T.L.COWAN
T.L. Cowan is a spoken word artist currently based in Edmonton, Alberta. Her work can be found in four chapbooks including For These Thy Gifts (2003) and The Twisted She Poems: A Performance Cycle (2004) as well as in publications in Canada, the US, and UK. T.L. has been featured on stages across Canada, in the US, the UK and in France, including Toronto’s Festival of Original Theatre (F.O.O.T.) and England’s Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. She is also the co-editor/producer of Coastal Tongue: An Anthology of Women in Spoken Word in Vancouver. T.L. is a founding member of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network) and is currently writing her PhD dissertation on contemporary spoken word performance in Canada.
SANDRA MOONEY ELLERBECK
Sandra is honored to participate in another Cortex Event to collaborate with other artists, to inspire and develop new creations. She continues to have poems and haiku published in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Her lyrics are in collaboration with music compositions: recorded, radio played, and charted throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. She created, coordinates, and hosts the Discovery Café in Edmonton, a philosophy café that also celebrates music and poetry.
Gary Lee is a poet, videographer, painter and soundscape artist. As a videographer he has directed the documentary "Cold Streets" and the video poems "Badlands" and "Military Industrial Remix." He has released three CD albums of spoken poetry with musical soundscapes: "Shaking Bad Medicine"-(1994) by Gary Lee and the Elementals, "The Unveiling" (2001), and "Mosaic" (2002). Recently he has been recording and editing old and new material with his former collaborators The Elementals, and plans to release two new CD albums as well as a collection of selected older material. His collaborators in multiple media have included film makers Tim Folkmann, Alex Viszmeg, and L.A. Trofimova as well as jazz guitarist Bill Cramer, the Australian Hurdy Gurdy player Barb Dwyer, vocal percussionist Tippy Agogo and the techno-Theramin, didjerido duo Leo FX. He also performs regularly with The Raving Poets Band.
Nancy Mackenzie has many years of experience in a variety of government and book publishing settings. She has a Diploma in Writing from Selkirk College and an undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy from Acadia University. Nancy has worked with executive level government staff, researchers and policy analysts, a public school board, teachers, Aboriginal associations, publishers and authors, and non-profit societies. She also has taught adult education writing, editing, and publishing courses for Edmonton Public Schools. Nancy has published five books.Nancy is currently working for Oxford University Press, The Heritage Community Foundation, and the Alberta Government. Journals her poems have appeared in include Prairie Fire, The Capilano Review, Event, The Pottersfield Portfolio, The Gaspereau Review, and The Amethyst Review. Ekstasis Editions has published Nancy’s two books of poetry, Soul’s Flight (1997) and The Illuminated Life (2002). In her first book of poetry, Soul’s Flight, Nancy Mackenzie explored the question of where a soul comes from and where it goes upon death. The development of Mackenzie’s poetics was furthered through the writing and publishing of her second book, The Illuminated Life, which one reviewer described as “In a way that is reminiscent of Rumi, these poems evoke an awareness of the bigger picture of one’s life through meditative reflection on the absolutely ordinary miracle of being a spiritual incarnation in human form.
Poet, translator, author of stories, essays and book reviews, Anna Mioduchowska has lived in Edmonton most of her life. Her most recent work appears in: Edmonton on Location, River City Chronicles, published by NeWest, Writing the Terrain, a poetry anthology, U of Calgary Press, and Dance the Guns to Silence : 100 poems for Ken Saro Wiwa, by Flipped Eye Publishing in London England. Her own collection of poetry, In-Between Season, was published by Rowan Books. Anna is also a happy grandmother, and if you like, has a bagful of photos she can show you.
Catherine Owen has been publishing and performing poetry since 1993. Her work has appeared in periodicals such as The Dalhousie Review and Poetry Salzburg. Titles include: Somatic – The Life and Work of Egon Schiele (Exile Editions 1998), nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, The Wrecks of Eden (Wolsak and Wynn, 02), shortlisted for the BC Book Prize, and her new collections, Shall: ghazals (Wolsak and Wynn, 06) and Cusp/detritus (Anvil Press, 06), both longlisted for the Relit Prize.
