African Folktales with Erik de Waal features new stories written by de Waal each year and is directed by Marie Kruger, head of the University of Stellenbosch Theatre Department (South Africa).

Due to its educational value, this production to is on the ArtStarts official roster in BC and has toured British Columbia since 2005. (ArtStarts is the organization that coordinates artists touring to schools throughout British Columbia.)

Other destinations for African Folktales with Erik de Waal include Ireland (2003), England (2004), Turkey (2005), Mexico and Argentina (2006).

In Mexico City, performances of African Folktales with Erik de Waal were hosted by, amongst others, the South African Embassy, the British Council and the Universidad de las Americas.

An award winning children's theatre practitioner, de Waal, through his company, YAP Theatre Productions, tours extensively throughout South Africa. The tours include the townships, rural areas and cities.

Lit

Saturday, November 20/10 7pm

CV2 35th Anniversary Issue Launch
- poets Maurice Mierau, Alison Calder, Charles Leblanc, Rosanna Deerchild, Méira Cook, George Amabile, David Arnason, Dennis Cooley, and Sarah Klassen

Contemporary Verse 2 is celebrating 35 years of publishing fine poetry and critical writing with the launch of two Special Editions, and a reading by nine Winnipeg poets, each a key contributor to CV2 over the years. Join us for an evening of poetry, prizes and celebration

About the Special Editions:

CV2: The Early Years explores the first ten years of the magazine, including writing by Roo Borson, Marilyn Bowering, Patrick Friesen and 26 others, as well as original, type-written correspondence between once regional editor bpNichol and the CV2 editorial collective. Also featured are a series of lino cuts by contributing artist Arthur Adamson.

CV2: The Keystone of Canadian Poetry Turns 35 continues where the first edition leaves off, with a look at CV2 magazine’s contribution to literary arts in Canada over the past 25 years. Over 75 of Canada’s best-loved poets are featured in this issue, both French and English, including all the poets from this year’s Coast to Coast Reading Tour.

Poetry

Saturday, November 20/10 7pm

Variations on a Theme Launch
Poet Ted McCreery

There is a lot of misunderstanding about theology and how to grow in it. There is an old story about a person pointing to the moon as the source of light. The problem is in not realising that the moon is only the reflection, not the source of light, just as the mind is not the source of truth.", Ted McCreery

Ted McCreery is a plumber who writes poetry, Canadian-born draft dodger, a Buddhist and a vegetarian, who stores his kayak on his living room ceiling.

Music

Saturday, November 20/10 10pm  $10

Curtis Nowosad Trio, feat. Ingrid Gatin

Vocalist/pop accordionist Ingrid Gatin, backed up by drummer Curtis Nowosad, pianist George Colligan and bassist Karl Kohut

feat. is the new series from Aqua Books that puts together the most unlikely combos. This month, a trio of Winnipeg's best jazz musicians interprets the music of quirky pop songstress Ingrid Gatin. The one-night only quartet of Ingrid, Curtis, George and Karl will be a musical delight that will never happen again.

Ingrid Gatin makes eclectic beautiful. Reaching top 20 on Earshot Charts across Canada, Ingrid is taking Canada by storm. Touring by train, writing music in a cabin in the woods, and making art in the Exchange District of Winnipeg are all influences that can be heard in the sounds of Ingrid's music. With accordion, piano, vocals, handclaps, foot-stomps, and tambourine, Ingrid has crafted her own eclectic and beautiful sound in the indie/roots music genre.

"Ingrid Gatin's got a piano, an accordion, and a tear-jerkingly beautiful voice." - Stylus magazine

Curtis Nowosad has quickly become Winnipeg's go-to drummer. At twenty-two, he has already performed in big band and small group settings with some of New York’s finest jazz musicians, including Stefon Harris, Marcus Printup, Ted Nash, Steve Wilson, Miguel Zenón, and his teacher and mentor Steve Kirby.

George Colligan is a New York-based jazz pianist, organist, drummer, trumpet player, educator, composer and bandleader. He was on the faculty of the Julliard School for two years, and is now Assistant Professor for the U of M's Jazz Studies program.

Bassist Karl Kohut’s virtuosity was recognized in 2006, when at the age of 20, he was named the Grand Prize Winner at the Canadian Youth Talent Competition for his solo rendition of Victor Wooten’s “A Show of Hands.” Since then, Karl has gone on to establish himself on the Winnipeg music scene with the ability to excel in a wide variety of musical genres and versatility on both double bass and electric bass. Karl has played for multiple-Grammy winning singer Petula Clark and Juno-award winner Amanda Falk, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as well as currently playing with Ron Paley and the Ron Paley Big Band.

Music

Friday, November 19/10 10pm  $10

Canadian Folk Music Awards Festival
Klezmer superstars Beyond the Pale

Toronto klezmer folk band Beyond the Pale has scored a leading four nominations for the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Awards, which happen in Winnipeg for the first time ever. To celebrate, Winnipeg's Cultural City Hall is presenting a special concert with the klezmer wunderkinds, who have not performed in Winnipeg since 2001.

For over a decade, Toronto’s Beyond the Pale has been making its distinctive brand of boundary-busting Eurofolk fusion. The sextet mixes Klezmer, Balkan, and Romanian styles with an eclectic range of North American influences, their diverse musical and cultural backgrounds intersecting in a shared impulse to push the boundaries of contemporary acoustic roots music into new realms. Their exuberant live performances range seamlessly from raucous dance rhythms to intricate chamber-folk dynamics, taking audiences on an invigorating musical ride with stunning virtuosity and thrilling arrangements. Beyond the Pale has performed at festivals, theatres, and clubs across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, including the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, NY’s Carnegie Hall, and the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland. The group has has released three award-winning CDs on the Borealis Records label, their most recent, Postcards, having garnered 4 nominations from the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Jazz

Thursday, November 18/10 8pm  $10

Quincy Davis with Q-Factor
Drummer Quincy Davis, with pianist George Colligan, guitarist Larry Roy and bassist Steve Kirby

Quincy Davis is a jazz drummer who has recorded with Tom Harrell, Vincent Gardner, Randy Napoleon, and others. Davis has played throughout the world in such prominent clubs as The Village Vanguard and The Blue Note in New York City; The Jazz Showcase in Chicago; New Morning Jazz Club in Paris; and The Jazz Bakery, Yoshi's, and Catalina Bar and Grill in California. He is currently assistant professor at U of M's Jazz Studies program.

George Colligan is a New York-based jazz pianist, organist, drummer, trumpet player, educator, composer and bandleader. He was on the faculty of the Julliard School for two years, and is now Assistant Professor for the U of M's Jazz Studies program.

Over the last two decades, Larry Roy has established himself on the Canadian jazz scene as an artist, composer, producer and sought-after professor. As well as teaching jazz at the University of Manitoba, this versatile musician writes film scores and performs all over Europe and North America. Roy and long-time musical partner Steve Kirby recently released the album Wicked Grin.

In the summer of 2003, Steve Kirby accepted the position as the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Manitoba. Since then, Steve has overseen a full-fledged rejuvenation of the jazz scene in Winnipeg. Steve also performs locally with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and his own critically acclaimed ensemble: The Oceanic Jazz Orchestra for which he composes and arranges all of the music. Before coming to Winnipeg from New York, Professor Kirby established himself an enviable career as a double bass player, performing, recording, and touring with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, Abbey Lincoln, Steve Turre, James Carter, Stefon Harris, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Kathleen battle and many others.

Technology

Wednesday, November 17/10 6:30pm

New Media Manitoba's Demo Camp
Videogame developers Alec Holowka and Phillipe Girouard

Alec Holowka is an independent game developer, co-founder of independent game companies Bit Blot, and Infinite Ammo where he works as lead programmer, musician and game designer. He collaborated with Derek Yu to create the award-winning game Aquaria and freeware game I'm O.K - A Murder Simulator. He has also co-created the Winnipeg-centric arcade game, the Winnitron 1000.

Phillipe Girouard is a developer who has created the game THEM (Glacier Games).

Theatre

Tuesday, November 16/10 8pm  $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit Shorts
Starring Erik de Waal

Shorts is the newest Fringe hit from South Africa's Erik de Waal. And why settle for one, when you can have six? In rich hues of language and mood, South African Erik de Waal paints six scenarios - funny, sad, satiric, gothic, romantic, macabre and downright off-kilter ... proving it's not the length that counts!

The man just knows how to tell a story. - Winnipeg Free Press

I could listen to this guy all day. – Uptown

South African Erik de Waal is a critically acclaimed dramatic artist both at home and abroad. He has performed his solo story theatre productions for more than 200 000 people in South Africa, Canada, England, Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Turkey. “Sensual and evocative" and "epic and intimate" are just some of the accolades awarded him by critics in South Africa and Canada. This multi-talented actor, storyteller, writer and singer is best known for blending the myriad cultures of South Africa to create intense, memorable theatrical experiences.

Theatre

Friday, November 12/10 8pm, and Saturday, November 13/10 2pm and 8pm  $10

The Marketplace Players present
Drama at Ye Olde Inn

Drama at Ye Olde Inn is a tale of two young women and a nun who get stranded at an old inn, on a proverbial "dark and stormy night", where a succession of strange waiters appear. A comedy with a twist at the end, the play features many of the cast members from The Snake in the Bag, which was successfully presented at Aqua Books earlier this year. Come out and enjoy the fun. Maybe even get a little bit scared.

Storytelling

Friday, November 12/10 7:30pm

Stone Soup Storytellers
Featured teller Jane Cahill

Theatre

Wednesday, November 10/10 7pm

Manitoba Association of Playwrights Arts Salon
The Necessity of Drama, Or Lack of...
Director/dramaturge Chris Gerrard-Pinker, actor/playwright Ross McMillan and MTC producer Laurie Lam, moderated by Adhere and Deny's Grant Guy

This is the question of what constitutes theatre. Does theatre need to entertain any more than a painting needs to be beautful, and if it does not need to be entertaining, do we need to send the audience on a roller coaster of plot and emotion? If theatre is to show us the human condition why can't it use boredom as material?

Join us as Grant Guy leads Winnipeg theatre figures in a provocative discussion.

Technology

Tuesday, November 9/10 6pm

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Joomla! Unraveling CMS Website Design
Speaker Karin Carlson

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Film

Saturday, November 6/10 2:30pm

Big Smash! Productions and cineflyer present
Çetin Inanç's Turkish Star Wars
Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam (1982, 90 min., Turkish with English fan subtitles)

"Nothing could possibly prepare you for the jaw-dropping insanity of The Turkish Star Wars. This film is not actually a scene-for-scene remake of the George Lucas landmark, although it pirated the special effects footage from the 1977 original and tacked it into a feverish nightmare of celluloid dementia which needs to be seen if only to prove how far the minds of lunatic filmmakers can run. Prepare yourself, because the only way to appreciate The Turkish Star Wars is to follow the storyline through its labyrinthine lunacy.

Long ago in a Turkish-speaking galaxy far, far away, the universe is being imperiled by a quartet of evildoers: two bush-haired men wearing Mardi Gras costumes, a slutty babe dressed as Cleopatra, and a blue robot with an ambulance light on his head. Their fleet of spaceships go to war against the flying saucers of a heroic group of rebels, and for several minutes the screen is filled with F/X footage from a battered print of Star Wars. There's no Luke Skywalker here, but instead we have two middle-aged space jockeys (Cüneyt Arkin and Ayetkin Akkaya) who are leading the rebel attack. Unfortunately, there was no budget for a spaceship set here, so the heroes are photographed in very tight close-ups while footage from Star Wars plays on a rear projection behind them." - Phil Hall, Film Threat

In addition, the film consists of a soundtrack entirely lifted from Western film hits such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Moonraker, Flash Gordon, Battlestar Galactica, Planet of the Apes and Disney's The Black Hole.

Note: Painstakingly subtitled in English for the first time ever by hardcore Turksploitation fans!

Lit

Saturday, November 6/10 7pm

Turnstone Press Presents
Fall Homecoming
Writers David Arnason, Patti Grayson and Ken Kowal

Join David Arnason, Patti Grayson, and Ken Kowal for an evening of readings and reminiscence about coming home, re-discovering your roots, dealing with family, and realizing that for good or bad, there's no place like home.

David Arnason is an acclaimed novelist, a writer of short fiction, and an editor of Turnstone Press since 1975. Very much in touch with his Icelandic heritage, Arnason has taught at the University of Manitoba since 1972, serving as Acting Head of the Department of Icelandic Studies from 1998 to 2006, and as head of the Department of English from 1997 to 2006. His novel King Jerry, published by Turnstone Press, was a finalist for the 2002 Stephen Leacock Award. Currently, Arnason lives and writes in Gimli, MB. His latest novel, Baldur's Song: A Saga is a fictional account of his grandfather's life growing up in Gimli and early twentieth-century Winnipeg.

Patti Grayson’s short fiction collection, Core Samples (Turnstone Press, 2004), garnered nominations for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book. Patti has worked as a school librarian, advertising copywriter, puppeteer, and actor. She lives near Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her recently-released first novel, Autumn, One Spring, follows Autumn Greene as she returns to her home town after a six-year's absence to attend her sister's wedding - uninvited.

Ken Kowal is a Winnipeg resident who has long been involved in the city’s poetry scene. His chapbook i dream my father’s hands (Kaw Publications, 1997) was short listed for the Heaven Chapbook award in 1998, and his poems have been featured in the Poetry in Motion project in several cities. He has published two smaller collections of poetry with Highbrow Books and another chapbook with The Martian Press, Calgary. Gimp Crow is his first full collection of poetry with Turnstone Press, containing the theme of journeying away from home for self-discovery.

Storytelling

Thursday, November 4/10 7pm

TELL: Tales from the 204

TELL - Tales from the 204 is a storytelling show like none other in the city. The concept is simple - people from all walks of life in Manitoba will tell personal stories, without notes on a central theme. For the first show on November 4th at Aqua Books, the subject will be FIRSTS.

Open to all, TELL - Tales from the 204 will offer a wide array of view of life in our city, told by those who live, work and play in the same area code. This casual event will be hosted by DJ Penny Lane, host of the radio show Punks in Parkas on 101.5 UMFM and will feature a wide array tales. Depending on running time of the event, we might open up the mic to the audience to tell short, personal stories on the theme as well.

Interested in being a part of this groovy event? Email TELL204@gmail.com for more information!

Songwriting

Tuesday, November 2/10 7pm

Manitoba Independent Songwriters' Circle

"I haven’t had this much fun with songwriting since I was in my first original rock band back in the 70s", says performing songwriter Dan Stupich. "The sense of community and creative energy buzz generated by the circle is amazing. I recommend MISC to any songwriter of any level who’s interested in advancing their art."

The circles are open and free to all Manitoba songwriters. Got a new song that needs test-driving? Come on down!

Lit

Saturday, October 30/10 3pm

I Used to Be Coloured, But Now I'm Black Launch
Author June Pepper Harris, with guests Beatrice Watson and Valery Breau-St Germain, music by Jeff Presslaff

June Pepper Harris is an internationally-known jazz singer, pianist and composer, recording artist and playwright. Ms. Harris has performed in theatres, night clubs, concerts (TV and Radio) in Canada, the USA, Spain, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Israel, Singapore, Jakarta, Qatar (UAR). She sings jazz, blues; show tunes, ballads, standards and original compositions in six languages.

Lit

Saturday, October 30/10 7pm

Turnstone Press presents
Raise a Little Hell
An Evening of Kick Ass Literature
Writers David Annandale and Michael Van Rooy, with music by Rockwood

David Annandale was born in Winnipeg and has lived in Edmonton, Charlottetown, and Paris. He did his MA on the Marquis de Sade at the University of Manitoba and a PhD on horror fiction and film at the University of Alberta. Currently, he teaches English and film at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he lives with his wife and family.

Michael Van Rooy writes for documentaries, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. Michael won the 2006 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book, and the 2009 John Hirsh Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. Born in Kamloops, BC, he grew up in Winnipeg, where he now lives with his wife and three children.

Rockwood is a punk band with members hailing from Stonewall and Stony Mountain, Manitoba. Starting as a teenage garage band in 2000, the group currently consists of: Cody Larson (guitar and vocals), Sid Strange (guitar and vocals), Phil Cieslar (drums) and Reiss Zurbyk (bass and vocals). Rockwood recorded its first album, City Lights, in 2010 at Chill Recording Studio and Channels Audio in Winnipeg. It was mixed in Vancouver by Bill Kennedy (Megadeath, Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails) and mastered in Hollywood by Tom Baker (Seether, The Gaslight Anthem, Sevendust). One of the tracks, Crank the Radio, features Mike Herrera, lead singer of punk's legendary MxPx.

Lit

Thursday, October 28/10 7pm

Gaze Launch
Author Keith Cadieux with John Calabro, hosted by Warren Cariou

Always fascinated by any kind of writing, Keith Cadieux has studied everything from medieval to postcolonial literature, horror and weird fiction, and even narrative in video games, before finally receiving a Master of Arts in creative writing from the University of Manitoba. He lives, works, and writes in Winnipeg. Gaze is his first publication.

John Calabro’s novella, Bellecour, published in 2005 by Guernica Editions, was named by The Globe and Mail's First Fiction reviewer as one of the top 5 books in that category for 2005. LyricalMyrical Press published, in a chapbook, his collection of short stories, Somewhere Else, in 2006. His short stories and essays have appeared in Italian Canadiana, Strange Peregrination, and More Sweet Lemons. The Cousin is his second novella.

Warren Cariou grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and has worked as a construction worker, a technical writer, and a political aide. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto and now teaches Aboriginal Literature at the University of Manitoba. His first book, The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs: Two Novellas (Coteau, 1999), garnered rave reviews, and his memoir Lake of the Prairies won the Drainie-Taylor Prize and was nominated for the Charles Taylor prize.

Theatre

Wednesday, October 27/10 7pm  $10

Winnipeg Puppet Collective's Puppet Slam
Featuring Secondhandpants, Adhere and Deny, 6 and the Wishweweres

Puppet Slams are evenings of short puppet plays for adults performed by different artists. The Winnipeg Puppet Slam is the first major Puppet Slam in Canada. In addition to fantastic local performers, the Winnipeg Puppet Slam has had international guests like Heather Henson and Marsian. The Winnipeg Puppet Slam at Aqua Books will feature performances by the Secondhandpants, Adhere and Deny, 6, the Wishweweres and more. Come see puppet history in the making and experience puppetry that's like nothing you've ever seen before!

Theatre

Tuesday, October 26/10 7pm

Manitoba Association of Playwrights presents
Playwrights Are So Dramatic
Playwrights Michael Nathanson, Primrose Madayag Knazan, Muriel Hogue and Kevin Klassen, hosted by Rory Runnells

Michael Nathanson’s Governor General Award-nominated play, Talk, opened the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s 2007-2008 season and was a critically acclaimed production in Toronto in March 2010. Michael’s plays have been seen in New York, Dallas and at festivals across Canada. Michael is the Artistic Producer of Winnipeg Jewish Theatre and a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Michael lives in Winnipeg and is married to Rebecca Brask, and has two glorious children, Zevi and Naomi.

