 | Sunday, October 24, 2021 | |  | Sunday, October 24, 2021 | | Hi, art lovers! | | | I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every time Canada Reads comes around, the authors send us essays about where they like to write. This many years in, it’s tradition, and I won’t attempt to answer why folks (myself included) are always curious to read them. Where is the best place to write? A downtown studio? An empty house on the edge of the East Coast? Literally anywhere? I think I’m drawn to the question because it’s the literary equivalent of a “What’s in my bag?” feature, but I’ll always click through. And Writing the Land, a new documentary series that arrived on CBC Gem last week, kind of takes that premise and goes big with it, capturing some travelogue-worthy footage while shadowing 12 of the country’s top authors. Esi Edugyan, Joshua Whitehead and Uzma Jalaluddin feature in Episode 1, and you can stream the complete series right now.
Incidentally, the last few days at CBC Arts have been a smidge more literary than usual. Because Canada is the guest of honour at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, we’re presenting some special video programming that highlights work by acclaimed poets — performance videos (in English and French) that have been animated by different artists. More on that below the jump.
| | | And because we promised you eye candy ... | | |  | @agathebebe/Instagram | Curious about the artists who contributed to those poetry videos? A teaser for you: Montreal’s Agathe Bray-Bourret is one of them. | | | | |  | @crissyarseneau/Instagram | | Mixed-media work by Vancouver’s Crissy Arseneau. And suddenly I feel as though my head is in the clouds ... | | | | |  | @clarecelesteart/Instagram | | A collage you can wear! (The artist is Clare Celeste.) | | | | |  | Juan Ortiz-Apuy | | Midnight Confusion by Juan Ortiz-Apuy. (West Coast readers! Juan has a solo exhibition at Victoria’s Open Space gallery starting Oct. 30.) | | | | |  | CBC Arts | | | | | Here’s Vivek Shraya performing the truth about the race card. Keep watching to hear Vivek share a story about the origins of the piece. | | | | |  | | David Demchuk | | | | | Red X, the latest book from David Demchuk, is a real-life horror story, one that traces Toronto’s history of violence alongside the tale of a gay pioneer in Upper Canada. Alicia Elliott reflects on the novel. | | | | |  | CBC Arts | | | | | The dance film is streaming on CBC Gem. Hear from two of the creative minds behind the project: Umbereen Inayet and Julien Christian Lutz (Director X). | | | | |  | @lilyetayl/Instagram | | The best there is, the best there was, the best craft there ever will be? As you might recall from last week, Lily’s a fan of papier mâché (and retro wrestling) — things she told us all about in this story from last year. | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | | | | Got questions? Typo catches? Story ideas? | | | We're just an email away. Send us a note, and we'll do our best to get back to you.
If someone forwarded you this message and you like what you've read, here's where to subscribe for more.
I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time! | | | | | |