A selection from Seeing Lessons, on the pioneer photographer, Mattie Gunterman was recently shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards. Her poems have been translated into Italian (Caneide with Joe Rosenblatt, 05) and Korean.
She has a Masters degree in English (Simon Fraser University, 01), collaborates with painters/dancers, practices photography, and plays bass/sings in the blackmetal band, INHUMAN.
Nicole Pakan is an active member of the Edmonton arts community as a poet, painter, printmaker, potter and photographer. By day she masquerades as the communication manager for a non-profit organization; by night she frequents the Raving Poets, Stroll of Poets, and any other readings that she can find.
In the words of Nicole:
Sharing my work is as important as creating it; my artistic motivations increase when I have the opportunity to share my work in a public forum. Both art and writing serve as a personal creative channel, but equally as important, as a way of communicating concepts to others. The idea of having closets full of art or writing that no one ever sees is not appealing. I want to involve others in the experience.
I am an active participant in the arts communities, particularly with the local poetry community. I participate in the Raving Poets Readings, the Roar Spoken Word Festival, the Stroll of Poets Society, the Cortex multidisciplinary event, the Blood ink Poetry magazine and readings, and the Edmonton Poetry Festival, branching out when other opportunities arise. I derive particular enjoyment from interactions with edgy or unique poetry and art groups.
Patrick M. Pilarski is an Edmonton writer, actor, and purveyor of rambunctious philosophical thought. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in computer engineering at the University of Alberta, and is the managing producer of the independent Edmonton theatre company Basic Acid Theatre. Patrick is the co-editor of DailyHaiku (http://dailyhaiku.org), and his poetry has appeared in a variety of print and online locations, CBC Radio One, and is forthcoming in Contemporary Haibun Online. His haibun “Subway” was recently released on the CD Raving Poets - Remixed, and Patrick will be releasing his new chapbook of haiku and haibun Five Weeks early this summer.
Jadon Rempel is an avid actor, writer, musician and spoken word performer residing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has numerous acting and writing credits and has performed across Western Canada and parts of the United States. Jadon sells paint by day and has greeted his first child in late summer 2007.
REBECCA TRAQUAIR
Rebecca is a… hell, I hate writing in the third person. (You mean I don’t have to? Then I won’t.)
I’ve been doing this poetry thing for a long time. Sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes private, sometimes public, but poems always happen regardless. I’ve read them at Raving Poets, at The Roar, at The Stroll of Poets, at events for the Edmonton Small Press Association, at the Edmonton Fringe’s Youth Under Pressure tent, at various open mics over the years, and even on street corners. Most recently, my poems have been published in the magazines Blood Ink, Notebook, and Black Heart, and on the internet at Daily Haiku and Dark Party Review.
What I really want is to tell you about the magpie.
The magpie is a thief, a scold, a scatterbrain, and a nuisance. She doesn’t make any pretensions about any of these things. After all, magpies aren’t good or bad, they’re just magpies. The magpie has a low tolerance for being bored, and she’s the most stubborn creature you could ever hope to meet. The magpie picks up anything and everything that catches her attention, jumbles them together. But she doesn’t hoard, doesn’t like to keep everything for herself. She wants to show off her favourite treasures, and the connections between them.
So poems happen. The magpie mind is always snatching at music and memory, current events and comic books and last night’s curry, people on the bus, people from history, books, art, landscape, fashion, folklore, overheard conversations, conversations with friends, with antagonists… it only has to glimmer for a moment. Everything is fair game. Everything is subject to revision and reinterpretation, subversion and sublimation. The magpie is creating mischief, and she’s also deadly serious. The magpie can’t help contradicting herself. The collection of treasures is constantly changing, and in flight, she has always flashed alternating light and dark. Magpies can’t help being magpies. Cortex is a wonderful encouragement for the magpie mind.