Writing from a distinctly Filipino-Canadian, Judaic, and woman's perspective, Primrose Madayag Knazan has been featured at the Winnipeg Fringe (three-time Best of Fest winner), the Writers' Festival, CBC Radio, Carol Shields Festival, and Fem Fest. Her work is published in three anthologies, Breakout, an anthology of emerging Manitoba playwrights, Beyond the Pale, and most recently, Generation Nexxt, scenes for women. Primrose represented Manitoba at the first Asian- Canadian theatre conference in Toronto last spring.

Muriel Hogue is one of those slash artists -playwright/actor/director/etc. Her latest play, Scar Tissue won the 2010 Harry Rintoul Award and has been nominated by MTC for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is a member of MAP's Board.

Kevin Klassen has been writing, producing, directing, and/or performing professional theatre in Winnipeg for fifteen years (including seven years as a member of Shakespeare in the Ruins). Aftertaste, his first work as a playwright, won the Harry S. Rintoul Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the 2002 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and his first full-length play, Bleeding Hearts was produced at MTC's Tom Hendry Theatre in 2009. Kevin currently has two plays in development: an adaptation of Geoffrey Trease’s novel Cue For Treason, and A Dramatic Effect, an original play about an heroic theatre critic.

Jazz

Monday, October 25/10 7pm

U of M Jazz Program Student Ensembles

Workshop

Saturday, October 23/10 12-2pm $25

Aqua U. presents
Becoming the Best Writer You Can Be
A Workshop for Young People
Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Maureen Fergus

Note: The workshop is intended for teenagers from 12-15 years of age and limited to 12 people. Bring a notebook and pen.

Do you love the idea of developing a style that's all your own? Are you looking for concrete tips on how to improve the quality of your writing? Young writers are invited to take part in a fun, fast-paced session hosted by Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Maureen Fergus. Come ready to write, talk and laugh.

Maureen Fergus is the author of funny, engaging books for young readers, including Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero, Recipe for Disaster and, most recently, Ortega. Her novels have been nominated for a number of awards, including Manitoba Book of the Year for Young People and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children. Her first picture book is scheduled to be published by Kids Can Press in the spring of 2012. When she isn’t writing, Maureen works as a business professional, coaches soccer, studies karate, bakes and hangs out with her husband, three kids and the family dog.

Ideas

Saturday, October 23/10 12-6pm

Winnipeg Skeptics Association's
SkeptiCamp

For details go to the SkeptiCamp page.

Theatre

Saturday, October 23/10 2pm  $5

Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents
Switchboard Secrets/My Favorite Husband Double Feature
Starring Luke Falconer, Mel Marginet, Matthew TenBruggencate, Jane Testar, Kim Coss, and introducing Kelly Hughes as The Announcer

The Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents live radio plays from the medium's Golden Age. My Favorite Husband was Lucille Ball's first radio series, and the part of Miss Ball will be played by improv veteran Jane Testar. Switchboard Secrets is the scandalous story of a woman who impersonates a man to get a job. Both plays are performed live with the assistance of one of our talented foley artists.

Lit

Thursday, October 21/10 7pm

Brick Books presents
That Other Beauty Launch
Poet Karen Enns, with guests Méira Cook and Jennifer Still

Karen Enns is from southern Ontario, where she was born and raised in a Mennonite farm community. Her poetry has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, PRISM international and The Malahat Review. That Other Beauty (Brick Books, 2010) is her first collection of poetry. She lives in Victoria, B.C.

Poetry, fiction and essay writer Méira Cook was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1964. Cook won the CBC Literary Award for poetry in 2007. A Walker in the City, her fourth collection of poetry, is forthcoming in Fall 2011 from Brick Books.

Jennifer Still’s first book of poetry, Saltations (Thistledown Press, 2005), was nominated for three Saskatchewan Book Awards. NEST, a chapbook published by JackPine Press will also appear in her second collection, Girlwood, forthcoming in Spring 2011 from Brick Books. An earlier version of Girlwood won the 2008 John V. Hicks Manuscript Award, a Saskatchewan Emerging Artist Award and two poem sequences were finalists in the 2008 CBC Literary Awards. After 13 years in Saskatchewan, Jennifer now lives in a tall yellow house in Winnipeg with her husband and two children.

Open Mic

Tuesday, October 19/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Maureen Fergus

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Maureen Fergus is the author of funny, engaging books for young readers, including Exploits of a Reluctant (But Extremely Goodlooking) Hero, Recipe for Disaster and, most recently, Ortega. Her novels have been nominated for a number of awards, including Manitoba Book of the Year for Young People and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children. Her first picture book is scheduled to be published by Kids Can Press in the spring of 2012. When she isn’t writing, Maureen works as a business professional, coaches soccer, studies karate, bakes and hangs out with her husband, three kids and the family dog.

Film

Saturday, October 16/10 2pm

JETAA Japanese Movie Experience
Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball (doc., 2006)

Taking Western viewers inside a never-before-seen world, Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball follows two schools of the 4,000 in Japan striving to make it to the National Championships at Koshien Stadium. Much more just than a game, this martial arts baseball has a deeper purpose: the forging of the spirit. Through the stories of two schools, the film brings audiences inside this closed world where an American game has become a Japanese discipline.

Theatre

Saturday, October 16/10 8pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit unADULTeRATED me
Starring Rachelle Fordyce

Peel back the layers with Fizzy Tiff as she strips down to her unADULTeRATED self!

Exposing: Fantasies! Desires! Em(bareASS)ments! And more!

A Solo Clown Striptease with a Twist of Song.
...Sweet Dreams are Made of This.

"Standing ovation well deserved!"
4 stars ~ Beat Magazine, London

"Rachelle Fordyce reveals much more than her skin in this touching, expertly delivered show." 4 stars ~ EYE Weekly, Toronto

"Hilarity, poignancy, and finally triumph." A+ (5 stars) ~ UPTOWN, Winnipeg

"Rachelle Fordyce drops jaws with her one-woman show unADULTeRATED me. (...) Powerful, naked, honest humanity." 5 stars ~ The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon

"This is one of the best Fringe shows I’ve ever seen." 5 stars ~ SEE Magazine, Edmonton

Lecture

Friday, October 15/10 5pm

Immigrant Women’s Association of Manitoba presents
Cross Cultural Communication
The Spanish Institute's Jesus Angel Miguel-Garcia

Join us for dinner at EAT! bistro at 5pm, followed by the lecture at 6pm.

Jesus Angel Miguel-Garcia, Ldo., M.A., was born in Burgos, Spain. He is founder and director of The Spanish Institute of Manitoba.

Music

Thursday, October 14/10 7:30pm $5

Triple Album Release Show
Stand Alone Complex
With guests DJ Joe Silva and VJ Kert Gartner

Stand Alone Complex paints a masterful soundtrack of delicately crushing piano explorations on a background of moody - yet sexy - beats and vibrating strings and sound.

Jazz

Saturday, October 9/10 8pm  $10

George Colligan Trio
NY jazz pianist George Colligan, with bassist Steve Kirby and drummer Quincy Davis

World-class jazz in Winnipeg? You bet. Winnipeg's Cultural City Hall presents three of the top jazz players in the universe, for only $10. If you don't go, you'll be kicking yourself later. Seriously, I don't usually write these blurbs like this, but these guys are unbelievable.

George Colligan is a New York-based jazz pianist, organist, drummer, trumpet player, educator, composer and bandleader. He was on the faculty of the Julliard School for two years, and is now Assistant Professor for the U of M's Jazz Studies program.

In the summer of 2003, Steve Kirby accepted the position as the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Manitoba. Since then, Steve has overseen a full-fledged rejuvenation of the jazz scene in Winnipeg. Steve also performs locally with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and his own critically acclaimed ensemble: The Oceanic Jazz Orchestra for which he composes and arranges all of the music. Before coming to Winnipeg from New York, Professor Kirby established himself an enviable career as a double bass player, performing, recording, and touring with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, Abbey Lincoln, Steve Turre, James Carter, Stefon Harris, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Kathleen battle and many others.

Quincy Davis is a jazz drummer who has recorded with Tom Harrell, Vincent Gardner, Randy Napoleon, and others. Davis has played throughout the world in such prominent clubs as The Village Vanguard and The Blue Note in New York City; The Jazz Showcase in Chicago; New Morning Jazz Club in Paris; and The Jazz Bakery, Yoshi's, and Catalina Bar and Grill in California. He is currently assistant professor at U of M's Jazz Studies program.

Theatre

Saturday, October 9/10 2pm  $5

Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents
The Shadow/Green Hornet Double Feature
Starring Kevin Anderson, Sheldon Atts, Al Conroy, Mel Marginet, Jeff Skinner, Matthew TenBruggencate, and introducing Kelly Hughes as The Announcer

The Winnipeg Talking Radio Orchestra presents live radio plays from the classic Green Hornet and The Shadow series. For this occasion, WTRO has attracted talent like lint on a blue serge suit. A cast of veteran Winnipeg actors plus a talented foley artist, will conspire to bring these two classic radio plays alive.

Storytelling

Friday, October 8/10 7:30pm

Stone Soup Storytellers
Featured teller Norman Perrin

People in all times and places have told stories. Stone Soup storytelling happens in the round, with the participants passing the talking stick around. If you want to tell a story, keep the stick. If you just want to listen, pass it along. Stone Soup has some very experienced tellers, but amateurs and listeners are always welcome.

The long-running Winnipeg storytellers' group has been around since the early '80's. Since 2005, they have been meeting September through May at Aqua Books, now normally on the second Friday of the month. All sessions start at 7:30 pm, and are open to all (including children, although it's not really for the very young and squirmy.) Admission is free.

Poetry

Thursday, October 7/10 7pm

The Secret Signature of Things Launch
Poet Eve Joseph, with Patrick Friesen

Eve Joseph was born in 1953 and grew up in North Vancouver. Her first book of poetry The Startled Heart was published by Oolichan Press in 2004 and nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award. Her second book The Secret Signature of Things came out with Brick in the spring of 2010. Her work has been published in a wide number of Canadian and American journals and anthologies. Eve was awarded second place in the Great Blue Heron Contest sponsored by The Antigonish Review in 2007 and 2009. She was recently awarded the 2010 P.K. Page Founder’s Award for the best poem of the year in the Malahat Review and was shortlisted for the 2009 CBC Literary Awards in the creative nonfiction category.

Patrick Friesen, a resident of Winnipeg for 30 years, now lives in Vancouver. He has published numerous books of poetry and has written several stage and radio plays. Friesen has also collaborated with choreographers, dancers, musicians and composers. He tours on a regular basis, giving readings and workshops all over the country. His book, A Broken Bowl, was a finalist for the 1997 Governor-General's Award.

Theatre

Wednesday, October 6/10 7:30pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit When The Killer Mutant Lizards Attack
Starring Brent Hirose

Eventually the inevitable happened: the Killer Mutant Lizards attacked, decimated the city and mysteriously disappeared. The survivors resume their lives, but must ask: Why? How? And will they return?

Songwriting

Tuesday, October 5/10 7pm

Manitoba Independent Songwriters' Circle

"I haven’t had this much fun with songwriting since I was in my first original rock band back in the 70s", says performing songwriter Dan Stupich. "The sense of community and creative energy buzz generated by the circle is amazing. I recommend MISC to any songwriter of any level who’s interested in advancing their art."

The circles are open and free to all Manitoba songwriters. Got a new song that needs test-driving? Come on down!

Poetry

Saturday, October 2/10 7pm

Pierre Bonga Loops Launch
Poet Troy Burle Bailey

Troy Burle Bailey's stomping grounds in 1960s Northern Manitoba provided hockey, baseball and exploration activities in nearby forests while negotiating the opportunities of a mixed-ethnic background. His Africadian father and Polish-Ukrainian mother nurtured the diverse space in which Bailey learned the world. Drum lessons from jazz musician Delbert Wagner, self-taught art (he has sold 'outsider' paintings, sketches, and sculptures), producing/collaborating on dance, image/film loops, spoken word, and music with collective Moment Device for perfomance, encouraged Bailey's creative stream in education. Bailey's professional life includes gigs as FAS youth worker, waiter, retail salesperson, and freelance journalist. He graduated B.A.Creative Communications in 2002, and completed The Pierre Bonga Loops in 2010.

Lit

Friday, October 1/10 7pm

A Non-Fictional Evening
Writers Laurie Block and Jessica Woolford

While Brandon's Laurie Block has published three books of poetry, his non-fiction has been all over the nominee lists for the National Magazine Awards, Western Magazine Awards, and CBC Literary Awards the last few years. Special guest Jessica Woolford is also on the bill for this celebration of Block's non-fiction prowess.

Laurie Block’s writing can be found in anthologies and magazines throughout Canada as well as in three books of poetry. The most recent, Time Out of Mind, took the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry 2007. His stories have won the 2003 Prairie Fire Fiction Contest, the 2004 National Magazine Award for fiction and a 2008 Western Magazine Award. He lives in Brandon.

Jessica Woolford's poetry has appeared in A/Cross Sections: New Manitoba Writing, Artistry of Life, and CV2, and her poem technique took second prize in CV2's 2004 Poetics of Space Contest. An excerpt from Confinement: A Memoir of Abortion was featured in the Spring 2008 issue of Prairie Fire magazine and she has written about abortion and genocide for the journal Social Politics. Though she now lives in Winnipeg, she grew up in central Vermont and first began writing there.

Music

Thursday, September 30/10 7:30pm  $20

Frontier College presents
An Evening with Harvey Levy
Country singer Harvey Levy, with special guest, The Foster Martin Band's Ray Martin

Harvey has some new songs and lots of old favourites to share with his loyal fans and newcomers alike. This is a fundraiser for Frontier College, Canada’s oldest literacy organization, and its programs in Manitoba. Come hear about Frontier's exciting summer of reading tents engaging over 1500 children on the Hollow Water First Nation, and then hear Harvey and Ray tear the roof off of the place, country style.

Harvey Levy is a polished diamond of a songwriter and performer who touches the hearts, funny-bones and minds of all who hear him. He writes Country and Western songs with other songwriters, including Ray Martin. His repertoire ranges from an across Canada list of places to go - How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away? - to the pain of heartbreak - Call 911, It’s a Love Emergency - plus songs about love between seniors and eating dinner alone. Harvey always engages his listeners with his colourful background insights between songs.

Theatre

Wednesday, September 29/10 7:30pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit Unequal Harvest
Starring Kami Desilets and Brent Hirose

Playwright Geoff Hughes wrote Unequal Harvest to draw attention to the global food crisis. In the style of Eve Ensler’s acclaimed Vagina Monologues, local artists Kami Desilets and Brent Hirose bring eight of literally a billion stories of hunger across the globe and how it affects people in your own back yard or as far as the grasslands of Kenya. While their characters may not offer you a Band-Aid solution, they will provoke the little activist in all of us to do a little something to make a change.

"Gripping and heartbreaking in equal measure, an urgent and compassionate call to understand the real lives and people behind the appalling statistic of a billion people going hungry."

-Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

THIN AIR

Saturday, September 25/10 10:30pm

THIN AIR: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words
Featuring Ismaila Alfa

Ismaila Alfa was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and Canadian mother. He completed his early school years in Edmonton, then moved to Winnipeg. After starting a civil engineering degree at the University of Manitoba, he followed his musical dreams and spent eight years touring North America as a hip hop musician. Magnum KI, a band he formed in 2005 with DJ Michael Arnone, opened for the legendary band The Roots at this year’s TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival. When he’s not on a stage tangling with words, he is an audio technician, jingle writer, and traffic reporter for CBC Radio.

THIN AIR

Saturday, September 25/10 3pm

THIN AIR: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival
Pint of Bitter Murder
Mystery writer Giles Blunt

One of Canada’s most celebrated mystery writers puts Detective John Cardinal through his paces again in a new novel, Crime Machine.

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario. He has written scripts for Law and Order, Street Legal and Night Heat. Among his many crime fiction titles are Forty Words for Sorrow, winner of the British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger; A Delicate Storm, winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel; Blackfly Season, one of Margaret Cannon's Best Mysteries of the Year; By the Time You Read This, a national bestseller; and Breaking Lorca, one of the Globe and Mail’s Top Ten Crime Books. His new book is Crime Machine (Random House). After spending over twenty years in New York City, Blunt now lives in Toronto.

THIN AIR

Saturday, September 25/10 10am-12pm   $25

THIN AIR: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival
The Writing Craft: A Writer's Toolkit
Mystery writer Giles Blunt

What’s in a writer’s toolkit? Join acclaimed crime fiction writer Giles Blunt as he explores the elements of fiction—character, plot, setting—and what tools novelists can employ to maximize their effects. He’ll also talk about practical day-to-day tricks and tools that make writing easier and more enjoyable—for any kind of novel, not just crime. There’ll be plenty of time for discussion. Giles Blunt has written scripts for Law & Order, Street Legal and Night Heat, but is best known for his award-winning crime fiction titles, including A Delicate Storm, By the Time You Read This, Blackfly Season, and Breaking Lorca. He has won major awards like the British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger and the Arthur Ellis Award, and has been shortlisted for many others. His books have been translated into several languages, and regularly appear on best-seller lists. Admission: $25, $20 with THIN AIR Club Card. No pre-registration required, payment at the door (cash, credit card or cheque). There is room for 50 people. Admission includes a beverage and fresh baking from Aqua’s incomparable EAT! Bistro. You might plan to stay afterward to enjoy lunch…

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario. He has written scripts for Law and Order, Street Legal and Night Heat. Among his many crime fiction titles are Forty Words for Sorrow, winner of the British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger; A Delicate Storm, winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel; Blackfly Season, one of Margaret Cannon's Best Mysteries of the Year; By the Time You Read This, a national bestseller; and Breaking Lorca, one of the Globe and Mail’s Top Ten Crime Books. His new book is Crime Machine (Random House). After spending over twenty years in New York City, Blunt now lives in Toronto.

THIN AIR

Friday, September 24/10 10:30pm

THIN AIR: The Winnipeg International Writers Festival
After Words
Featuring Aboriginal Writers Collective

With roots that go back to the late 1980s, Winnipeg’s irrepressible Aboriginal Writers Collective have a pair of chapbooks under their belt, Urban Kool and Bone Memory, and a spoken word CD, Red City. They’ve lost a few members along the way—some to death (RIP Marvin Francis, Doug Nepinak and Leonard Carriere), some to the whims of time—but the group continues to thrive. Subversive and irreverent, they’re two parts tickle-your-funny-bone, one part kick-you in-the-groin, and full parts make-you-think. Performing at THIN AIR 2010 are Duncan Mercredi, Jordan Wheeler, Shayla Elizabeth, Maeengan Linklater, Marie Annharte Baker, Trevor Greyeyes, and Katherena Vermette.

Photography

Thursday, September 23/10 7pm

Platform Centre presents
Focal Point: Photography and the Social Construct
László Moholy-Nagy and Feminism: The Origins of his Photographic Practice
Professor Oliver Botar

In this lecture Dr. Botar will present his research on Moholy-Nagy’s early exposure to a circle of Feminist photographers in Budapest, and his contacts during the early ’20s with German women’s communes and their work with the photogram. These experiences helped inspire him to write his highly influential Bauhaus book Painting, Photography, Film (1925), his manifesto of the “New Vision,” and laid the foundation for one of the most important Modernist photographic practices of the 20th century.

