Stories & Strategies
New Music Alert! Just before COVID I put my heart and soul into a new band. We played one thrilling gig and then the pandemic hit. We also recorded a few tracks that I intended to release as an EP. But it has been almost 2 years since then and I honestly don't know whether... Continue Reading →
For a few years now I have occasionally posted my photos to Instagram but it wasn't until I happened to trip across and follow the kickass account of Erin Hawkins, who endlessly marries cool photos with cool short fictional mini-stories that I realized much more fun could be had. So with thanks to her for... Continue Reading →
Although COVID-19 has delayed the release of the print edition of my new children's book, Born, I am happy to report that my publisher, Groundwood Books, has gone ahead with the release of the ebook edition. Thanks to everyone at Groundwood for your support and hard work in bringing this book to life! It has... Continue Reading →
On April 5th, the great American musician and poet Cecil Taylor passed away at the age of 89. An appropriate lifespan, perhaps, for the legendary free jazz pianist, so willing to push the boundaries of his instrument's 88 keys. During his long and rich life spent trespassing on the outermost frontiers of coherence and... Continue Reading →
In my book Digitopia Blues – Race, Technology and the American Voice, I described Dylan's impact this way: Dylan signaled the triumph of oral poetry for white America, the reconciliation of the word and the body, of the singer and the song, of the poet and the community. From here on in, it was a... Continue Reading →
Last night at the Capital Slam I met a poet who recently returned from several months in the Philippines and Nicaragua. In both countries he gave numerous poetry workshops. Very cool. He is a hard-hitting poet whose piece about the selling of girls into sexual slavery in Asia last night was brutally intense. His name... Continue Reading →
I've had a nasty prejudice against Poetry Slams ever since I led the first Canadian team to the first National Poetry Slam in San Francisco in 1992. That event was so so unsatisfying in so many ways - so self-indulgent and self-satisfied and poetically unadventurous - that it led my poetic teammates (Kedrick James and... Continue Reading →
John Sobol 