Other Activities

Master Classes

The Festival Voix d’Amériques innovates this year with two Master Classes given by our special guests, Americans Anne Waldman and Ursula Rucker. From now on, when artists from other provinces or countries are invited to perform during the festival, the FVA intends to organize complementary activities to stimulate reflection and discussion on the practice of oral literature and spoken word. Artists in this emerging discipline have few opportunities to reflect on their art, necessarily ephemeral as it plays out essentially on stage and often for a single night.

Ursula Rucker and Anne Waldman at the Project on Improvisation

The FVA has invited these top-flight artists not only to perform on stage, but to give master classes in collaboration with McGill University and the Project on Improvisation (PI).

Headed by Eric Lewis, philosophy professor at McGill University, the Project on Improvisation is dedicated to the study and promotion of improvisation in the arts. Its mandate is to present lectures, colloquia, workshops, presentations, concerts, performances, screenings and exhibits. It is not limited to any one art form, or any particular approach to improvisation, but intends to document the wide variety of improvisational practices in the arts. The project will present annually (initially for three years) a major week-long event dedicated to a key question concerning improvisation. These events will include both scholarly presentations and artistic events, and hope to blur the distinction between the two.

The Master Classes will take the form of lecture-discussions in the informal setting of the Sala Rossa.

Anne Waldman: Monday, February 16, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Ursula Rucker: Tuesday, February 17, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

The activity is open to Eric Lewis’s students and the general public. Registration fees are nominal and included in the price of a ticket to the Body and Soul show ($8). For information and registration: improv@mcgill.ca

Scheduled for Monday, February 16 at 8:30 pm at the Sala Rossa, the Body and Soul evening concert features US performers Anne Waldman, accompanied by saxophonist Devin Waldman, and Ursula Rucker, accompanied by Montreal guitarist Bernard Falaise; Montreal performers Catherine Kidd and Alexis O’Hara; and Toronto performer Nah-ee-lah. The all-woman line-up of artists with intense personalities and intriguing inner worlds will make for a truly memorable evening. Come share in the fusion of words and music, body and soul.

A creative writing workshop for Native students

English-language writer, poet and editor Kateri AKIWENZIE-DAMM, an Anishnaabe of mixed ancestry from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in Ontario, will give a creative writing workshop to Native students on Saturday, February 14, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. This activity is presented in collaboration with Land InSights, the organization behind the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival, and the McGill First Peoples’ House, which organizes cultural activities for Native students at McGill and Concordia.

For information and registration: sara@nativelynx.qc.ca

The FVA in pictures at ESPACE Gallery

Photo exhibit by Luc Vallières & Katlaz at ESPACE Gallery (4844, boulevard Saint-Laurent). Until January 17, from noon to 10 pm. Free admission. Vernissage February 11 with Fanfare Pourpour.