Currently, an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Oliver A.I. Botar’s research regards early twentieth-century Central European Modernism with an emphasis on Hungary and Germany plus “Biocentrism” and Modernism in early to mid-twentieth-century art, architecture and photography, and the history of art in new media (with a particular focus on the art of László Moholy-Nagy).

The Focal Points Lecture series is generously funded by The W. H. and S.E. Loewen Foundation, and sponsored by The Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg, and Aqua Books.

Theatre

Wednesday, September 22/10 7:30pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit One Good Marriage
Starring Matthew TenBruggencate and Mel Marginet

One Good Marriage is the powerful story of a young married couple’s extreme isolation. Making a link between loneliness and the institution of marriage, the play underscores our profound human need for a broader community. At the same time, the story reveals the ways in which a community may limit our perceptions of self and who we can be in the world. With wit and insight, playwright Sean Reycraft shows us that facing ourselves fully, though frightening, can lead us towards what is best about us: our capacity to love. Through the experience of a tremendous loss, Steph and Stewart are forced to re-examine themselves, and they come to find new meaning in their marriage and a reinforced sense of the importance of genuine connection. Underneath the absurdity of their nightmare and the hilarity of their emblematic dynamic, Reycraft sends us a somber and complex message, highlighting the difference between security and stagnancy, intimacy and co-dependency.

Open Mic

Tuesday, September 21/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence Kerry Ryan

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Kerry Ryan lives and writes in Winnipeg. Her first collection of poetry, The Sleeping Life, was published by The Muses’ Company in 2008 and nominated for the Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry in 2009. She has had poetry published in a number of journals, including Prairie Fire, Grain, Room, CV2 and Carousel. Her second collection, Vs., is forthcoming from Anvil Press in fall 2010. Kerry is Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for September-December 2010.

Readings

Saturday, September 18/10 7pm

On the Same Page Panel
OTSP nominees Catherine Hunter, Jake MacDonald, Melissa Steele and Michael Van Rooy, hosted by Joanne Kelly

Aqua Books will be featuring the shortlisted authors for On the Same Page, Manitoba's biggest book club, in a panel discussion moderated by Shaw's Joanne Kelly. (We'll also be giving away copies of the shortlisted books throughout the evening.) The nominees are An Ordinary Decent Criminal, by Michael Van Rooy; Beautiful Girl Thumb, by Melissa Steele; The Dead of Midnight, by Catherine Hunter; and Juliana and the Medicine Fish, by Jake MacDonald.

Catherine Hunter teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg. For ten years she was the poetry editor of The Muses' Company Press. She is also the author of seven books, including the poetry collection Latent Heat (Signature Editions, 1997), which won the Manitoba Book of the Year Award in 1998. Her most recent work is the crime novel Queen of Diamonds (Turnstone Press, 2006).

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Melissa Steele is the Winnipeg-based author of two award-winning short story collections, Donut Shop Lovers (Turnstone Press, 1999) and Beautiful Girl Thumb (Turnstone Press, 2006). Melissa won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Writer in 2000 and Beautiful Girl Thumb received the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction in 2007. Melissa is working on a third collection of stories and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Manitoba.

Michael Van Rooy is an author, administrator, and teacher. He has written three books in the critically acclaimed Monty Haaviko thriller series set in Winnipeg. Michael is the Program Coordinator for the Writers’ Collective for Professional and Developing Writers, a mentor for the Arts and Cultural Industries Fiction program, the publicist for the THIN AIR Winnipeg International Writers Festival and the Administrator for the Canadian Mennonite University School of Writing. He is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Prairie Fire Press.

Aqua U. Seminar

Wednesday, September 15/10 7-9pm   $30

Aqua U. presents
How to Sell Yourself Without Selling Out
A seminar by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes

This is for anyone who wants to sell themselves and what they do without selling their soul. If you love what you're doing and want to build your profile out in the world, this is for you. If you believe and care about something, and want others to care too, this is for you. This two hours will give you the tools to get people with your program. This seminar is especially useful for (but not limted to) those in creative endeavours (photographers, designers, writers, musicians, artists, indie business startups, etc.).

Over the past decade, Aqua Books owner Kelly Hughes went from no retail experience to building one of Canada's most acclaimed bookstores. For the first time, he'll share how he did it. And he'll teach you how you can sell yourself, your skills and your dream, without losing your self-respect or your friends.

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books and the host of Kelly Hughes Live!. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

Technology

Tuesday, September 14/10 6pm

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Speaker Trish Rempel

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Lecture

Saturday, September 11/10 5:30pm

Humanist Association of Manitoba presents
Kepler, Science and Religion
University of Manitoba professor Dr. Rhonda Martens

Rhonda Martens is a professor specializing in the history and philosophy of science. She is the author of the book, Kepler's Philosophy and the New Astronomy.

Yoga

Saturday, September 11/10 4:30pm $10

Beginners' Yoga Class
Instructor Yarden Bourlas

Join certified Ashtanga yoga instructor Yarden Bourlas for a class suitable for all skills and shapes. Bring your own mat.

Storytelling

Friday, September 10/10 7:30pm

Stone Soup Storytellers
Featured teller TBA

People in all times and places have told stories. Stone Soup storytelling happens in the round, with the participants passing the talking stick around. If you want to tell a story, keep the stick. If you just want to listen, pass it along. Stone Soup has some very experienced tellers, but amateurs and listeners are always welcome.

The long-running Winnipeg storytellers' group has been around since the early '80's. Since 2005, they have been meeting September through May at Aqua Books, now normally on the second Friday of the month. All sessions start at 7:30 pm, and are open to all (including children, although it's not really for the very young and squirmy.) Admission is free.

Theatre

Thursday, September 9/10 7:30pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit StarBach's: The Coffee Cantata
Starring David Klassen, Naomi Forman and Darren Martens

StarBach's: The Coffee Cantata is "as fun and frothy as a triple latte with extra foam." (CBC Radio) The caffeinated version of J.S. Bach's mini-opera comes to life in a 21st century coffee house. You'll meet Schlendrian, his sister Lieschen and her secret crush - Taylor the Latte Boy. Sung in English and including additional songs glorifying our favourite morning drink, this professional production features faculty from all three of Manitoba’s music schools, and is delightful, delicious, and suitable for all ages.

Yoga

Wednesday, September 8/10 4:30pm $10

Beginners' Yoga Class
Instructor Yarden Bourlas

Join certified Ashtanga yoga instructor Yarden Bourlas for a class suitable for all skills and shapes. Bring your own mat.

Songwriting

Tuesday, September 7/10 7pm

Manitoba Independent Songwriters' Circle

"I haven’t had this much fun with songwriting since I was in my first original rock band back in the 70s", says performing songwriter Dan Stupich. "The sense of community and creative energy buzz generated by the circle is amazing. I recommend MISC to any songwriter of any level who’s interested in advancing their art."

The circles are open and free to all Manitoba songwriters. Got a new song that needs test-driving? Come on down!

Garage Sale/BBQ

Saturday, September 4/10 11am-5pm Parking Lot/EAT! bistro

September Long BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books

On Saturday, September 4, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.) And once again, EAT! throws away the menu for the day and serves BBQ food, including pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, fresh coleslaw, yada, yada.

The bookstore itself, will of course also be open, and everything will shut down at 5pm, so our staff can enjoy the last long weekend of the summer.

Yoga

Wednesday, September 1/10 4:30pm $10

Beginners' Yoga Class
Instructor Yarden Bourlas

Join certified Ashtanga yoga instructor Yarden Bourlas for a class suitable for all skills and shapes. Bring your own mat.

Theatre

Tuesday, August 31/10 7:30pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit Above the Empress of China
Starring Casey Shapira, Delf Gravert and Cheryl Soluk

Above the Empress of China , originally performed in 1994, had a warm reception at this year’s fringe. Uptown Magazine said it was "truly funny and intelligent throughout" "excellently acted" and “well worth seeing.” Audiences seemed to agree. The action takes place in an apartment above a Chinese restaurant, where a young woman tries to put her life back together after an auto accident strips her boyfriend of his memory. Written by Ross McMillan (Less Than Kind and The Saddest Music in the World) and Sharon Bajer (Molly’s Veil) the production stars Casey Shapira, Delf Gravert, and Cheryl Soluk. Eileen Longfield directs.

Yoga

Saturday, August 28/10 3pm $10

Beginners' Yoga Class
Instructor Yarden Bourlas

Join certified Ashtanga yoga instructor Yarden Bourlas for a class suitable for all skills and shapes. Bring your own mat.

Theatre

Thursday, August 26/10 7pm $10

Best of Fest
2010 Winnipeg Fringe hit Padre X
Starring Marc Moir

Marc Moir's Padre X is the amazing true story of John Weir Foote, the only Canadian Army chaplain to win the Victoria Cross for valor during WWII. The play begins in 1948 at a train station in Ontario. While waiting for a delayed train, Foote recalls his years in the army, his experiences at Dieppe, and the three years he spent as a prisoner of war. This is a remarkable story of an extrordinary man. What makes it all the more remarkable is that this is the first time it has ever really been told.

Activism

Tuesday, August 24/10 7pm

High on Life Book Launch
Editor and activist Nejeed Kassam

High On Life: Stories of Hope, Change, and Leadership is a book about change, a book about inspiration, and a book about leadership. Written based on the stories of 17 young leaders—spread across nine countries and four continents—this book is a beautiful medium in which incredible young people have shared their stories, wisdom, and experiences. It has provided an opportunity for catalysts of change to come together and share their collective knowledge with the world: to start an incredible and necessary global conversation.

100% of the proceeds from High on Life are being donated to the Canadian non-profit organization Networks for Change.

You’ll often find Nejeed Kassam with a smile on his face; he loves his life—it’s awesome! Every morning, he gets to wake up and be a writer, speaker, and most-importantly, an aspiring change-maker. Nejeed holds a holds a Bachelors of Arts (Hons) from McGill University and currently attends law school at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, Canada. Nejeed is the founder international NGO’s End Poverty Now and Networks for Change. He is currently working at a number of endeavours, including writing two books and working as the Executive Director at Networks for Change.

Humour

Thursday, August 19/10 7pm

A Night of Aboriginal Humour
Writers Niigonwedom James Sinclair and Trevor Greyeyes

Niigonwedom James Sinclair is originally from Ste. Peter’s (Little Peguis) First Nation in Manitoba, Canada and currently lives in Winnipeg. His creative work has appeared in Prairie Fire and Tales from Mocassin Avenue: An Anthology of Native Stories while his scholarly work will appear in three upcoming critical texts with Broadview Press, Michigan State University Press, and Wilfred Laurier Press.

Better known as a freelance journalist/columnist within the Aboriginal community, Trevor Greyeyes, a registered citizen with Peguis First Nation, is working hard to change that with his short story writing and poetry. His work explores the contemporary urban Aboriginal experience using a wry sense of humour to explore themes of Aboriginal identity and the changing roles of Aboriginal people in society.

Film

Wednesday, August 18/10 7pm

Invisible Children Rough Cut Screening
(documentary, 52 minutes)

Motivated by the unseen war in Northern Uganda, Invisible Children was created by three young filmmakers with a singular mission: to use the power of stories to change lives around the world. The war in Uganda is said to be the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today. Invisible Children is non profit organization with a mission to save the 3000 child soldiers held captive in Northern Uganda. These children are as young as 7 years old, and are brutally taken from their homes in the middle of the night and forced to become soldiers for a rebel leader, Joseph Kony.

A discussion will follow the film.

Yoga

Wednesday, August 18/10 4pm $10

Beginners' Yoga Class
Instructor Yarden Bourlas

Join certified Ashtanga yoga instructor Yarden Bourlas for a class suitable for all skills and shapes. Bring your own mat.

Open Mic

Tuesday, August 17/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Photographer-in-Residence Ian McCausland

Aqua Books Photographer-in-Residence Ian McCausland will be taking Facebook profile pictures for people. And bring a book. Whether it's one you grew up with, one that influenced you, one you just bought at Aqua, one you love or even one you hate, bring it along. Ian will document people and their books. (Yes he'll shoot you without the book as well, but he wants to try and see what kind of images we get with people and their books.)

Ian McCausland has been working as a professional photographer since 1988. He believes that high quality images are a key component to a successful marketing strategy for all types of businesses. His early adoption of digital imaging has allowed him to become a market leader in providing high quality images for a variety of clients, locally, nationally, and internationally. A life long Winnipeger, Ian attributes his success to all the challenges a small market like Winnipeg presents. With limited resources but with resilience and dedication, Ian has become one of the top commercial photographers in the city

Craft Sale

Saturday, August 14/10 11am-5pm

Crafty Minions
The Handmade and Vintage Sale

Featuring Winnipeg's hottest established and emerging crafty superstars such as Dizzy Dame, Marathon 1981, Echo Creations, Just the Goods, Head in the Oven Creations, and more, all peddling their wares, this is a sale not to be missed. Banish all thoughts of rows and rows of crocheted slippers or washcloths or ponybead keychains...think, instead, vintage-inspired handmade dresses, leather and ribbon wrist corsets, funky jewelery made of vintage silverware, tiny ceramic apartment buildings and octopus tentacles, retro aprons hand-embroidered with sassy 80s pop lyrics, handmade natural skincare luxuries, wall-art created from bass strings and recycled children's books, silk-screened courier bags and babywear, weird and wonderful stuffed animal-ish creations of all sorts, and much more. This is the new world of gorgeous guerilla DIY craft, right here at Aqua Books.

It's never too early to begin your holiday shopping, it's never the wrong time to pick up something completely unique and beautiful for yourself, and it's always the right time to support local artisans and crafters, and maybe even become inspired yourself.

Admission is free.

Storytelling

Wednesday, August 11/10 7pm

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture presents
Cree Stories
Joseph Boyden, Duncan Mercredi and Louis Bird

Master storytellers and writers share the drama and wisdom of Cree narratives.

Joseph Boyden is a Giller Prize-winning Métis novelist whose work is inspired by the Cree oral traditions of Northern Ontario.

Duncan Mercredi is a celebrated Cree poet and storyteller from Grand Rapids, Manitoba, who has lived in Winnipeg for many years.

Louis Bird is a renowned Omushkego Cree storyteller and elder from Peawanuck, Ontario, who has collected and performed his people's stories for most of his life.

Technology

Tuesday, August 10/10 6pm

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Entrepreneurial Advice and Resources from the Women’s Enterprise Centre
Speaker Angela Hilland

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

An experienced business professional with an entrepreneurial approach, Angela Hilland has been involved with a wide variety of organizations and industries, including custom manufacturing, software based technology, hospitality, retail, and real estate development and management. She has developed a broad base of knowledge in several functional areas, including financial and human resources management, strategic planning, information technology, marketing, and business development. Angela holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Honours degree with a major in Marketing from the University of Manitoba, and earned her CGA designation in 1999. Angela Hilland is a business advisor at the Women’s Enterprise Centre of Manitoba.

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Songwriting

Saturday, August 7/10 1-3pm  $10

Songwriting Workshop
Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Greg 'Milka' Crowe

An afternoon session of sharing, idea collecting and collaboration based around concepts of songwriting and composition.

Greg "Milka" Crowe has been a contributing member of the Winnipeg independent music scene since 1992. After playing guitar in upstart local hardcore outfit XchoplogicX, Crowe turned to the ska idiom and hasn't looked back since. From 1993-2000, Crowe fronted local ska outfit Whole Lotta Milka. During those seven years, Milka released two full length albums, Got Milka? and Al's Diner, for Montreal-based Stomp Records. After Whole Lotta Milka's departure from the Canadian ska scene in 2000, Crowe established The Wedgewoods, a ska-rock group that released a self-titled record in 2002 on Bacteria Buffet Records. Also in 2000, Crowe began to play solo gigs, emphasizing the more traditional side of the ska genre. After submitting three solo tracks (with full instrumentation – all played by Crowe himself) to Bacteria Buffet Records’ first compilation ‘Peg City Skank, Crowe formed a small band around his solo act to incorporate the full sound of the recordings to his live show. Greg Milka Crowe released his debut full length solo album, Bhakta Basics, on Bacteria Buffet Records in 2004 while continuing to perform and tour with The Greg Milka Crowe Band. Crowe has since reformed the band to include not only ska and reggae, but also soul and rockabilly to present a truly diverse performance under the name of The Scarlet Union. Today, in addition to teaching high school Music and History at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate in Winnipeg, Crowe currently performs, tours, and records with The Scarlet Union. The band has started to work on their first album, and is projected for a fall 2010 release.

Spoken Word

Wednesday, August 4/10 7pm  $5

Scream Blue Murmur
Spoken word from Northern Ireland

Scream Blue Murmur returns to the United States and Canada to present excerpts from their new show Something’s Gone Wrong in the Dreamhouse, en route to the 2010 Edmonton Fringe Festival. The 1930s saw a decade of poverty, economic chaos, racism, the rise of Facism and anti-semitism, set against a backdrop of disastrous climate change and international revolution. The ripples of all these events are reflected in our world today and while Scream Blue Murmur recognise that the subject matter could be heavy going their show is delivered with a slice of Irish charm and humor and a side order of bawdy, catchy sing-a-long tunes, and a big chunk of audience participation.

Scream Blue Murmur formed in 2006. They have toured Australasia, the USA, Asia and Ireland, performing over 300 times as a group. The five writers, though all resident in N.Ireland for many years, originate from Belfast, Derry, London, New York and somewhere in the wilds of Scotland. They are accompanied by Brian Faloon, original drummer with Northern Ireland's internationally renowned punk band Stiff Little Fingers.

Songwriting

Tuesday, August 3/10 7pm

Manitoba Independent Songwriters' Circle

"I haven’t had this much fun with songwriting since I was in my first original rock band back in the 70s", says performing songwriter Dan Stupich. "The sense of community and creative energy buzz generated by the circle is amazing. I recommend MISC to any songwriter of any level who’s interested in advancing their art."

The circles are open and free to all Manitoba songwriters. Got a new song that needs test-driving? Come on down!

Garage Sale/BBQ

Saturday, July 31/10 11am-5pm Parking Lot/EAT! bistro

August Long BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books

On Saturday, July 31, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.) And once again, EAT! throws away the menu for the day and serves BBQ food, including pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, fresh coleslaw, yada, yada.

The bookstore itself, will of course also be open, and everything will shut down at 5pm, so our staff can enjoy the rest of the long weekend.

Poetry

Friday, July 30/10 7pm

Huge Blue Launch
Author Patrick Pilarski, with Nicole Pakan and Jason Stefanik

Patrick Pilarski is the co-editor of DailyHaiku, an international journal of contemporary English-language haiku, and poetry editor for its new sister publication, DailyHaiga. His first full-length collection, Huge Blue, was released in 2009 by Leaf Press, and he is the author of the chapbook Five Weeks (2007). Patrick's poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, recently including The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, CV2, Literary Review of Canada, The New Quarterly, and on CBC Radio One as part of the CBC Poetry Face-off. Patrick is on the organizing committee for the Edmonton Poetry Festival, and is Alberta/NWT representative for the League of Canadian Poets. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in computing science at the University of Alberta.

Nicole Pakan is an active member of the Edmonton literary community, performing and organizing events around the city. She is the Co-Editor for the international online and print literary journal DailyHaiku, and Art Editor for its sister publication DailyHaiga. Her writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming in: Filling Station, Carousel, CV2, Other Voices, and the Blue Skies Home and Away anthology. Nicole was also the winner of the 2009 Edmonton CBC Poetry Faceoff, placing third in the national competition.

