Review of May 2014's Glass Door Reading Series

Having the babysitter arrive early, Freddy and I began our night out at Ricky's, a sports lounge next door to the event's location, Koffee Cafe. Over half-off pints, we discussed my most current short story and he helped me with some of the finer points of a character's drug overdose. A firefighter/EMT (soon to be paramedic), my husband is a wealth of information - a writer's (this writer's!) dream. At 6:30 we headed next door to the Koffee Cafe, a small coffee shop ran by a friendly family who possess the world's best Thai chicken soup recipe (the spicy, creamy masterpiece is perfectly paired with a glass of their house red). Our evening's host, Robin Young, and his wife, Lorraine, greeted us as soon as we walked through the door. Obviously natural fixtures in the arts community, the couple is endlessly supportive and enthusiastic. During my reading I noticed they held hands, Lorraine reaching over the table to experience the story with Robin. Tender, in-tune: I thought, these are my kind of people! Each of the acts could be a full blog posts in and of itself, but I'll just summerize here: The night began with an acoustic set of Olivia Rose's covers and original music. She introduced her work with an impressively soulful, sultry rendition of "You are my Sunshine". Not knowing the complete lyrics of the song, I was surprised and moved by how sad, how haunting, the peice was. She followed with "Little Red Boots", and an original girl-power anthem, "Makeup to Mud". Raving about her on the way home, my husband told me she is only 14 years old, a fact I hadn't caught. Wow. I followed Olivia: nervous, making inadequate eye contact. I was greeting with looks of devastation when I did look up, though, which is the expression "A Reason to Bend" should evoke. While uneasy reading publicly, I am sure of the story's strength, and was proud to share it. The audience was very kind. During intermission I met the poets sitting next to me, Mary and Allison, and learned more about their projects, Stroll of Poets and Writing Motherhood. We discussed upcoming festivals and workshops - more ways I can, should and plan to get involved. The Open Mike segment featured poetry. Robin shared a work inspired by the Edmonton tornado which devastated the community so long ago. I may be misquoting, but "the colour is pink", the fibreglass scattered across the ground. It seemed to me the view of the aftermath through the eyes of a first responded. I overheard later that Robin had been a volunteer firefighter, although I don't know if he had worked that call. Donita Wiebe-Neufeild, usually a magazine feature writer, shared a short poem - words that kept her up at night, which any writer can attest to. Jannie Edwards, celebrating the recent (and quite premature) birth of a true warrior in her family, read a peice on family, beautifully capturing it's evolution, it's small nuances ("the way in which a girl holds a baby awkwardly and gracefully" - again, apologies for misquotes). This was a perfect set-up for Mary's poem about mothering her mother, a woman rendered helpless by Alzheimer's: "I will do for you as you did for me, almost sixty years ago". Caterina Edwards graced us next, complimenting the family-themed poetry with a reading from her book, "Finding Rosa". The scene showed, in details great and small, how it is to love an elder through the fog of dementia. It was funny and tender, exploring the impossibility of dressing a combative patient in pantyhose despite the patient's disapproval of pants, the way Caterina's mother's demanded to share wine at dinner although consistently taking no more than a sip, refusing to believe what her granddaughters tell her: "You don't like wine, Nonna." Then there is the soft, underlying hurt and frustration: the old mother telling her daughter she is fat, the weight brought on by the stress of caring for said mother, the difficulty of mothering teens at the same time as mothering a mother, the effort in keeping a marraige, in the midst of it all. She continued her reading with an excerpt of her gracefully-written latest novel, "The Sicilian's Wife". Fran Kimmell declined to read from her novel, "The Shore Girl", instead privileging us with the very first reading from her current work in progress. The scene she read introduced a mother, frustrated and hurting for her young, loner son, coming across his first smile in years, brought on by an unlikely playmate. "Can't we have some fun?" Her husband asks, accusing her of harbouring disapproval, unaware of how meaningful the scene, her son's enjoyment, is to her. The last line, in which the woman looks in the mirror after seeking refuge in her bathroom is gorgeous, "she looked as though she had been crying for hours." And that was that; over, so soon. I picked up a copy of "The Shore Girl," and would have liked to have taken home Caterina Edward's, "Finding Rosa", too, but I will have to order it. We shook hands, said goodbye, and Freddy and I celebrated a successful reading (for me), and the passing of a physiology course (for him) with a pitcher of beer and a couple of tequila shots at Average Joes (a place we can more affordably cab home from) before relieving the babysitter. I regret that part of the night this morning... Why must we age? So, If you are a writer or a fan of great local talent, in many forms, I urge you - get involved with Mill Woods Artists Collective! (Hint: they're on Facebook). The June event (the last Thursday of the month) sounds impressive, and there will be open mike, if you're so inspired, as well.