A Poetry Machine for Kids is coming to the Val Marie village square (corner of Centre Street and 1st Avenue North) on Tuesday, August 9 at 10:30! Hosted by Prairie Wind & Silver Sage writer in residence Bren Simmers, the event is ideal for ages 7 to 16 and features Mad Lib, Five-Senses poems, and Poem Scrambles. There is no charge and no registration is required.
Three days later, Bren hosts a Words and Music Open Mic at the Val Marie Hotel for grownups. Five minute readings or share a couple of tunes – your own or someone else’s – or be there to cheer and enjoy this celebration. Starting at 8:00 p.m. and open to all open forms of musicianship and spoken word, the event is free of charge, though donations to the work of Prairie Wind & Silver Sage are greatly appreciated.
You can also enjoy Unexpected Poetry Encounters from August 8 to 16, with erasure poems and poetry machine for all, throughout Bren’s artist residency. Encounters will take place in Grasslands National Park and at Prairie Wind & Silver Sage and everyone is welcome. No registration or fees are required.
Bren Simmers is the second PWSS resident artist of this summer. She is the winner of the Arc Poem of the Year Award, finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, and longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her first book of poems, Night Gears, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in 2010. Hastings-Sunrise, a book-length poem about her old East Vancouver neighbourhood, was published by Nightwood Editions in 2015. Bren Simmers lives in Squamish, BC.
The Prairie Wind & Silver Sage Artist Residency program, now in its third year, annually hosts four or five artists in all disciplines. Upcoming resident artists in 2016 are musicians Melissa Goodchild and Kevin Brady from Saskatoon, and photographer Valerie Zink, also of Saskatoon. The PWSS artist residency program is cosponsored with Grasslands National Park and funded by the Saskatchewan Arts Board and SaskCulture/Saskatchewan Lotteries.