Jason Stefanik is a Winnipeg writer whose poetry has appeared in The Nashwaak Review, Grain, Misunderstandings Magazine and a few other small literary magazines. Recently, he attended the Banff Centre and also contributed to HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

Theatre

July 14-24/10

2010 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
Shorts
Starring Erik de Waal

Shorts is the newest Fringe hit from South Africa's Erik de Waal. And why settle for one, when you can have six? In rich hues of language and mood, South African Erik de Waal paints six scenarios - funny, sad, satiric, gothic, romantic, macabre and downright off-kilter ... proving it's not the length that counts!

The man just knows how to tell a story. - Winnipeg Free Press

I could listen to this guy all day. – Uptown

South African Erik de Waal is a critically acclaimed dramatic artist both at home and abroad. He has performed his solo story theatre productions for more than 200 000 people in South Africa, Canada, England, Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Turkey. “Sensual and evocative" and "epic and intimate" are just some of the accolades awarded him by critics in South Africa and Canada. This multi-talented actor, storyteller, writer and singer is best known for blending the myriad cultures of South Africa to create intense, memorable theatrical experiences.

Theatre

July 14-24/10

2010 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
Psycho Bitch
Starring Tamara Lynn Robert

Psycho Bitch is a comedic tale of a mood disordered, medicated, sweetheart of a mess. Tamara Lynn Robert will take you on bipolaresque journey through attacking brains, wacky therapists, and what we all really need to cope.

Tamara Lynn Robert is a writer-performer who once called Winnipeg her home. She appeared in U of W's V-day (2007), co-directing and performing in their production of The Vagina Monologues. Also in 2007, Tamara produced her critically acclaimed show Strange Bedfellows. Tamara has since moved to Toronto where she quickly became a favourite at the Porn Room Comedy Nights and has also appeared at the Mary Janes of Comedy and the Dragons of Comedy. She returned to Winnipeg in 2009 to perform her one-night only cabaret Love and Other Delusions. Tamara is thrilled to bring her newest solo show, Psycho Bitch to Aqua Books for the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival 2010.

Theatre

July 14-24/10

2010 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival
TJ Dawe's Tired Clichés
Starring Alex Eddington

Fringe favourite TJ Dawe’s first hit comedy returns! What at first seems to be a scattering of unrelated thoughts – about graveyard shifts, traffic lights, and how gracefully cats vomit – soon becomes a story about a young man working the nightshift who gets caught up in a bizarre chain-reaction of events. Dawe’s hilarious script weaves jokes and stories into a multi-character whirlwind that all ties together in a way you’d never expect.

Performer Alex Eddington marries TJ’s unique storytelling style with high-energy physical theatre, toy instruments, absurd prop comedy, and sleight-of-hand magic...

“FANTASTIC!” - Indyish.com (Montréal)

“PHENOMENAL!” - SEE Magazine (Edmonton)

“MAGICAL!” - Now Magazine (Toronto)

Alex Eddington is secretly a professional composer. His music has been performed internationally by musicians and ensembles including the Mississauga Symphony, the Scarborough Philharmonic, the Toronto Chamber Choir and soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip. He has won several competitions as a composer, including a SOCAN Award. He has written and performed three original shows on the Fringe festival circuit (including Winnipeg Fringe): WOOL, The Fugue Code, and Old Growth. He was the recipient of the 2008/09 Urjo Kareda Residency Grant at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. He is currently developing Yarn, a musical storytelling show that will hit Fringes in the summer 2011.

Garage Sale

Saturday, July 10/10 11am-5pm Parking Lot

Outdoor Garage Sale
1000s of cheap books

On Saturday, July 10, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.)

Open Mic

Thursday, July 8/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Emerging Writer-in-Residence hannah_g

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

hannah_g is a visual artist and writer who was born in Billericay, England, in the year Elvis Presley died. Her practice centres around stories and intervention in order to engender enchantment in everyday life. hannah is currently the programmer of the artist-run centre, aceartinc.

Travel

Wednesday, July 7/10 7pm

Trekking the Globe with Mostly Gentle Footsteps Launch
Author Irene Butler

Newly retired baby boomers, Irene and her husband Rick chose to escape routine and trek the globe for a year. As they immersed themselves in cultures across four continents, their experiences ranged from wondrous, to hair-raising, to humorous. Their personal challenge was to travel for the same cost as staying at home, yet adhering to their older travellers’ motto “we are not here to suffer”. Her book is chock full of tips and the lessons they learned, including the most valuable lesson of all, “expect the unexpected”. Active and armchair travellers alike will be inspired following the Butlers along the highways of the world.

Irene Butler grew up in Saskatchewan, and spent 27 years of her adult life in Manitoba. After 35 years of careers in education, real estate, and retail store management her life now revolves around seeking out new travel adventures, and excursions back to the prairies to visit family, including seven grandchildren. She lives in Vancouver with her photographer husband and fellow adventurer Rick. Irene is an award winning travel journalist and member of TMAC (Travel Media Association of Canada), Federation of BC Travel Writers, and BCATW (BC Association of Travel Writers). She has degrees in Psychology and Gerontology.

Music

Saturday, July 3/10 8pm  $10

Fractures Inside the Design CD Launch
Nashville singer-songwriter Ben Reynolds

Fractures Inside the Design is the latest solo pop-rock release from Nashville-based singer-songwriter Ben Reynolds. "It's not a record for everybody, but it seems that when people get it, they really get it," says Reynolds. "The record attracts independent thinkers; they treat Fractures... like their own personal life-soundtrack", and why not? The record is a rich mosaic of introspection, humour, sentimentality, and stories about the precious and broken things in life.

Canadian-born Ben Reynolds moved to Nashville in 2004 and divides his time between performing, record production, audio engineering, film and television soundtrack work, and songwriting for a variety of artists.

Jazz

Wednesday, June 30/10 8pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
Halderson, Lowe and Roy

Ron Halderson, Greg Lowe and Larry Roy have been composing, producing, and performing in Manitoba and across Canada for over 30 years. Their appearance at this year’s festival will be the first time all three meet on stage to share their diverse approaches to the jazz guitar. This concert will be a rare opportunity to hear three of Winnipeg’s finest guitarists performing duo and trio arrangements of jazz standards and new compositions.

Jazz

Tuesday, June 29/10 8pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
Adam Young

Guitarist Adam Young has been active in the Winnipeg jazz community for several years, as a band leader, side man, and sound engineer. After studying with legendary flat-top guitarist Russ Barenberg in Nashville, he put together his own band featuring Allison de Groot (claw hammer banjo), Alex Campbell (harmonica), Julian Bradford (upright bass), Mark Nagelberg (brush snare), and the esteemed Neil Watson (saxophone). Adam’s music and compositions are a cohesive and moving mix of roots and jazz.

Jazz

Monday, June 28/10 8pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
Michelle Grégoire

Pianist and composer Michelle Grégoire's music has been described as “ingenious”, “elegant”, “balanced”, and “original with great depth and imagination”. She has toured across Canada with her quintet and will appear at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and the Ottawa Jazz Festival this summer in support of her new CD Diversity. Grégoire's music is heard regularly on XM Radio and Galaxie satellite jazz programs. Her performances have been recorded and aired nationally on various CBC programs. Last year Grégoire's quintet opened for the Branford Marsalis Quartet at the Jazz Winnipeg Festival.

Jazz

Sunday, June 27/10 9:30pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
Elisapie Isaac

Singer, composer, filmmaker Elisapie Isaac was born of an Inuk mother and a Newfoundland father. She was adopted at birth by an Inuit family and was raised in the isolated community of Salluit, Nunavik—the Great North. For Elisapie, the north is not at the top of the world, it’s at the centre of her world. “My grandfather used to say that to avoid getting lost,” Isaac says, “you always have to look where you’ve come from.” Her first solo recording, There Will Be Stars, is a record that looks to where this artist has come from… here and now.

Garage Sale

Saturday, June 26/10 11am-5pm Parking Lot

Outdoor Garage Sale
1000s of cheap books

On Saturday, June 26, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.)

Jazz

Saturday, June 26/10 9pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
Steve Hamilton Trio

Veteran bassist Steve Hamilton has been a fixture on the Winnipeg music scene for over 20 years. Recipient of the Xerox Jazz Educator of the Year Award in 2008, he is well known as both a performer and educator. At this year’s festival, Hamilton’s talented group will be performing Hamilton’s original compositions, an organic mix of his many disparate influences from jazz, world music, and classical music.

Jazz

Friday, June 25/10 9pm   $12

Winnipeg International Jazz Festival Club Series
The Doug Edmond Band

Doug Edmond started out as a classically trained on flute but taught himself to play piano in his teens. Over the years, he focused his attention on songwriting which led to the formation of the Doug Edmond band, the release of the CD Between the Shadows and the Light, and a showcase performance in Nashville in 2009. Doug and his band (which includes Crash Test Dummy Mitch Dorge) are currently working on his sophomore album.

Music

Wednesday, June 23/10 7pm   $10

Halfway Home CD Launch
Toronto singer-songwriter Jay Aymar

Jay Aymar is a Canadian singer-songwriter who mixes elements of country and folk with introspective, humorous and straight-forward lyrics. Recently Jay's song My Cherry Coloured Rose was covered by Ian Tyson on his lastest release From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories.

Technology

Tuesday, June 22/10 7pm

New Media Manitoba presents
MEME Dream: A Live Digital Arts Demo
Po-Mo's Meghan Athavale and Curtis Wachs

A growing trend in digital media is interactive video installations that completely rethink the way we view architecture, art, and music.

Meghan Athavale and Curtis Wachs of Po-Mo Project have spent several months assembling a team of local artists to create a scored animation to be projected across the Market Square Stage as well as other electronic architectural visualization venues. Meghan and Curtis will share how they approach interactive installations and how they often have to invent their own technology as part of the design process.

You must register to attend this event as there is limited seating. There is no charge for NMM members, and non-members are $5 payable online. This charge it to cover admission and does not include food or beverages.

We'll get an analysis of Po-Mo Project's work for MEME - the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition running this June 17 - 20, 2010, at a variety of venues across Winnipeg. Po-Mo Project will demo and talk about their interactive installation experience on the Market Square Stage, their "Interactive Dragon" for this year's Folk Festival, and an Interactive Floor Demonstration they will be exhibiting in July at Winnipeg's Polo Park Mall.

Also joining us will be Sasa, from "5467896 Architecture" the Firm that built the new Market Square Stage, to share their vision for the stage and how Megan and Curtis came to be involved.

You are welcome to join us for a bite at EAT! bistro at 5 pm. The Live Lounge will be open upstairs during the demo for beer and wine.

Film

Saturday, June 19/10 2pm

JETAA presents
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Following up on his critically acclaimed, blood-splattered epic Ran, master director Akira Kurosawa looks inward with this collection of eight brightly colored dreams. The first section centers on a young boy (Mitsunori Izaki), who witnesses a forest wedding procession of fox spirits in spite of his mother's (Mitsuko Baisho) warning. The second section concerns the same lad who converses with peach-tree spirits after the trees have been cruelly cut down. This is followed by a party of mountain climbers struggling to make it back to base camp in the midst of a terrible blizzard. The fourth dream deals with a man (Akira Terao) -- a Kurosawa stand-in complete with the director's trademark floppy white hat -- who encounters ghosts of Japan's militaristic past in a forlorn tunnel. In the following dream, the same man ventures into a Van Gogh painting called The Crows and meets the artist himself (Martin Scorsese). The sixth and seventh dreams venture into nightmare territory -- one deals with a nuclear meltdown that threatens Japan while the other concerns post-nuclear mutants. In the final dream, Kurosawa meets a 103-year-old man (played by Ozu regular Chishu Ryu) in a utopian rural village.

Dinner

Thursday, June 17/10 6pm

Manitoba Editors' Association Dinner

Open Mic

Tuesday, June 15/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Songwriter-in-Residence Greg "Milka" Crowe

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Greg "Milka" Crowe has been a contributing member of the Winnipeg independent music scene since 1992. After playing guitar in upstart local hardcore outfit XchoplogicX, Crowe turned to the ska idiom and hasn't looked back since. From 1993-2000, Crowe fronted local ska outfit Whole Lotta Milka. During those seven years, Milka released two full length albums, Got Milka? and Al's Diner, for Montreal-based Stomp Records. After Whole Lotta Milka's departure from the Canadian ska scene in 2000, Crowe established The Wedgewoods, a ska-rock group that released a self-titled record in 2002 on Bacteria Buffet Records. Also in 2000, Crowe began to play solo gigs, emphasizing the more traditional side of the ska genre. After submitting three solo tracks (with full instrumentation – all played by Crowe himself) to Bacteria Buffet Records’ first compilation ‘Peg City Skank, Crowe formed a small band around his solo act to incorporate the full sound of the recordings to his live show. Greg Milka Crowe released his debut full length solo album, Bhakta Basics, on Bacteria Buffet Records in 2004 while continuing to perform and tour with The Greg Milka Crowe Band. Crowe has since reformed the band to include not only ska and reggae, but also soul and rockabilly to present a truly diverse performance under the name of The Scarlet Union. Today, in addition to teaching high school Music and History at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate in Winnipeg, Crowe currently performs, tours, and records with The Scarlet Union. The band has started to work on their first album, and is projected for a fall 2010 release.

Aqua U. Workshop

Saturday, June 12/10 1-3pm

Aqua U. presents
Lemonade and Surrealist Games
A Workshop with Writer-in-Residence Gillian Sze

This workshop is designed for beginners or intermediate writers who are interested in experimentation and absurdity. Using prompts and techniques emerging from the Surrealist movement, participants will take risks, "make no sense" and drink lemonade. The main purpose of the workshop is to learn new approaches of writing outside our comfort zones and play with language. Participants will hopefully use these prompts to battle the blank page in their own writing.

Gillian Sze was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her poetry collection, Fish Bones (DC Books, 2009), was shortlisted for the QWF McAuslan First Book Prize. She is the author of three chapbooks published by Withwords Press and her work has appeared in a number of national and international journals. The Anatomy of Clay, a poetry collection, is forthcoming from ECW Press in April 2011. She is also co-founder and co-editor of Branch Magazine. Gillian has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University and resides in Montreal.

Poetry

Thursday, June 10/10 7pm

Writer-in-Residence Reading
June W-i-R Gillian Sze, with resident poets Chandra Mayor and Ariel Gordon

Gillian Sze was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her poetry collection, Fish Bones (DC Books, 2009), was shortlisted for the QWF McAuslan First Book Prize. She is the author of three chapbooks published by Withwords Press and her work has appeared in a number of national and international journals. The Anatomy of Clay, a poetry collection, is forthcoming from ECW Press in April 2011. She is also co-founder and co-editor of Branch Magazine. Gillian has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University and resides in Montreal.

Chandra Mayor is a Winnipeg writer, editor, and shop girl. She is the award-winning author of three books, including the short story collection All the Pretty Girls (Conundrum Press, 2008), which was the recipient of the Lambda Award for Lesbian Fiction.

Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press poetry chapbooks. She is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press’ books section and, each September, is Blogger-in-Chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR (i.e. the Winnipeg International Writers Festival). Her first full collection of poetry, Hump (Palimpsest Press, 2010), will be launched at the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

Open Mic

Wednesday, June 9/10 7pm

Writers' Collective presents Writers' Circle Wrap Up Cabaret

Technology

Tuesday, June 8/10 6pm

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner: Blogging
Speakers Liz Hover and Polly Washburn

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

Liz Hover moved to Winnipeg from London seven years ago. She works as digital media manager for the National Screen Institute – a film and television training school. She authors two blogs: Diary of a Web Gal and Hi, I’m Sadie Shih Tzu (nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award). Liz has presented workshops about the social web for the National Screen Institute, On Screen Manitoba, Canadian Women in Communications, the National Film Board and more. She also does web consulting to help develop and improve websites. Her passion is the internet and how to best use it as a communications professional.

Polly Washburn moved to Winnipeg from New York over 10 years ago. She is a film and digital media producer, owner of the production and consulting company Positron Media. She provides consulting and training in the areas of production and web marketing. She is currently producing three feature films, a couple of short ones, a collaborative online digital media project, an iPhone app and an augmented reality game. She has just launched a new blog ScreenLiving to examine content creation and distribution in a world where screens are both converging and proliferating.

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Theatre

June 2, 3 and 5/10 8pm   $10

Marketplace Players present
The Snake in the Bag
Written and directed by Denis Thornton, co-directed by Brett Buckingham

A sudden, unexpected blizzard hits Winnipeg. A group of patients are forced to spend the night together in the waiting room of a clinic. It's an uneasy situation, made all the more so by the presence of a strange young man, Skip. And then there's the snake, the mouse, and the "gerbil".

Photography

Thursday, May 27/10 7pm

Platform Centre presents
Focal Point: Photography and the Social Construct
Fragments of the Autobiographical: Me and Robert Frank
Border Crossings editor Meeka Walsh

Meeka Walsh is the editor of Border Crossings. She has contributed essays to a number of catalogues published in Canada and the United States. Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies, among them The Oxford Anthology of Canadian Women Writers. She has also published a collection of short stories, The Garden of Earthly Intimacies. From 1995 to 2000, she was a member of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal and she served on the board of the National Gallery from 2001 to 2005. She is a member of the executive of Winnipeg’s Plug In ICA. In 2003 Walsh was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Western Magazine Awards Foundation and in 2007 received an award from the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts for her contribution to the visual arts in Canada.

français

Thursday, May 27/10 7pm VKF

Bons mots serie litteraire
Les écrivains Bertrand Nayet, Marc Prescott et Rhéal Cenerini, et le lancement de la forêt du langage de Jean Chicoine

Bons mots c’est une nouvelle série de lectures publiques par des auteurs franco-manitobains à «l’hôtel de ville culturel» de Winnipeg, la librairie Aqua Books, 274, rue Garry. Bons mots c’est une initiative de la librairie Aqua Books et du Collectif Post-néo-rieliste organisée par Bertrand Nayet et Ariel Gordon dont le but est de faire rayonner la littérature franco-manitobaine sur les deux berges de la rivière Rouge.

Bons mots c’est trois auteurs, trois voix dans le vent, trois voies dans la villes.

Bons mots c’est une occasion de voir et d’entendre des écrivains donner vie à leurs mots. Bons mots, c’est une salle au plancher craquant, c’est un bruit diffus de circulation, c’est une voix qui nous envoûte, ce sont des rencontres, des surprises, des retrouvailles.

Né à Auxerre (France) en 1962, Bertrand Nayet réside à St-Norbert au Manitoba. Il a publié nouvelles, récits et poèmes dans diverses revues et recueils. Il a aussi écrit du théâtre, créé des mises en scène et joué plusieurs rôles pour diverses troupes du Manitoba. Il est l’animateur, un des pères fondateurs et secrétaire perpétuel du Collectif post-néo-rieliste, un regroupement de créateurs franco-manitobains. Il collabore à la programmation du Foyer des Écrivains, la partie francophone du Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival.

