Blowout

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

filling Station Magazine is thrilled to announce...

The Fourth Annual

CALGARY BLOW-OUT!

Thursday July 31 to Saturday August 2 2008

PLUS: NEW! Small Press Book & Arts Fair, Saturday August 2 1:00-5:00 PM

with media artist performances by local artists Travis Murphy & Anne Koizumi,

Samuel Garrigomeza and The Arbour Lake Sghool

FREE!

This explosive literary festival once again puts the spotlight on Calgary’s talented writing community, featuring twenty-five poets, performers, and fiction writers that are either locally-based or have strong ties to the city.

Four Amazing Events:

Event A: Flywheel Throwdown!

filling Station's regular reading series pumps us up for the Blow Out!

(Please note the new venue!)

Thursday July 31, 7:30 PM

Pages Books on Kensington

1135 Kensington Road N.W.

Readers: Christopher Blais, Emily Carr, Jocelyn Grossé, Jonathan Ball

**

Event B: The Big Fat Opera Takeover

Great big literary voices challenge the Pavarotti-sized acoustics of Arrata!

Friday August 1, 8:00 PM

Arrata Opera Centre
1315 - 7 Street SW

Readers: Christian Bok, Aritha Van Herk, Carmen Derksen, Glen Dresser, Ian Sampson, Jordan Scott, Julia Williams

Host: Jonathan Ball

DJ: Geosphere

**

Event C: Small Press Book & Arts Fair

New addition to the Blow Out! Includes media artist performances by local artists Travis Murphy & Anne Koizumi, Samuel Garrigomeza and The Arbour Lake School starting at 3:00 PM!

Saturday August 2, 1-5 PM

Arrata Opera Centre
1315 - 7 Street SW

Participants: Small pressers, artists, bands, and other folk hawk handmade books, glossy print mags, zines, broadsides, CDs, and other enticing you-name-its.

**

Event D: The Pantoum of the Opera

There may not be phantoms or even pantoums*, but all manner of words haunt Arrata tonight!

Saturday August 2, 8:00 PM

Arrata Opera Centre
1315 - 7 Street SW

Readers: Craig Boyko, Jason Christie, Melanie Little, Chris Ewart, Clem Martini, Andrew Wedderburn, Sheri-D Wilson

Host: Derek Beaulieu

DJ: Pilgrim

* The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming abab. The second and fourth lines of the first quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the following quatrain. Succeeding quatrains introduce a new second rhyme, i.e. abab bcbc. The form can include as many stanzas as the poet wishes as long as they follow this structure. The closing stanza opens with the second line of the previous stanza, but the second and fourth lines come from the first stanza. Hence, the last stanza is structured like this: Line 2 of previous stanza Line 3 of first stanza Line 4 of previous stanza Line 1 of first stanza. Most Blow Out readers won’t be reading these!

**

Of course, there’ll also be books, booze and plenty of filling Station Magazines available for purchase!

All events are absolutely FREE and open to the public. Join us in celebration of Calgary’s booming literary talent!

SPONSORS

filling Station gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the following sponsors of Blow Out! #4:

ALBERTA FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS

ARRATA OPERA CENTRE

CALGARY ARTS DEVELOPMENT
CALGARY COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
PAGES BOOKS ON KENSINGTON
STEAM WHISTLE

CONTACT:

calgaryblowout.blogspot.com

EVENT HISTORY

The Calgary Blow-Out! was founded in 2005 as a celebration of Calgary’s vibrant literary community. The former Managing Editor of filling Station, poet derek beaulieu, founded the event out of good-natured frustration when he realized there was simply too much happening in the Calgary literary scene to see it all, and so he created the Blow-Out! as a fête for the community at large. This is filling Station’s fourth annual Calgary Blow-Out!

ABOUT filling Station

filling Station is a locally-based, nationally-distributed literary magazine that is dedicated to showcasing innovative poetry, fiction, drama, film and visual art, and promoting local and international arts communities.