Marc Prescott est d'origine manitobaine et il a étudié au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface et à l'Ecole nationale de théâtre du Canada en écriture dramatique. Il est l'auteur de Sex, Lies et les Franco-Manitobains (1993) et de L'Année du Big-Mac (1999). Ses pièces Poissons et L’Année du Big-Mac ont remporté le Masque pour la Meilleure production franco-canadienne en 2002 et 2007 respectivement. Il est aussi traducteur, adaptateur, metteur en scène et comédien. Il écrivit de surcroît des textes radiophoniques pour Radio-Canada. En 2006, il reçut le prix d'excellence de la fondation pour l'avancement du théâtre francophone.

Rhéal Cenerini est né à Notre Dame de Lourdes et a grandi sur une ferme que sa famille exploitait à l'époque. Il a obtenu un bac en arts du Collège universitaire de St-Boniface et a, par la suite, fait des études en agriculture. C'est lorsqu'il était à l'école secondaire qu'il s'est d'abord intéressé au théâtre, y jouant plusieurs rôles dans des pièces anglaises et françaises. Adolescent, il s'est aussi mis à écrire des poèmes et des pièces. Depuis, il a fait jouer une dizaine d'oeuvres, ici, dans l'Est du Canada et en France. Il continue à pratiquer le double métier d'écrivain et d'agriculteur. Avec son épouse Carol et ses quatre enfants, il vit sur une petite ferme dans les environs de La Salle, juste au sud de la ville de Winnipeg.

Depuis le village Osborne au centre-ville de Winnipeg, Jean Chicoine s’enfonce une fois de plus dans la forêt du langage. Comme dans son premier roman, les galaxies nos voisines, l’écriture constitue le véritable éros de ce roman qui puise son sujet dans la matière même de la langue. Dans cette nouvelle autofiction (« qu’écrire d’ôtre, en effet, sinon des visions définitives? »), le village Osborne devient le point névralgique d’une écriture qui explore la langue et le monde dans toutes ses dimensions, par laquelle l’auteur, grand voyageur du temps, accompagné de son Ange et béni du Grand Wazou, traverse sa jeunesse québécoise pour conjurer et retrouver Mistral, Uguay, Boisvert, Miron, Montaigne, Baudelaire, Rutebeuf, Villon, Gainsbourg et d’autres.

Finaliste au Prix des lecteurs Radio-Canada pour son roman les galaxies nos voisines, Jean Chicoine, né à Montréal, vit dans le village Osborne à Winnipeg depuis 1990. L’Ange s’est envolée, les trois flos ont grandi et volent de leurs propres ailes. Il lui reste dans la réalité une quatrième flo, une jeune fashionista de 9 ans.

Readings

Tuesday, May 25/10 7pm

Manitoba Writers' Guild presents
Sheldon Oberman Emerging Writer Mentor Program Readings
Mentors Catherine Hunter, Duncan Thornton, Sally Ito, Sarah Klassen and Méira Cook, with emerging writers Donna Chubaty, Hedy Heppenstall, Mickey Cuthbert, Alex Merrill and Fisher Lavell

Theatre

Saturday, May 22/10 2pm

Prairie Theatre Exchange presents the Carol Shields Festival of New Works
Short Shots
Premieres of new ten-minute plays by Joseph Aragon, James Durham, Ellen Peterson, Trish Cooper, Karin Adams and Anita LeBeau

Experience theatre in 10-minute blasts! Five short plays by local playwrights, specially commissioned by Prairie Theatre Exchange for the annual Carol Shields Festival of New Works (May 20-22 at PTE in Portage Place), are presented for your entertainment as staged readings by professional actors.

Nerd Helpline by Karin Adams and Anita LeBeau (PTE School Students)

Ramona, overwhelmed by feelings of coolness, calls Dwight at the Nerd Helpline to bring her back to her dweeby self.

The Family Goes Fishing by James Durham

A family fishing trip opens a can of worms. Will the family fighting keep the fish from biting?

Life Support by Ellen Peterson

Doris and Tom try to understand the ongoing on-line life of their deceased son.

Personal Effects by Joseph Aragon

Doug and Em are conflicted when they discover that the purse Doug found belonged to a murder victim.

The Audience Wins by Trish Cooper

A company of actors struggles with a particularly noisy audience.

Mayworks

Wednesday, May 19/10 7pm

MayWorks Festival presents
Bread and Roses Tonight
Poets Ron Romanowski and John Baillie, with music by Liliana Romanowski and Ferruccio Moscarda

Watch the commercial here.

John Baillie’s latest book is a collection of poetry, Destination Mutable, which was launched at Aqua Books last October. In it John chronicles his battle and victory over a rare and painful medical condition. John is also the author of a humorous collection of otherworldly detective cases, Midnight’s Delight (2005), which has been referred to as Dr. Who meets Monty Python.

Ron Romanowski’s latest book of poetry, Insurrection, commemorates the working class strikers on the 90th anniversary of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. Ron’s work has appeared in journals such as CV2 and in anthologies including Witness (poems about war) and Myth Weavers (Canadian Mythology). His poetry has been read on national CBC radio.

Ferruccio Moscarda is a veteran Winnipeg guitarist who cut his musical teeth on the tunes and musical traditions of his native Istria, Italy. Soon after coming to Canada, he co-founded the popular dance band, Combo Italiano, which played in all the dance halls of Winnipeg and Southern Manitoba for many years. Currently Ferruccio plays in a duo with accordionist Ted Hicks and they are busy with community gigs throughout Winnipeg.

Liliana Romanowski continues in her father Ferruccio Moscarda’s musical footsteps. Only she busts her chops as a singer. Liliana is at home in a variety of genres including Folk, Gospel, Broadway as well as Classical. She is currently studying with retired Opera singer Yolanda di Paolo in the University of Manitoba Preparatory Division. This year will mark Liliana’s thirteenth MayWorks appearance.

Open Mic

Tuesday, May 18/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Aqua Books Storyteller-in-Residence Rebecca Hiebert

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Rebecca Hiebert is a member of Stone Soup Storytellers of Winnipeg. She has performed at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival, the SUNDOG storytelling festival, the national storytelling conference, in schools, at the Manitoba Museum, and at other events throughout Winnipeg. Rebecca is a lively and energetic teller who knows how to connect with an audience.

Poetry

Tuesday, May 18/10 7:30pm

Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba presents
Poets Fiona Lam and Sally Ito

Fiona Tinwei Lam is a Scottish-born Vancouver writer. Her first book of poetry, Intimate Distances, was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Enter the Chrysanthemum is her latest book of poetry, dealing with themes of family, love and loss. Twice short-listed for the Event literary non-fiction prize, she was a co-editor of and contributor to Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood, a critically acclaimed anthology of essays about juggling the passions to write and to parent published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Sally Ito's two books of poetry are Frogs in the Rain Barrel (Nightwood, 1995) and A Season of Mercy (Nightwood, 1999). She is also the author of an accomplished book of short fiction, Floating Shore, which came out from Mercury in 1998. Sally teaches English and creative writing at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

Workshop

Saturday, May 15/10 1-3pm

Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival presents
Intro to Storytelling
Aqua Books Storyteller-in-Residence Rebecca Hiebert

Learn how storytellers choose, learn, and tell a story to audiences of various ages. Both avid story listeners and curious future (and present) storytellers will enjoy this informative and interactive workshop. Register for the workshop by calling 943-7555 or email us.

Rebecca Hiebert is a member of Stone Soup Storytellers of Winnipeg. She has performed at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival, the SUNDOG storytelling festival, the national storytelling conference, in schools, at the Manitoba Museum, and at other events throughout Winnipeg. Rebecca is a lively and energetic teller who knows how to connect with an audience.

Film

Saturday, May 15/10 7pm

Big Smash Productions presents
Outsider Asylum Documentary Series

Back by popular demand! Go to the Big Smash! site for details on this disturbing film.

Storytelling

Friday, May 14/10 7:30pm

Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival presents
Soup of the Day: A Stone Soup Concert
Storytellers Kate Isaac, Rebecca Hiebert and Mary Louise Chown

A home-grown Manitoban, Kate Isaac was born into a story; living flip sides of the city hamster/country hamster saga. From local ditches and roadsides to the far-flung corners of the globe, she bravely gleans her odd assortment of tales. Kate is a duelist of the double-edged sword, preferring stories within stories, built on backbones of humor. A teller for many years, she has taught and told her stories at work-shops, festivals, and for CBC radio.

Rebecca Hiebert is a member of Stone Soup Storytellers of Winnipeg. She has performed at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival, the SUNDOG storytelling festival, the national storytelling conference, in schools, at the Manitoba Museum, and at other events throughout Winnipeg. Rebecca is a lively and energetic teller who knows how to connect with an audience.

Mary Louise Chown is a Prairie Chicken who began telling stories in public in 1973 when she lived in Germany. You have heard her unique take on life and all that it throws at us at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Children's Festival, at Magic of One Concerts, and on CBC Radio. Mary Louise also plays hammered dulcimer, guitar and percussion with a local folk music band and she often includes music and song in her stories.

Launch

Thursday, May 13/10 7pm

Kegedonce Press presents
W’daub Awae: Speaking True launch
Contributors Gregory Scofield, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Chris Bose and Al Hunter

W’daub Awae: Speaking True brings together some of Canada’s strongest and best loved voices on the aboriginal writing scene. It includes new writing by: Gregory Scofield, Richard Van Camp, Marilyn Dumont, Al Hunter, Joanne Arnott, Daniel Heath Justice and all your other favourite Kegedonce Press authors. Introduced and edited by the well-respected Warren Cariou, this anthology will become a classic in no time.

"This anthology is a celebration of those extraordinary successes that Kegedonce has had since 1993, and of the pivotal role it has played in the recent history of Canada’s Aboriginal literature. But for me, W’daub Awae is equally a pointer toward the future, a sign of the incredible diversity and vividness and powerful language that we can look forward to from Kegedonce in the years to come. Each piece represented here is only one small part of the extraordinary work that all of these writers will continue to produce in the future." - editor Warren Cariou

Gregory Scofield is one of Canada's leading Aboriginal writers whose five collections of poetry have earned him both a national and international audience. He is known for his unique and dynamic reading style that blends oral storytelling, song, spoken word and the Cree language. His maternal ancestry can be traced back to the fur trade and to the Métis community of Kinosota, Manitoba. His paternal ancestry is Jewish, Polish and German and is reflective of the immigrant experience to Canada at the turn of the century. His poetry and memoir, Thunder Through My Veins is taught at numerous universities and colleges throughout Canada and the U.S., and his work has appeared in many anthologies. He has served as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Other works include: Kipocihkan: Poems New and Selected, I Knew Two Métis Women, and his new edition of Love Medicine and One Song released by Kegedonce Press in Spring 2009, featuring an introduction by Warren Cariou. Gregory currently lives in Maple Ridge, B.C.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a poet, writer, publisher, editor, activist and Indigenous arts advocate from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation at Neyaashiinigmiing on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. Her work has been published internationally in journals, anthologies, and magazines and she has performed and lectured extensively in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Europe, India, the United States and Canada. Kateri has published a collection of poetry, my heart is a stray bullet, a chapbook, bloodriver woman, and released two acclaimed poetry and music CDs, standing ground, and A Constellation of Bones. She has also edited two groundbreaking anthologies, Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica and the award winning skins: contemporary Indigenous writing. Kateri is currently completing work on a manuscript of short stories, among other projects. She is the founder and managing editor of Kegedonce Press.

Chris Bose is a writer, multi-disciplinary artist, musician and filmmaker, who has read and performed at universities, theatres and coffeehouses at all points from Victoria to Montreal and has just released his collection of poetry Stone the Crow. He continues to create art and music on a daily basis, and is also a workshop facilitator of community arts events, digital storytelling, art workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds. He does curatorial work for First Nations art shows and projects, research and writing for periodicals across Canada, mixed-media productions, film, audio and video recording and editing, and more. Chris is of the N'laka'pamux Nation in BC, and currently spends his time in Kamloops BC.

Al Hunter is a citizen of the Anishinaabe Nation within Treaty 3. He is a proud member of the Caribou clan whose roles and responsibilities include reconciliation, peacemaking, and the preservation of artistic, creative traditions of the Anishinaabeg. He has served as Chief of his community, worked as a land claim negotiator, researcher, high school counsellor, college and university instructor, professional facilitator, community development specialist, healing and wellness coordinator, independent consultant, and communications and environmental issues advisor to First Nation’s communities and governments. Al has published two books of poems, Spirit Horses and The Recklessness of Love, both published by Kegedonce Press. Al Hunter is the Founder and President of Oshki Aa-yaa’aag Mino-Bimaadiziiwin (Good Life for Young People) Foundation.

Warren Cariou has written fiction and nonfiction about his home community in northwestern Saskatchewan, including Lake of the Prairies, which won the Drainie-Taylor Prize and was nominated for several other prizes. He teaches Aboriginal literature at the University of Manitoba where he also directs the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Storytelling

Wednesday, May 12/10 7pm

Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival presents
Haida storyteller Roberta Kennedy and Winnipeg's own Joe McLellan

Roberta Kennedy is a traditional Haida singer, drummer, and storyteller and one of Canada's leading aboriginal performers. She has given hundreds of performances all over Canada during the past fifteen years. She performs for children and adults at festivals, schools, universities, conferences, workshops, and on TV and radio. In the Spring of 2010, she was the Storyteller-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Joe McLellan is a writer and storyteller. Joe and his wife Matrine have written several popular books featuring Ojibwe trickster Nanabosho.

Technology

Tuesday, May 11/10 6pm EAT!/VKF

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Planning Meeting

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Launch

Tuesday, May 11/10 7pm

Through the Window of a Train: A Railway Anthology
Editor Barbara Lange and more

Through the Window of a Train: A Railway Anthology collects stories from thirty Canadian authors (including the late, great Sheldon Oberman). These stories retell the significance of the railway, or a single journey taken, in the lives of ordinary Canadians. Dotted with junction and siding names, engine numbers, and routes, this book is a must for the rail enthusiast.

Barbara Lange grew up in a railway-flavoured world in England. Her father, Richard Hurrell, worked for the London North Eastern Railway. As an adult Barbara travelled daily from her home in Brentwood by diesel-electric train and Tube to reach her office job in London. She immigrated to Canada in 1978 and didn't set foot on a train for years. Since then she has travelled on VIA's The Canadian between Vancouver and Toronto, on The Ocean to Halifax, and to Churchill on The Hudson Bay Line. Barbara lives in Winnipeg with her husband, Larry (Smiley) Lange, a retired CNR carman from Transcona.

Launch

Wednesday, May 5/10 7pm

The Last Crumb Launch
Food Writer Rhéanne Marcoux

Who knew there were Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain types in Winnipeg?

Chefs are only as crazy as their most memorable kitchen stories, and Hollywood isn't the only place you'll find them. Local restaurants are home to chefs with big personalities and fascinating, colourful careers. But you'll rarely glimpse this talented bunch when dining out.

The Last Crumb is a compilation of stories and recipes from chefs in Winnipeg kitchens. An entertaining read that will give diners a glimpse into the restaurant industry - a tasty bite of storytelling that has kick and will leave you hungry for more.

I love food, dining out, cooking and baking, writing and photography. So this book seemed like a great idea. And it was. The people I met made the entire project worthwhile. These chefs have incredible stories, fascinating personalities and were more welcoming and accommodating than I could have ever hoped for.

They sat down with me after long services to have candid, personal interviews; they let me into their kitchens where I got in the way of staff and interrupted work to snap a few pictures; and they even gave me their most cherished recipes - a few even had to ask mom or grandma's permission to pass along the secret.

This city's diverse and forever-evolving culinary scene is really one of its best assets. But it's not all faceless, generic restaurants with bland, machine-made food. It's about time we spotlighted and acknowledged the geniuses in the kitchen.

Awards

Tuesday, May 4/10 6pm

Manitoba School Librarians Association Awards Dinner

Theatre

April 29-May 8/10 8pm   $15/$10 student

(2pm show May 1 & 8, dark May 2-4)

Theatre by the River presents
Judith Thompson's Habitat

Life is good for the residents of Mapleview Lanes ... until Lewis Chance buys a house on their street to open a group home for troubled adolescents. Two worlds collide in Judith Thompson's disturbing look at our modern "not in my backyard" politics.

Directed by Arne MacPherson.

Poetry

Tuesday, April 27/10 7pm

Hagios Press presents
Fallout/After the Words Launch
Poets Sandra Ridley and Jennifer Londry, with Ariel Gordon

Sandra Ridley was co-winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award for her chapbook Lift (JackPine Press) and was a finalist for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry in 2009. An earlier version of Fallout won the 2008 Alfred G. Bailey Prize. A past associate editor with Arc Magazine, and a facilitator of poetry workshops for the Tree Reading Series and the City of Ottawa, Ridley's work can also be found in numerous journals, and as a chapbook titled Rest Cure published by Apt. 9 Press. Sandra Ridley grew up in Saskatchewan and currently resides in Ottawa. Fallout, launched with this tour, is her first full-length collection.

In a little room by a window, Jennifer Londry writes. After the Words is her second book. She is the co-author of one previous collection of poetry, Life & Death in Cheap Motels (Hidden Brook Press, 2009), with R.D. Roy. The collection has been compared to a "gut-punch guided tour through the 3 a.m. gritty neighbourhoods of the soul." She has been published in a number of literary magazines and recently appeared at the Kingston Writers' Festival. She lives in Kingston.

Ariel Gordon is the Winnipeg-based author of two recent small press poetry chapbooks. She is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press’ books section and, each September, is Blogger-in-Chief of HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR (i.e. the Winnipeg International Writers Festival). Her first full collection of poetry, Hump (Palimpsest Press, 2010), will be launched at the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

Manitowapow

Saturday, April 24/10 7pm

The Roots of Truth and Reconciliation in Manitowapow
Aboriginal writers Marie Annharte Baker, Maeengan Linklater, Shayla Elizabeth, Duncan Mercredi, Tarina Parisian, Justice Murray Sinclair and Beatrice Mosionier, hosted by Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence David Robertson

In June 2010, the first national commemoration event of the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission will take place in Winnipeg, the heart of Manitowapow. At this event, survivors and citizens effected by the residential school legacy will join together in the spirit of sharing and healing to engage the long historical impacts of this dark period in Canadian history. But, what is “Truth”? What is “Reconciliation”? Come and join together with Aboriginal writers struggling with these concepts in their work and see what answers emerge. This is the final event in our Manitowapow series.

Aqua U. Horror Workshop

April 14, 15, 21 and 22/10 6-9pm   $100

Aqua U. presents
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies
They Came From Within: The History of Canadian Horror Films
A course by filmmaker Caelum Vatnsdal

Statistics show that teenagers account for a healthy portion of horror film audiences, much to the chagrin of parents who want their kids to steer clear of the genre. Often critically disdained, the horror genre is associated in many people’s minds with misogyny, superfluous violence, poor writing, and worse acting. But there is a lot more to horror films than meets the eye - and at such an impressionable and media-saturated age, it’s important for teens to be given the tools with which they can become responsible viewers.

The History of Canadian Horror Cinema will take students from the first primitive steps towards horror in the Dominion, through the difficult days of political resistance to pioneering directors such as David Cronenberg, to the strange early-Eighties period known as the Tax Shelter Era, past the dire direct-to-video drek and up to the present day, in which that most magnificently paradoxical of genres is poised for a resurgence. The true history of Hoser Horror is rich with mystery and suspense, with strange and unexpected turns, surprising triumphs and crushing defeats - and is inexorably linked to fascinating events in general Canadian history, including the Quiet Revolution, the FLQ Crisis and more. Instructor Caelum Vatnsdal, author of the award-winning They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema, will mix compelling anecdotes with tasty film clips within an historical framework that will satisfy both the horror fan and the casual history buff.

Caelum Vatnsdal was born and bred in that legendary hotbed of sub-polar culture, Winnipeg, Manitoba. He went to the University of Manitoba, followed by an apprenticeship of sorts on Guy Maddin’s film Careful. Caelum learned about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking by working as a camera assistant in Winnipeg and Toronto, while making his own films: shorts like Mr. Banana and Kundalini Unbound, and a feature entitled Black as Hell, Strong as Death, Sweet as Love. Caelum has also made award-winning music videos for The Weakerthans and other Canadian bands, and has written the books Kino Delirium: The Films of Guy Maddin and They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema.

Miskatonic Institute founder Kier-La Janisse is a writer and film programmer who hosts music-related and cult film screenings under the moniker Big Smash! Productions. She was head programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas from 2003-2007, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival and the Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival (both in Vancouver). She's curated programs at the Blinding Light!! Cinema and the Criminal Cinema in Vancouver, as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, has contributed to The Scarecrow Movie Guide (Sasquatch Books, 2004) and Destroy All Movies!! (forthcoming from Fantagraphics), and is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi, published by FAB Press in 2007. She is the Administrative Coordinator for Winnipeg's send + receive: a festival of sound and Special Events Coordinator for independent record store Into the Music. Currently, Ms. Janisse is co-producing a feature documentary called Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the 70s and working on a new book about female neurosis in horror and exploitation films entitled House of Psychotic Women.

Manitoba Book Awards

Tuesday, April 20/10 7pm VKF

Road to the Book Awards
Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction Nominee Reading
Nominees Jake MacDonald, Royden Loewen, Gerald Friesen, Brock Holowachuk and Robert Young

Every year, the Manitoba Writers' Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers celebrate the local writing and publishing community with the Manitoba Book Awards. The Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award honours the best non-fiction book by a Manitoba writer. As always, the nominees come to Aqua in the days and weeks leading up to the gala to show you why they're the best.

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Royden Loewen is author of several books and numerous articles dealing with the history of immigrant culture in Canada and the United States. Much of his writing focuses on immigrant strategies as shaped by gender, family, religion, ethnicity and economics. His most recent work (with Gerald Friesen), Immigrants in Prairie Cities: Ethnic Diversity in 20th Century Canada, was funded in part by the Prairie Centre of Excellence for the Study of Immigration and Integration, Edmonton. Loewen is on faculty at the University of Winnipeg where he is Professor of History and Chair in Mennonite Studies. He also serves as series editor of Studies in Immigration and Culture at University of Manitoba Press. He has been Fulbright Fellow at the University of Chicago, and Research Fellow at the University of Victoria and the University of Guelph.

Gerald Friesen teaches history at the University of Manitoba. He has written a number of books on Canadian history, including Citizens and Nation: An Essay on History, Communications, and Canada, and was the general editor of the University of Manitoba Press’s fifteen-volume series, Manitoba Studies in Native History. He has also been active in the Canadian Historical Association and was an advisor on the CBC’s television series, Canada: A Peoples’ History.

Brock Holowachuk has been working in emergency management for ten years, and holds designations as a Certified Emergency Manager and Certified Business Continuity Professional. He is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at Red River College, and completed an MA in Mass Communications from the University of Leicester. He began working in emergency management with a major national data processing company during the Y2K rollover; since that time, he has been actively involved with a wide range of emergency planning, response and recovery activities in positions with the Department of Transportation and Government Services, the Office of the Fire Commissioner, Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization, Public Safety Canada, and presenlty with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Author of 8 works of non-fiction, Robert J. Young is Professor Emeritus at the University of Winnipeg. Recipient of its awards for excellence in Teaching and Research, Young has also won the Canadian Professor of the Year Award (1996), and the Canadian Historical Association’s Ferguson Prize for his first biography, Power and Pleasure, a life of the French statesman Louis Barthou. His second, An American By Degrees, has just been nominated for the Alexander Isbister Prize. This work is addressed to the 20th century French ambassador to Washington, Jules Jusserand. Currently, Young is President of the University of Winnipeg Retirees Association, and Vice-President of the University’s Faculty and Staff Club.

français

Tuesday, April 20/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic/Haut-parleurs

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

This week, Aqua Books Prix Lansdowne de poésie-nominated writer Bertrand Nayet hosts an all-French version of our popular open mic series.

Workshops

Saturday, April 17/10 10am-12pm, 1-3pm

Teen Writing Workshops
Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence David Roberston and aboriginal writer Niigonwedom James Sinclair

Niigonwedom James Sinclair is originally from Ste. Peter’s (Little Peguis) First Nation in Manitoba, Canada and currently lives in Winnipeg. His creative work has appeared in Prairie Fire and Tales from Mocassin Avenue: An Anthology of Native Stories while his scholarly work will appear in three upcoming critical texts with Broadview Press, Michigan State University Press, and Wilfred Laurier Press.

David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral event in Canada's Aboriginal history. David is the Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for January - April 2010.

Book Launch

Saturday, April 17/10 7pm

Remember Me Launch
Students from Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre

Remember Me is a journey of remembrance as friends, family, and heroes from the past are honored in poems, short stories, reflections and essays. The rich variety of styles and genres you will find in this volume reflect the wonderful diversity and unique talents of each of these young Aboriginal authors from Norway House.

Poetry

Thursday, April 15/10 7pm

Brick Books presents
Lost Gospels Winnipeg Launch
Poet Lorri Neilsen Glenn, with special guest Roewan Crowe

"…The twang of country music, the ripeness of ‘berry, leaf, fruit,’ the fierce clarity of Simone Weil's philosophy—Lorri Neilsen Glenn's poetry exhorts us to ‘Wake every chance you can.’ ‘Carry light,’ she says, and we do, reading her blazing words."

– Anne Simpson

Originally from Western Canada, Lorri Neilsen Glenn now lives in Halifax and spends her summers in Saskatchewan. The author of many academic books and two previous books of poetry (all the perfect disguises, 2003, and Combustion, 2007), she served as Poet Laureate for Halifax from 2005-2009.

Transdisciplinary artist Roewan Crowe is energized by acts of disruption and discovery. Her conceptually driven practice explores the multilayered relationships among words, images and experiences of trauma. She is Assistant Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at the University of Winnipeg and Academic Director of The Institute for Women's & Gender Studies. She is currently working on an experimental novel.

Technology

Tuesday, April 13/10 6pm EAT!/VKF

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Guest speakers Liz Hover and Polly Washburn

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs. RSVP here.

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

Liz Hover moved to Winnipeg from London seven years ago. She works as digital media manager for the National Screen Institute – a film and television training school. She authors two blogs: Diary of a Web Gal and Hi, I’m Sadie Shih Tzu (nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award). Liz has presented workshops about the social web for the National Screen Institute, On Screen Manitoba, Canadian Women in Communications, the National Film Board and more. She also does web consulting to help develop and improve websites. Her passion is the internet and how to best use it as a communications professional.

Polly Washburn moved to Winnipeg from New York over 10 years ago. She is a film and digital media producer, owner of the production and consulting company Positron Media. She provides consulting and training in the areas of production and web marketing. She is currently producing three feature films, a couple of short ones, a collaborative online digital media project, an iPhone app and an augmented reality game. She has just launched a new blog ScreenLiving to examine content creation and distribution in a world where screens are both converging and proliferating.

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Workshop

Tuesday, April 13/10 7pm   $25/$15 (students)

Manitoba Editors' Association presents
From Manuscript to Publication
Featuring Marjorie Anderson, Jenny Gates and Doug Whiteway

The panel discussion is on what editors do to ready a manuscript for publication. We’ll focus on fiction and literary or creative non-fiction: novels, poetry, short stories, memoirs, personal or family histories, etc. (self-published and with a publisher). Moderated by Arden Ogg.

Marjorie Anderson has a PhD in English literature and taught writing, literature and communication at the University of Manitoba for two decades. During those years she also collaborated with her friend and colleague Carol Shields in editing the Dropped Threads anthologies. Currently, through her company, Wordwise, she does freelance editing, teaches personal story writing and manages literary projects from manuscript to polished book stage. As well, she and family members have formed a local, select publishing company, Anderson House.

Jenny Gates has been editing in various capacities for 25 years. Her first gig as in-house Editor of Scientific Publications at the Australian Museum was so much fun that she decided to go freelance when she moved to Winnipeg 15 years ago. Jenny’s cup of tea is book editing because it allows her to delve into the world of self-publishing authors and work side-by-side with them on their journey to publication. With 14 titles under her pen, she is currently in the middle of a year-long sabbatical as she pursues other projects.

Doug Whiteway has written and edited nonfiction and fiction for numerous clients over more years than he cares to think about. Most recently, he has edited mystery fiction for Winnipeg publishers Heartland Associates and Signature Editions, the latter of which published his crime novel Death in Cold Type in 2005. His next novel, Twelve Drummers Drumming, is scheduled for publication by Bantam Books in spring 2011. Elsewhere, he is a Carleton University journalism school graduate and has worked as a reporter and feature writer for the Winnipeg Free Press and as an editor for the magazine formerly known as The Beaver.

RSVP to meaworkshops@gmail.com for your spot.

CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival

Saturday, April 10/10 11am-1pm

CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival
Teen Improv Workshop
Comedians David Pryde and Scott Faulconbridge

David Pryde is a Montreal comic whose humor is often called “cerebral”, a word which he hasn’t looked up but assumes means “hilarious”. He has performed comedy for CBC Radio’s The Debaters, numerous Just for Laughs festivals, and was nominated this year for a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Male Stand-up. He is excited to attend his first Winnipeg Comedy Festival and will try to be the cerebralist he can be during his visit.

Scott Faulconbridge was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Comedy Award as Best Male Stand up. Hilarious story telling and improvisational wit have led critics to claim that he is “among the best stand-up comedians on the continent”. It has also earned him regular appearances on CBC radio’s popular The Debaters where he goes head to head with the best comedy minds in Canada. Scott recently opened for Howie Mandel at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and is a regular at Just for Laughs.

Storytelling

Friday, April 9/10 7:30pm VKF

Stone Soup Storytellers
Featured teller TBA

People in all times and places have told stories. Stone Soup storytelling happens in the round, with the participants passing the talking stick around. If you want to tell a story, keep the stick. If you just want to listen, pass it along. Stone Soup has some very experienced tellers, but amateurs and listeners are always welcome.

The long-running Winnipeg storytellers' group has been around since the early '80's. Since 2005, they have been meeting September through May at Aqua Books, now normally on the second Friday of the month. All sessions start at 7:30 pm, and are open to all (including children, although it's not really for the very young and squirmy.) Admission is free.

Manitoba Book Awards

Wednesday, April 7/10 7pm

Road to the Book Awards
Manuela Dias Book Design/Best Illustrated Book of the Year Award Nominee Reading
Nominees GMB Chomichuk, Dawn Huck, Steven Rosenberg and Lise Gaboury-Diallo

Every year, the Manitoba Writers' Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers celebrate the local writing and publishing community with the Manitoba Book Awards. The Manuela Dias Book Design/Best Illustrated Book of the Year awards honours the best book design by Manitoba publishers, judged on their artistic merit, innovation of form and quality of production values. As always, the nominees come to Aqua in the days and weeks leading up to the gala to show you why they're the best.

Née à Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), Lise Gaboury-Diallo est professeure de langue française et des littératures francophones au Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (MB). Elle est l'auteure de 6 recueils de poésie, et édité Sillons: hommage à Gabrielle Roy (Éditions du Blé, 2009).

Steven Rosenberg is a prominent Winnipeg businessman and CEO of Doowah Design Inc., a respected local graphic design company whose clients are primarily in the arts and cultural industries sector.

GMB Chomichuk is a writer/illustrator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He recently worked as Artistic Director on the feature film Aegri Somnia: A Sick Man’s Dreams, and is feverishly writing and illustrating the graphic novel adaptation. He is also at work on the new Bluewater Productions mini-series Insane Jane: The Avenging Star. His work can be found in the literary journal Dandelion, and in his new serialized graphic novel, The Imagination Manifesto.

Garage Sale/BBQ

Saturday, April 3/10 11am-6pm Parking Lot/EAT! bistro

Easter Weekend BBQ/Garage Sale
Burgers, fries, and 1000s of cheap books

On Saturday, April 3, at 11am, our back lot turns into a classic Winnipeg garage sale, with thousands of books at 3/$1. (Including several hundred fresh rejects.) And once again, EAT! throws away the menu for the day and serves BBQ food. This will be your first chance to enjoy our summer comfort food, including pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, fresh coleslaw, yada, yada.

The bookstore itself, will of course also be open, and everything will shut down at 6pm, so our staff can enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend.

Aqua U. Spring Break for Teens

March 30 - April 1/10 10am-4pm   $150 (inc. lunch from EAT!)

Aqua U. presents
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies
Introduction to Horror Film Criticism for Teens
A spring break course from Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Statistics show that teenagers account for a healthy portion of horror film audiences, much to the chagrin of parents who want their kids to steer clear of the genre. Often critically disdained, the horror genre is associated in many people’s minds with misogyny, superfluous violence, poor writing, and worse acting. But there is a lot more to horror films than meets the eye - and at such an impressionable and media-saturated age, it’s important for teens to be given the tools with which they can become responsible viewers.

Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence and longtime horror writer/film programmer Kier-La Janisse leads a three-day course on horror film criticism for teens aged 14-18. The course will focus on developing an aptitude for critical interpretation, with five screenings and open discussion in class, as well as individual review assignments. Various historical schools of writing and interpretation will be discussed alongside topics such as feminism and paedophobia, applications of folklore, consumerism, anti-establishmentism, environmentalism, and homophobia.

Aside from in-class screenings, each participant will be given a film to take home and review using the tools and insider tips discussed in class. At the end of the course, the reviews will be sent to esteemed Canadian horror magazine Rue Morgue, who will select the top three reviews to be published on the Rue Morgue website.

Day One:
The Haunting of Julia (Richard Loncraine, Canada/UK 1977)
Suspiria (Dario Argento, Italy 1977)

Day Two:
Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman, USA 1976)
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Jorge Grau, Spain/Italy 1974)

Day Three:
Frankenstein: The True Story (Jack Smight, USA 1973)

*Please note due to the subject matter, signed film ratings waivers will be required from a parent or legal guardian for all Miskatonic courses.

Kier-La Janisse is a writer and film programmer who hosts music-related and cult film screenings under the moniker Big Smash! Productions. She was head programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas from 2003-2007, founded the CineMuerte Horror Film Festival and the Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival (both in Vancouver). She's curated programs at the Blinding Light!! Cinema and the Criminal Cinema in Vancouver, as well as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. She has written for Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, has contributed to The Scarecrow Movie Guide (Sasquatch Books, 2004) and Destroy All Movies!! (forthcoming from Fantagraphics), and is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi, published by FAB Press in 2007. She is the Administrative Coordinator for Winnipeg's send + receive: a festival of sound and Special Events Coordinator for independent record store Into the Music. Currently, Ms. Janisse is co-producing a feature documentary called Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the 70s and working on a new book about female neurosis in horror and exploitation films entitled House of Psychotic Women.

Manitoba Book Awards

Wednesday, March 31/10 7pm

Road to the Book Awards
Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction Nominee Reading
Nominees Deborah Schnitzer, Struan Sinclair and Margaret Sweatman

Every year, the Manitoba Writers' Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers celebrate the local writing and publishing community with the Manitoba Book Awards. The Margaret Laurence Award honours the best work of fiction by a Manitoba writer. As always, the nominees come to Aqua in the days and weeks leading up to the gala to show you why they're the best.

Deborah Schnitzer’s work appears in several anthologies, including Children of the Shoah: Holocaust Literature and Education and Dropped Threads. She co-edited Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English and, with Debbie Keahey, The Madwoman in the Academy: Writing on the Tower, a gathering of women’s writing about graduate school, teaching and tenure. She has published two books of poetry, Black Beyond Blue and Loving Gertrude Stein, and a novel, Gertrude Unmanageable. Her new book, An Unexpected Break in the Weather (Turnstone Press, 2009), is a novel of unconventional friendships in a Winnipeg neighbourhood. Schnitzer is a 3M Teaching Fellow in the English Department at the University of Winnipeg.

Struan Sinclair is the author of the acclaimed short story collection, Everything Breathed. Originally from Toronto, he now lives in Winnipeg, where he is director of the Department of English Media Lab and Writing Program/Focus at the University of Manitoba. His first novel, Automatic World, has been nominated for two Manitoba Book Awards.

Margaret Sweatman is a playwright, poet, performer and novelist. Her plays have been produced by Prairie Theatre Exchange, Popular Theatre Alliance and the Guelph Spring Festival. She has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the National Academy Orchestra, as well as with her own Broken Songs Band. Margaret Sweatman is the author of the novels Fox, Sam and Angie and When Alice Lay Down with Peter, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Award and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year. She has again been nominated for the Margaret Laurence with her long-awaited new novel, The Players.

Aqua U. Seminar

Tuesday, March 30/10 7-9pm   $30

Aqua U. presents
How to Sell Yourself Without Selling Out
A seminar by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes

This is for anyone who wants to sell themselves and what they do without selling their soul. If you love what you're doing and want to build your profile out in the world, this is for you. If you believe and care about something, and want others to care too, this is for you. This two hours will give you the tools to get people with your program. This seminar is especially useful for (but not limted to) those in creative endeavours (photographers, designers, writers, musicians, artists, indie business startups, etc.).

Over the past decade, Aqua Books owner Kelly Hughes went from no retail experience to building one of Canada's most acclaimed bookstores. For the first time, he'll share how he did it. And he'll teach you how you can sell yourself, your skills and your dream, without losing your self-respect or your friends.

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books and the host of Kelly Hughes Live!. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

Film

Saturday, March 27/10 2pm

JETAA presents
Departures (Yojiro Takita, 2008)

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a cellist in an orchestra in Tokyo, loses his job because of the dissolution of the orchestra. After quitting as a professional cellist he decides to sell his cello and move back to his old hometown with his wife. One day he finds a classified advertisement for "Assisting departures" for an "NK Agency". He goes to the job interview thinking it is for a job at a travel agency but discovers that NK is an abbreviation for encoffinment and that he is instead to assist the departed by ceremonially preparing the dead in front of mourners before their bodies are placed in the coffin. This film won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

2010 Manitowapow Series

Thursday, March 25/10 7pm

Honouring Manitowapow/7 Generations Launch
Featuring writers Jordan Wheeler and Jennifer Storm, storyteller Roberta Kennedy and Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence David Robertson, hosted by Wab Kinew

The unique land of Manitowapow – with the richness of its soil, the beauty of its waters and the diversity of its weather - is a crucial part of the experiences of Aboriginal peoples of this territory. Modern-day pollution, urban sprawl, and projects such as hydroelectric damming and mining has created new complex experiences for the Aboriginal communities of Manitowapow. On this night, the ongoing critical relationship between humankind and the earth in Manitowapow will be honoured and debated as David Robertson launches Stone, the first in his four-volume graphic novel series 7 Generations.

David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral event in Canada's Aboriginal history. David is the Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for January - April 2010.

From the Charles Gordon First Nation (Southern Plains Cree), Jordan Wheeler has been writing professionally since 1982 and working in film and television since 1984. An author (Brothers In Arms, Just A Walk) and columnist (Winnipeg Free Press, Weetamah), Wheeler’s focus since 1992 has been scriptwriting, story editing and show running for television drama including the award winning series North of 60, The Rez and renegadepress.com. He’s been nominated for numerous awards including three Geminis. He won one, but still smarts at losing to Paul Haggis in ’94.

Jennifer Storm is an Ojibway from the Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jennifer completed Deadly Loyalties (Theytus Books, 2007), her first novel, at the age of 14. In 2006, Jennifer received the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award as well as the Helen Betty Osborne Award. Jennifer is completing her second year of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Roberta Kennedy is a traditional Haida singer, drummer, and storyteller and one of Canada's leading aboriginal performers. She has given hundreds of performances all over Canada during the past fifteen years. She performs for children and adults at festivals, schools, universities, conferences, workshops, and on TV and radio. She is currently the Storyteller-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Film

Wednesday, March 24/10 7pm   (by donation)

Big Smash! Music Scene and Núna present
BJöRK in: Voltaic - The Volta tour Live in Paris and Reykjavik

Voltaic: The Volta tour Live in Paris and Reykjavik is a remarkable, multi-media document of Björk’s visually dazzling Volta tour. Full of on-your-feet moments, the film features highlights recorded in Paris and Reykjavik, with performances of songs from Volta as well as earlier tracks including Hunter, Joga, Army of Me, and Hyperballad.

Brought to you by Big Smash Music Scene

Workshop

Tuesday, March 23/10 6:30pm   $25/$15 (students)

Manitoba Editors' Association presents
The Lighter Side of Punctuation
Editor Bev Phillips

Inspired by Lynne Truss’s best-selling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, this workshop will look at the tiny helpers that guide us through what we read. Winnipeg editor Bev Phillips will investigate the multi-tasking comma, the just-the-facts hyphen, those deceptive lookalikes the colon and semicolon, and other punctuation marks. If you’ve ever yearned to paint over a misused apostrophe — or you’d like a refresher on the proper use of the dash — don’t miss The Lighter Side of Punctuation.

RSVP to meaworkshops@gmail.com for your spot.

Storytelling

Saturday, March 20/10 7:30pm

Manitoba Storytelling Guild and Cabbages and Kings Radio present
World Storytelling Day
Storytellers Mary Louise Chown, Jane Enkin, Justin Jaron Lewis, Ron Robinson, Rebecca Hiebert, Wayne Drury and Kay Stone, with music by Patrick Keenan

World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, the first day of autumn equinox in the southern. On World Storytelling Day, as many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languages and at as many places as possible, during the same day and night. Participants tell each other about their events in order to share stories and inspiration, to learn from each other and create international contacts.

Mary Louise Chown is the host of Cabbages and Kings storytelling show on CKUW, and a well-known local storyteller and musician.

Kay Stone arrived in Canada by accident (long story) in 1969, and has been telling tales since then. She regaled her classes at the University of Winnipeg for 25+ years, as well as school classes and audiences (all ages) at festivals, libraries, and galleries.

Ron Robinson is the host of Pages and the Saturday Morning Show on CKUW FM. He learned storytelling at family gatherings where the tales were wild and windy.

Rebecca Hiebert is a member of Stone Soup Storytellers of Winnipeg. Rebecca is a lively and energetic teller who knows how to connect with an audience.

Wayne Drury is a charter member of Stone Soup Storytellers and has told stories at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Sundog Storytelling Festival, and the Magic Of One Story Concerts. He plays mandolin with the Flatland Ceili Band.

Storytelling

Thursday, March 18/10 7pm

How Many Jewish Mothers?
A Night of Jewish Humour
Storytellers Alix Sobler, Moish Goldenberg, Libby Simon, Norm Asher and Nurit Drory, with the easy listening harmonica of Sam Knacker

Alix Sobler is a writer and performer, originally from New York who is living out every little girl's dream to grow up and move to Winnipeg to try and make it big. Her Jewish humour can often be heard on CBC One’s Definitely Not The Opera. She recently returned from the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival where she performed her solo show Jason Neufeld is Impotent. In April, her new comedy Some Things You Keep will premiere at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre. She is definitely Jewish, and apparently funny, and happy to be in such good company.

Murray "Moish" Goldenberg is a native Winnipegger. He attended Winnipeg Hebrew School and Garden City Collegiate and studied English, Sociology and Better Living thru Chemistry at the University of Manitoba in the fabled late '60s and early '70s. After that he wandered around the world for a number of years, and burnt down his own caboose on his property at Roseisle, Manitoba along the way. He has taught English, Geography, and ESL in Seven Oaks School Division for the past 25 years. He has published poetry, short stories and humour in various collections. He is fond of really questionable Jewish jokes on many subjects, most of them involving Mothers, God, Money, Guilt, Mohels, and Marriage, not necessarily in that order. He lives in darkest Elmwood with his wife Josee, who is a music teacher and vocalist, and his daughter Shoshana, who is far too talented at everything and looks askance at her dad.

Libby Simon first career was as a Social Worker where she was employed with the Child Guidance Clinic of Winnipeg in the public education system for 20 years. Shortly before she retired, she took up writing as an avocation and now identifies more as a freelance writer. Libby has been published a number of times in the Winnipeg Free Press, Homemakers, Canadian Living and Geist, as well as in several Canadian academic journals.

Upon being invited to Jewish Humour Night, Norm Asher, being hard of hearing, thought he'd heard "Brutish Humour..." So quite naturally he accepted the gig. In a past life, Norm spent many years in teaching. He once even did a stint at Churchill High, where (so he claims) he did NOT LAP DANCE, since "frankly, I was never that great a dancer." As a journalist, Norm has appeared in a wide range of rags, from Maclean's to Le Journal de Montréal to The Steinbach Carillon to Grassroots News. As a book editor (usually working for a modest fee plus a cut of the royalties), Norm's latest job was the highly acclaimed novel Hoodoo Sea (Rolf Hitzer, 2009). In his personal writing, Norm's genre is rough, hard-edged satire. No institution or tradition - no matter how venerable - is spared the lash of his irony. "I take no prisoners!"

Nurit (Nora) Drory lives in Winnipeg and writes humour and poetry. She has a varied background including nursing, teaching, writing, radio, singing, and talking. Any topic is fair game.

Sam Knacker began playing harmonica in his native Romania in the 1930s. He was captured by the Russians in 1944 and spent four years as a POW. He returned to Romania, then lived in Israel for a short time, and finally landed in Winnipeg. He worked for years in the local schmatta industry, and is now know as Winnipeg's Jewish harmonica king.

Open Mic

Tuesday, March 16/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Featuring Joe Wapemoose

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Joe Wapemoose was born on Cowessess Indian Reserve as a ward of the Canadian government. Joe has been paid as a schoolteacher, a Vietnam War-era missile maker, trucker, taxi driver, rock picker and unordained Gospel preacher. He also ran for MLA in downtown Winnipeg and helped deliver a baby in a Minneapolis hospital. His writing comes from a place of personal experience.

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books and the host of Kelly Hughes Live!. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

Workshop

March 10, 11 and 13   $199

Aqua U. presents
Writing Your Life
A Workshop with Jake MacDonald
(Introductory Level)

Conjuring up the Story
In which students will learn how to use their memories and experiences as the raw material for stories of all kinds - journalism, memoir and non-fiction.

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Poetry/Music/Photography

Tuesday, March 9/10 7pm

Boreality in the Making!
Prairie Fire Press and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra invite you to a short performance of a unique work in progress.

Light refreshments served!

Join Katherine Bitney, Sid Robinovitch and Ken Gregory as they collaborate on workshopping text, sound and music inspired and collected during the first year of the Boreality project. Although Mandy Malazdrewich is not able to be there this evening, some of her amazing photos will be shown during the performance. This fresh, spontaneous performance is a precursor to the orchestral piece slated to appear in the spring of 2011 as part of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra¹s season.

"Boreality" is a multi-year collaboration between Prairie Fire Press and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. The purpose of this project is to celebrate the boreal forest of Manitoba through a multidisciplinary approach to writing, music, soundscape and photography which will result in a musical performance, a special issue of boreal forest writing, a boreal festival and art/sound installation. Boreality is made possible by support from the Winnipeg Arts Council¹s New Creation Fund, The Manitoba Arts Council, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, and The Winnipeg Foundation.

For more information on the Boreality project, please go to www.prairiefire.ca and click on the bright green Boreality button.

Technology

Tuesday, March 9/10 6pm EAT!

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Keys to Success in the Corporate IT World
Guest speaker Valerie Romance

Aqua Books is proud to be the home of the Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs to the Live! Lounge (the bar will be open). Ruth Morton from Microsoft Canada will be in attendance (and she's bringing prizes).

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

Valerie Romance is a program manager at Varian Medical Systems which is headquartered in Palo Alto California. Since 1994, she has also worked for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, James Richardson International, Assante Asset Management, and Cengea Solutions (formerly Linnet). Her jobs have included software developer, systems analyst, project manager, application development manager, and solutions delivery manager. In her current role, Valerie is responsible for delivering integrated releases of Varian’s suite of cancer therapy products to new and existing customers. Valerie lives near Lorette with her husband Yury and her daughter Natasha.

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Workshop

March 3, 4 and 6   $199

Aqua U. presents
Writing Your Life
A Workshop with Jake MacDonald
(Intermediate Level)

Building the Story
Description, dialogue and scenes are the building blocks of every story. Participants will learn techniques for making their writing more involving and dramatic.

Over the last twenty-five years Jake MacDonald has produced ten books of both fiction and non-fiction and hundreds of articles for many of North America’s leading newspapers and magazines. Six of his books have been optioned or developed by film producers and some were recognized with national awards. The memoir Houseboat Chronicles, for example, won three awards across Canada, including the Writers Trust of Canada prize for best non-fiction book 2002, and about twenty-five of his magazine stories have won writing awards. MacDonald divides his time between Winnipeg and Toronto and a rustic retreat in Minaki, Ontario.

Film

Saturday, February 27/10 7pm

Outsider Asylum Documentary Series
Hosted by Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Go to the Big Smash! site for details on this disturbing film.

Poetry

Wednesday, February 24/10 7pm

rEmiX MACHINA
Author Jonathan Ball, with GMB Chomichuk, Patrick Short, John Toone and Colin Smith

When Jonathan Ball published his first book, he issued it under a Creative Commons license that allows for non-commercial, unauthorized derivations. Join Ball as four artists present their own creative work remixing or drawing inspiration from the book: GMB Chomichuk (writer/illustrator/publisher of Alchemical Press), John Toone (poet/children’s author), Colin Smith (poet/miscreant), and Patrick Short (singer/rock god). Jonathan doesn’t know what to expect, and neither should you!

Click here for more about EX MACHINA, and come on out, buy a copy, and remix it yourself!

Jonathan Ball is the author of Ex Machina (BookThug, 2009) and the forthcoming Clockfire (Coach House, 2010). His film Spoony B appeared on The Comedy Network. He is the former editor of dandelion and the former short films programmer of the Gimli Film Festival.

GMB Chomichuk is a writer/illustrator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He recently worked as Artistic Director on the feature film Aegri Somnia: A Sick Man’s Dreams, and is feverishly writing and illustrating the graphic novel adaptation. He is also at work on the new Bluewater Productions Mini-Series Insane Jane: The Avenging Star. His work can be found in the literary journal Dandelion, and in his new serialized graphic novel, The Imagination Manifesto.

Patrick Short is the lead singer/songwriter of Softcops and former member of numerous bands, including the hardcore group Under Pressure.

John Toone's first collection of poetry, From Out of Nowhere, was published by Turnstone Press in spring 2009. He published two kids' books in fall 2009, Catch That Catfish! and Hope and the Walleye. His poems also appear in the story Sixgun Quixote from the new graphic novel The Imagination Manifesto published by Alchemical Press. John is past president of the Manitoba Writers' Guild.

Colin Smith is a poetry scalawag. Books = 8X8X7 (Krupskaya, 2008) and Multiple Poses (Tsunami, 1997). More current work pops up in CV2, The Collective Consciousness, and Dandelion. Rarely meets a curse he doesn't like.

2010 Manitowapow Series

Tuesday, February 23/10 7pm

Poems of Manitowapow
Poets Duncan Mercredi, Rosanna Deerchild, Katherena Vermette and Donna Beyer, hosted by David Robertson

Duncan Mercredi is a Cree/Metis writer/storyteller, originally from Misipawistik (Grand Rapids, MB). In addition to his four books of poetry, he has had his work featured in three anthologies of Native writings and in other periodicals such as Prairie Fire and CV2. He is a winner of the Ross Charles Award, and is a long-time member of Manitoba’s Aboriginal Writers Collective. He also hosts Friday Midnight Blues on NCI radio.

Rosanna Deerchild is Cree from South Indian Lake, Manitoba. Her poetry has appeared in a number of literary magazines including Prairie Fire and CV2. She is the co-founder and remains a member of the Aboriginal Writers Collective, established in 1999. Rosanna currently works a broadcaster with NCI-FM and is a regular columnist with CBC. This is a small northern town, Deerchild's long-awaited full-length collection of poems, was published by The Muses' Company in fall 2008. In addition to winning the 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry, Rosanna was also been nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer.

Katherena Vermette is one of the younger hotshots in the Aboriginal Writers Collective. No spiney book out yet, but her poems have popped up all over the place, most often in Juice and Prairie Fire.

Donna Beyer is a thirty-three year old Cree and Ojibway writer from Peguis First Nation. Donna is currently a grad student at the University of Manitoba working towards an MA in Native Literature. Her poetry has been published in two anthologies by the University of Arizona and Cambridge Scholars Publishing in Ireland. She's also written for The Manitoban, Urban NDN and the Alberta Sweetgrass. Donna is proud mom to a feisty, six year-old girl named Meeya, and happy wife to husband of six years, Tim Beyer.

David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral event in Canada's Aboriginal history. David is the Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for January - April 2010.

Mondo!Kroetsch Poetry Festival

February 16-20/10

Mondo!Kroetsch
A week celebrating the life of Robert Kroetsch. Featuring Susie Moloney, John Toone, Dennis Cooley, Amy Karlinsky, Armin Wiebe, Jake MacDonald, Neil Besner and Robert Enright

Mondo!Kroetsch - Reading

Tuesday, February 16/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Seed Catalogue MARATHON READING

Featuring Susie Moloney, Sue Sorensen, Leif Norman, Annie Deeley, Rosie Chard, Rosanna Deerchild, Marjolaine Hebert, Kristian Enright, Colin Smith, John Toone, Amy Karlinsky, Kerry Ryan, Marika Prokosh, Chris Macalino, Sally Ito, Andrew Eastman, Katherena Vermette, Joanne Epp, Paul Friesen, and Michael Van Rooy.

Plus five open mic slots! (First come, first serve...)

Please join Aqua Books and Turnstone Press as we kick off Mondo!Kroetsch with a MARATHON READING of Robert Kroetsch's Seed Catalogue. (Twenty six pages = twenty six readers!)

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

Mondo!Kroetsch - Reader's Theatre

Wednesday, February 17/10 7pm

The Words of My Roaring
The Lost Play Reborn
Featuring Carolyn Gray, Tim Higgins, Colin Smith, Kelly Hughes, Melanie Wight, Jessy Ardern, Carey Smith, Ksenia Broda-Milian and Kevin Anderson

We've unearthed the theatrical adaptation of Robert Kroetsch's novel The Words of My Roaring (novel 1966, script 1980) from the Robert Kroetsch Papers at the University of Calgary Library.

With Kroetsch's permission, we'll be mounting a one-night-only readers' theatre version of the play featuring former Aqua Books Writers-in-Residence Carolyn Gray and Tim Higgins.

From the University of Alberta Press reprint in 2000:
The Words of My Roaring, the colourful first novel in Robert Kroetsch's Out West trilogy, is set in the same Alberta farm country as the better-known The Studhorse Man and Gone Indian. More conventional and accessible than the others, The Words of My Roaring moves kinetically through a 1930s provincial election campaign as experienced by the irrepressible Johnnie Backstrom. An undertaker, a drunk, a self-proclaimed "heller with women," and a neophyte political candidate, Johnnie begins his campaign by recklessly promising rain to the drought-stricken prairie. His bemused opponent, the popular Doc Murdoch, delivered Johnnie as a baby 33 years before and still thinks of him as his "first-born." Johnnie's party leader is the Bible-thumping, Ontario-bashing John George Applecart, loosely based on the historical "Bible Bill" Aberhart. As Johnnie struggles to define himself against these father figures, Kroetsch offers a lively portrait of small-town Depression-era politics and the roots of present-day western alienation.

Winnipeg's Only Live Talk Show

Thursday, February 18/10 7pm

Kelly Hughes Live! Mondo!Kroetsch
Host Kelly Hughes interviews Jake MacDonald, Neil Besner and Robert Enright, with music by DJ Mama Cutsworth

Mondo!Kroetsch - Movie Night!

Friday, February 19/10 7pm

Including The Impossible Home: Robert Kroetsch and His German Roots

Hosted by Kroetsch contemporary, poet/prof Dennis Cooley, this evening will include a screening of The Impossible Home: Robert Kroetsch and His German Roots as well as short films from Cooley's home video library.

About the film
It is the ability of an immigrant to re-invent themselves; the willingness to pursue a dream, that enriches and renews a nation. This is the courage that Carl Bessai explores in his film about Canadian writer, Robert Kroetsch and his German roots. Robert Kroetsch is a prominent Canadian novelist and poet. He was born in his grandparent's homestead shack in Heisler, Alberta. The town was settled by ethnic Germans whose descendants farm the region to this day. Kroetsch's paternal great-great-grandfather emigrated from Germany in 1841, pushed out by the industrial revolution. He settled in Ontario and built a watermill. When new technologies and diminishing forests killed that dream, Kroetsch moved his family West, to homestead. The Kroetsch family history mirrors the efforts of so many pioneers who carved out lives through hardship and adversity. As Robert Kroetsch so eloquently puts it, "I am no different from my grandfather who first came to Canada -- like so many new Canadians, I have kept moving, exploring and redefining myself in the geography of the land."

Kroetsch draws heavily on his early life as inspiration for his poetry and prose. In Field Notes, he documents family history in poetic fragments which describe the struggle to adjust to a new life in Canada. His novel, The Studhorse Man has been honoured with a Governor General's Award. Filmmaker/cinematographer Carl Bessai's late father was a close friend and colleague of Robert Kroetsch. They share these German prairie roots. The Impossible Home: Robert Kroetsch and His German Roots is a poetic tribute to these origins, which have shaped the landscape and the literary culture of Canada.

Dennis Cooley, a native of Saskatchewan, has lived for many years in Winnipeg where he teaches, edits, and writes. His latest book is correction line (Thistledown, 2008).

Mondo!Kroetsch - Finale

Saturday, February 20/10 7pm

Class Reunion
A Toast and Roast to Robert Kroetsch
Featuring Dennis Cooley, David Elias, Victor Enns, Margaret Shaw-MacKinnon & Brian MacKinnon. Music by The BEAT! Deejays.

The final event of Mondo!Kroetsch will feature colleagues and students of Robert Kroetsch sipping cocktails, swaying to tinkly mingling music, and reading works inspired by Robert Kroetsch. Think roast-in-absentia. Think fun.

Dennis Cooley, a native of Saskatchewan, has lived for many years in Winnipeg where he teaches, edits, and writes. His latest book is correction line (Thistledown, 2008).

David Elias is the author of four books of fiction, most recently Waiting For Elvis, a novel. His short stories and poetry have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies across the country and his work has been nominated for a number of awards. He also spends time as an editor, writer-in-residence, mentor and creative writing instructor, and lives in Winnipeg with his wife, poet Brenda Sciberras.

Victor Enns is a Winnipeg poet whose most recent collection Lucky Man (Hagios 2005)was nominated for the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award. His work appears in Canadian journals and anthologies and his book reviews in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Armin Wiebe is the author of three novels set in the fictional Mennonite town of Gutenthal, Manitoba: The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal, and The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, as well as the award-winning novel Tatsea, set in the Canadian subarctic of the 1760s. The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, a stage play, is currently in development. New fiction recently appeared in Prairie Fire and Rhubarb. His work is renowned for the musicality of its dialect and dialogue. For a dozen years an instructor of creative writing at Red River College, he has also served as writer-in-residence at libraries in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Dauphin, Manitoba, and the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba. Wiebe has served on the board of the Mennonite cultural magazine Rhubarb and on the National Council of the Writers’ Union of Canada. After spending six years in the Northwest Territories in 1980s, he now makes his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Beat Deejays are husband and wife DJ team Mod Marty and Indierawker. They combine their love of all things alternative and retro to create a cohesive but eclectic sound that makes you want to move your feet! With a penchant for britpop, indie, and new wave, The BEAT! is still as current as you can get with their radio show Breaking and Entering from 2-3pm every Saturday on 92.9 Kick FM, which brings the newest and freshest music from all over the world to Peg City.

Book Launch

Saturday, February 13/10 12pm

The Deserter's Tale Reading
Author Joshua Key

Joshua Key is a United States Army deserter, who fled while on leave from the Iraq War. He is the author, with Lawrence Hill, of The Deserter's Tale, a book chronicling his service in Iraq and his subsequent departure from military life. Josh now lives in Canada.

Book Launch

Saturday, February 13/10 2pm

Turnstone Press presents
Pond Memories Launch
Author Lil Anderson, with Bardie the Owl from Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre

Lil Anderson spends every minute she can outdoors. When she is not working as a fish and wildlife technician for Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources, she and her husband Bruce Ranta rehabilitate woodland creatures on their Kenora-area property, known as Iggy’s Wildlife Rehab Centre. Pond Memories is Lil's second book, following up Beavers Eh to Bea. Teaching respect for her patients' non-human-ness, Lil shows that wild animals have their own ways of expressing emotions. Always mindful of the risk of imprinting on wildlife, Lil drives home the message that once helped and healed, they must return to their natural habitat.

Bardie is a thirteen year-old female Barred Owl who came to Winnipeg's Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre from British Columbia eleven years ago. She had been hit by a car and had fractures and trauma. She was deemed not releasable because she would never be able to hunt successfully in the wild. Bardie will be here with WHRC presenter Judy Robertson.

Comedy

Thursday, February 11/10 7pm   $12

Clarence Two Toes CD Fundraiser
Comedian Ryan McMahon, hosted by My Brother Wab and My Other Brother Waub

Technology

Tuesday, February 9/10 6pm EAT!

Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner
Guest speaker Coree Francisco

Aqua Books is proud to present the inaugural Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! bistro. The action begins with dinner at 6pm in the restaurant (you order off the menu and pay for your own dinner), and then moves upstairs to the Live! Lounge (the bar will be open). As this is the first event, the discussion will start with what you'd like to see for upcoming dinners (including topics, speakers, etc.).

Girl Geek Dinners started in 2005 in London as a way for Girl Geeks (and their invited male friends) to get together, learn and talk about technology. All ages and fields (math, science, new media, graphic design, dev, tech, etc.) are encouraged to participate.

(Guy geeks are welcome to attend as well, but the rule of thumb is to be invited by a girl attending. At many technical conventions, guys outnumber girls by about 10 to 1. Using this guideline ensures that at most the ratio will be 1 to 1.)

Coree Francisco has helped pioneer the digital media industry in Manitoba as a board member, mentor and teacher. She is the principal of Girlone Interactive, and LIV Interactive, a digital media-marketing platform. Coree currently sits as the Chair of the Interactive Advisory Board for New Media Manitoba, and was awarded the 2009 Manitoba Woman Entrepreneur of the year award for her contribution to the community. She was also named one of the Top 10 Young Canadian Entrepreneurs in 2004, and travelled to Paris to represent Canada's young entrepreneurs.

For more information about Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, click here.

Book Launch

Saturday, February 6/10 2pm

Removing the Hutterite Kerchief Launch
Authors Rebecca Hofer and Helen Kubisewsky

On a cold winter day in 1966, forty men, women and children spanning three generations, half the members of Greenwald Hutterite Colony, with only meagre belongings, did the unimaginable. They left their culture, heritage and livelihood behind and moved into an unfamiliar and unknown world. Now one of them, Rebecca Hofer, finally tells the story of what really happened.

Don't miss the launch of the book the lawyers don't want you to read. THIS BOOK IS NOW BACK IN STOCK. CALL OR EMAIL TO RESERVE YOURS.

Rebecca Hofer was born in 1933, married Edward in 1954 and lived in Greenwald Hutterite Colony from 1955 to 1966. In December 1966, after a decade of living in unbelievable conditions at Greenwald Colony, Edward, Rebecca, their children and Edward's extended family moved away from Greenwald Colony and left their livelihood, culture and heritage behind and moved to Selkirk, Manitoba. Rebecca now resides in B.C., and has six children and 18 grandchildren.

Reading

Thursday, February 4/10 7pm

CV2 and Muses Company present
Show Me the Book Contest Winner
Winner Michelle Elrick, with Charlene Diehl, Jan Horner and Catherine Hunter

Michelle Elrick is a poet and fiction writer from BC and Manitoba. Her work has appeared in Event, Canadian Literature, Geez and the Emerge anthology. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, and has read at festivals and events in Vancouver, Winnipeg, London, Kingston and Belfast. She is currently writing the final draft of her novel Dust House, and spends her free time designing hats, walking outdoors, hosting dinner parties and playing the banjo. Her first book of poetry, To Speak, will be published by The Muses Company in April.

Charlene Diehl is possibly best known in these parts as the brightly plumaged dynamo at the hub of the THIN AIR writers festival. But she is also a hard-working poet, and the author of the full-length lamentations (Trout Lily Press, 1997) and the chapbook mm (disOrientation press, 1992).

Jan Horner has published three books of poetry and a chapbook. Her first book of poems, Recent Mistakes, (Turnstone, 1988) won the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award. In 2001/2002 she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Her latest book of poems, Mama Dada (or songs of the Baroness's dogs), was published by Turnstone Press in 2009. She works as a librarian at the University of Manitoba, is a fan of English football, and is trying to learn German.

Catherine Hunter teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Winnipeg. For ten years she was the poetry editor of The Muses' Company Press. She is also the author of seven books, including the poetry collection Latent Heat (Signature Editions, 1997), which won the Manitoba Book of the Year Award in 1998. Her most recent work is the crime novel Queen of Diamonds (Turnstone Press, 2006).

Launch

Wednesday, February 3/10 7pm

Writers' Collective Website Launch

Speaking Crow Open Mic

Tuesday, February 2/10 7pm

Featured poet Kegan McFadden

Aqua Books is pleased to be the permanent home of the venerable poetry series Speaking Crow. The Crow starts at 7pm and is followed by two open-mic sets and short breaks in between. Come take up the mic and wax poetic about life, the universe and everything!

Kegan McFadden is a Winnipeg-based writer, curator, and artist. His experimental and minimalist writing has appeared in FRONT and GEIST magazines. Chapbooks to his credit include: twenty-four love poems [2004], everything i heard while not listening to what you had to say ... [2005], and Parlour Games [2007] all published by As We Try & Sleep Press. As invited reader for Speaking Crow this February, he'll be reading a selection of previously unpublished poems that explore relationships between men, as well as soppy investigations into place.

For previous Speaking Crows, go to our Dead Crows page.

Teenage Rampage Film Series

Saturday, January 30/10 4pm

Christiane F. (original subtitled version, dir. Uli Edel, Germany 1981)
Plus DJ Damien Ferland (begins at 3:30) and a reading from Christiane Felscherinow's H by Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Watch the trailer here.

Based on a true story about a bored 14-year-old girl who seeks excitement in the seamy drug scene of '70s Berlin, Christiane F. is one of the most shocking and controversial films of our time. This visually adventurous, gripping story is enhanced by David Bowie's soundtrack, including a live performance and such Bowie classics as Station to Station, Heroes, Boys Keep Swinging and others. Startling in its honesty, Christiane F. is a powerful, unforgettable look at youth and innocence seduced, and then imprisoned, by modern life's compelling dark side.The shocking story of an alienated 14-year-old girl who, along with her boyfriend, becomes addicted to heroin and involved in prostitution to support their habit in the German metropolis of Berlin. Based on a true story, this gripping tale features a live performance by David Bowie, who also performs the theme song as well as many of his classic hits. An early effort from the director of Last Exit to Brooklyn and The Baader-Meinhof Complex.

Readings

Thursday, January 28/10 7pm

Absurd Alchemy
Featuring James Rewucki, Mike Sanders, John Toone, GMB Chomichuk and Susie Moloney

Hosted by Alchemical Press' GMB Chomichuk, this evening will invite Winnipeg storytellers of film, novel, comics, poetry, art, and photography to take over Aqua Books for an intimate question and answer session about how and why they tell the stories they do...

John Toone's first collection of poetry, From Out of Nowhere, was published by Turnstone Press in spring 2009. He published two kids' books in fall 2009, Catch That Catfish! and Hope and the Walleye. His poems also appear in the story Sixgun Quixote from the new graphic novel The Imagination Manifesto published by Alchemical Press. John is the past-President of the Manitoba Writers' Guild.

GMB Chomichuk is a writer/illustrator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He recently worked as Artistic Director on the feature film Aegri Somnia: A Sick Man’s Dreams, and is feverishly writing and illustrating the graphic novel adaptation. He is also at work on the new Bluewater Productions Mini-Series Insane Jane: The Avenging Star. His work can be found in the literary journal Dandelion, and in his new serialized graphic novel, The Imagination Manifesto.

Susie Moloney is a Winnipeg author of horror fiction (Bastion Falls, A Dry Spell, The Dwelling). The film rights to her book, A Dry Spell, were purchased by Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1997. She is currently working of a screen adaptation of The Dwelling, while also developing other nightmares to press between pages.

James Rewucki is a Winnipeg Writer/Director and president of Absurd Machine Studios. He has written and directed for television, film and has a number of properties being developed into comics and graphic novels by Alchemical Press. He is the writer Director of Aegri Somnia: A Sick Man’s Dreams.

Mike Sanders is a Winnipeg-based photographer, Director of Photography and visual storyteller with numerous film and TV credits. Mike also works as both a producer and vice-president with Absurd Machine Studios. That thing he's pointing at you is a camera.

Reading/Storytelling

Tuesday, January 26/10 7pm

Tales from a Town with a Funny Name
Author Doug Evans tells tales of Flin Flon, Manitoba

2010 Manitowapow Series

Saturday, January 23/10 7pm

Stories of Manitowapow
Writers Beatrice Mosionier, Waubgeshig Rice, Jennifer Storm and Niigonwedom Sinclair, hosted by David Robertson

Beatrice Mosionier was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. The youngest of four children, she grew up in foster homes. After a short time living in Toronto, where she attended college, she returned to Winnipeg. Following the death of two sisters to suicide, Beatrice decided to write In Search of April Raintree. First published in 1983, it has become a Canadian classic. Beatrice has also written several children's books, including Spirit of the White Bison, Christopher's Folly, and Unusual Friendships: A Little Black Cat and a Little White Rat. Her second novel, In the Shadow of Evil, was published in 2000, and her long-awaited memoir Come Walk With Me came out in 2009.

Waubgeshig Rice is a broadcast journalist and writer currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He's originally from Wasauksing First Nation, a beautiful Ojibway community on Georgian Bay in Ontario. He developed a passion for storytelling at a very young age, learning about his culture and traditions through stories the elders told. His journalism career began when he spent a year as an exchange student in Germany at 17. He sent stories about his experiences as an Ojibway kid in Europe to a local Ontario newspaper. He graduated from Ryerson University's Journalism program in 2002, and has since been published in national newspapers and magazines. He currently works as a television reporter for CBC News. He cites growing up on the rez as his greatest learning experience.

Jennifer Storm is an Ojibway from the Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jennifer completed Deadly Loyalties (Theytus Books, 2007), her first novel, at the age of 14. In 2006, Jennifer received the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award as well as the Helen Betty Osborne Award. Jennifer is completing her second year of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

Niigonwedom James Sinclair is originally from Ste. Peter’s (Little Peguis) First Nation in Manitoba, Canada and currently lives in Winnipeg. His creative work has appeared in Prairie Fire and Tales from Mocassin Avenue: An Anthology of Native Stories while his scholarly work will appear in three upcoming critical texts with Broadview Press, Michigan State University Press, and Wilfred Laurier Press.

David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral event in Canada's Aboriginal history. David is the Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence for January - April 2010.

Teenage Rampage Film Series

Saturday, January 23/10 4pm

Bloody Kids (dir. Stephen Frears, UK, 1979)
Plus DJ Mod Marty (begins at 3:30) and a reading by Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Two restless teens (Derrick O'Connor and Gary Holton) from the South End of London go on a Saturday-night spree. When girls and booze lose their appeal, the boys add murder to their itinerary. A surreal, high-energy film about life and death on the streets, the film has some intelligent social criticism, but its ultra-violent subject matter and unusual visual style caused controversy. The most noteworthy aspect of Bloody Kids may well be its treatment upon release. Considered too bloody for British theatrical exposure, the film went directly to television -- an intriguing reversal of the American procedure. Bloody Kids was director Stephen Frears' second feature.

Tuesday, January 19/10 7pm

Soapbox Open Mic
Featured reader Aqua Books Writer-in-Residence David Robertson, hosted by Kelly Hughes

Every third Tuesday of the month, Aqua Books presents our new open mic series, Soapbox, hosted by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes. Soapbox starts at 7pm and consists of two open-mic sets and a short break in between. This is Winnipeg's only cross-genre open mic series. Bring your fiction, memoirs, fragments, poetry, songs, and anything you've written, for your 4 minutes of fame.

David Robertson is an Aboriginal writer who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife and three children. As he was growing up, David became acutely aware of the lack of accurate, comprehensive, Aboriginal history being taught in schools. For this reason, he wrote The Life of Helen Betty Osborne - to engage and educate youth about an integral event in Canada's Aboriginal history. The first book in his upcoming series of graphic novels, 7 Generations, will be released in Spring 2010.

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

Teenage Rampage Film Series

Saturday, January 16/10 4pm

Out of the Blue (dir. Dennis Hopper, USA 1980)
Plus DJ (begins at 3:30) and a reading by Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Watch the trailer here.

Dennis Hopper has spoken openly about his substance abuse problems, and many regard his survival as miraculous, since throughout the 1960s and 1970s he seemed to be competing for a gold medal in the pharmaceutical Olympics. In this intense, improvisational film, Hopper's first directorial effort in 11 years, he lays out the consequences of such behavior--in particular, its devastating effect on children. Starring Linda Manz as punkish teenager Cebe Barnes, the film follows her anomic life wandering the streets of Vancouver, occasionally showing up at school and generally evincing a serious attitude problem. She eventually gets picked up by the police and is questioned by the kindly Dr. Brean (Raymond Burr). But her angst isn't without justification. Her alcoholic father, Don (Hopper), has just been released from prison after serving a five-year hitch for having killed some children by crashing his semi into a school bus. Her waitress mother, Kathy (Sharon Farrell), is a junkie who's sleeping with both her boss and Don's best friend, Charlie (Don Gordon). The girl hopes that her parents' reunion will bring some kind of order to all of their lives. The film is a fascinating slice of dysfunctional life, including a couple of memorably disturbing scenes. Manz and Hopper are excellent, and the film includes some lovely shots of Vancouver.

Aqua U. Seminar

Thursday, January 14/10 7-9pm   $30

Aqua U. presents
How to Sell Yourself Without Selling Out
A seminar by Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes

This is for anyone who wants to learn how to sell themselves and what they do without being obnoxious and annoying. If you love what you're doing and want to build your profile out in the world, this is for you. If you believe and care about something, and want others to care too, this is for you. Even if all you want is to get a job doing something you like, this is for you.

Over the past decade, Aqua Books owner Kelly Hughes went from no retail experience to building one of Canada's most acclaimed bookstores. For the first time, he'll share how he did it. And he'll teach you how you can sell yourself, your skills and your dream, without losing your self-respect or your friends.

Bookstore Owner Kelly Hughes has worked as an actor (Pacific Theatre), a pre-teen TV star (Let's Go!), an arts administrator (Winnipeg Cultural Alliance), and an operations manager (WHERE Winnipeg). He founded Aqua Books a decade ago, and is somewhat infamous as the writer of This Week at Aqua Books. He does dozens of media interviews each year, and has done hundreds of speaking/hosting engagements, from the kindergarten class at Kumsheen Elementary, to the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

Teenage Rampage Film Series

Saturday, January 9/10 4pm

Scum (original BBC version, dir. Alan Clarke, UK 1977)
Plus DJ Mod Marty (begins at 3:30) and a reading from Richard Allen's Suedehead by Aqua Books Film Writer-in-Residence Kier-La Janisse

Watch the trailer here.

The son of a bricklayer who also spent some time as a laborer before studying acting and directing in Canada, Alan Clarke (who died in 1990) got his start at the BBC in the 1960s. By 1977, he had directed his explosive and controversial television feature, Scum, starring Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) as a survivor at a corrupt and brutal juvenile prison. Harrowing, claustrophobic, and deeply tragic, Scum was banned by the BBC for graphic brutality (and, quite likely, criticism of the justice system), leading Clarke to remake it with Winstone and the same script as a 1979 theatrical release. The version screening here is the original BBC version.

Storytelling

Friday, January 8/10 7:30pm VKF

Stone Soup Storytellers
Featured tellers Flora Zaharia and Joe McLellan

People in all times and places have told stories. Stone Soup storytelling happens in the round, with the participants passing the talking stick around. If you want to tell a story, keep the stick. If you just want to listen, pass it along. Stone Soup has some very experienced tellers, but amateurs and listeners are always welcome.

The long-running Winnipeg storytellers' group has been around since the early '80's. Since 2005, they have been meeting September through May at Aqua Books, now normally on the second Friday of the month. All sessions start at 7:30 pm, and are open to all (including children, although it's not really for the very young and squirmy.) Admission is free.

(Go to 2009 and older events)

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