Lionel Kearns and bpNichol at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 22 November 1968

CLASSIFICATION

Swallow ID:

1272

Partner Institution:

Concordia University

Source Collection Label:

SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds

Series:

The Poetry Series

Sub Series:

SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Title:

Lionel Kearns and bpNichol at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 22 November 1968

Title Source:

Cataloguer

Title Note:

"POETRY READING NOV 22/68 BP. NICHOL + LIONEL KEARNS PART ONE #1 I086-11-026.1" written partially on sticker on the spine of the tape's box and directly on the spine of the tape's box. "POETRY 1 NOV 22" written on sticker on the reel. "RT 531 Pt.1" written on sticker on the front of the tape's box. "POETRY READING NOV 22/68 2 BP. NICHOL + LIONEL KEARNS PART TWO #1 I086-11-026.12" written partially on sticker on the spine of the tape's box and directly on the spine of the tape's box. "POETRY 2 NOV 22" and "I086-11-026.2" written on stickers on the reel. "RT 531 Pt.2" written on sticker on the front of the tape's box.

Language:

English

Production Context:

Documentary recording

Genre:

Performance: Sound Poetry

Persistent URL:

http://archives.concordia.ca/I086

Identifiers:

[I086-11-026.1, I086-11-026.2]

Rights

CREATORS

Name:

Nichol, Barrie Phillip

Dates:

1944-1988

URL:

http://viaf.org/viaf/76350280

Role:

"Author", "Performer"

Notes:

Canadian avant-garde poet bpNichol (Barrie Phillip) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on September 30, 1944. Nichol spent his childhood in Vancouver, in Winnipeg, Manitoba and in Port Arthur, Ontario before returning to his birthplace in 1960. Although Nichol was writing by 1961, he enrolled into the education faculty at the University of British Columbia and received a teaching degree in 1963. At UBC, Nichol audited writing classes and met younger members of the Tish group. Then Nichol taught grade four students in Port and Coquitlam, B.C. for a year before moving to Toronto, where he worked as a book searcher for the University of Toronto and entered therapy with lay analyst Lea Hindley-Smith. In 1967, Nichol established the lay-therapy foundation and community Therafields, and served as an administrator and therapist until 1983. His first publication, a ‘bp box’ included Journeying & the returns (a book), Letters Home (visual poems), Borders (a record), Wild Thing (a flip book) and Statement (printed on the back of the box) was published by Coach House Press in 1967 was followed by a collection of concrete poetry, Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (Writer’s Forum, 1967). Nichol began working with sound poetry in the mid-1960’s, but also valued the textuality and visual materiality of words and books. Nichol collaborated with Steve McCaffery to found the Toronto Research Group through which they wrote and published essays on the materiality of writing, which were later collected in Rational Geomancy: The Kids of the Book Machine (1992). The duo also formed a sound poetry group, The Four Horsemen, with Rafael Barreto-Rivera and Paul Dutton. Nichol founded Ganglia Press in 1965, and started a series of pamphlets in 1969 called grOnk. Nichol also published The Complete Works (Ganglia, 1969), a package of booklets Still Water, The true eventual story of Billy the Kid, Beach head, and The cosmic chef (Talonbooks, 1970) which won a Governor General’s Award for Poetry, ABC: the aleph beth book (Oberon Press, 1971), Monotons (Talonbooks, 1971), The Other Side of the Room (Weed/Flower Press, 1971) and Two Novels (Coach House Press, 1969). At this time, Nichol began writing his life-long serial long poem, The Martyrology Books 1 & 2 (Coach House Press, 1972), a series which Nichol published Books 3 and 4 (C.H.P., 1976), Book 5 (C.H.P., 1982), Book 6 (1987), after which Books 7-10 were published posthumously through Coach House Press. Nichols worked tirelessly as an unpaid volunteer for Coach House Press, and personally edited or acquired almost one quarter of the titles published during that time. Nichols was not only a poet, visual artist and editor, he wrote songs and scripts for the TV programs Fraggle Rocks and The Racoons, musical comedies Group (1980) and Tracks (1986), and the bestselling children’s books ONCE: A Lullaby (Black Moss Press, 1983), Moosequakes and other disasters (Black Moss Press, 1981), The man who loved his knees (Black Moss Press, 1993) and To the end of the block (Black Moss Press, 1984). His later publications include Unit of four (Seripress, 1973), Zygal (Coach House Press, 1985), Selected organs: parts of an autobiography (Black Moss Press, 1988), Art Facts (Chax Press, 1990). Nichol appears in Michael Ondaatje’s film, Sons of Captain Poetry (1970), bp: pushing the boundaries directed by Brian Nash (1997), Ron Mann’s Poetry in Motion (1982). bpNichol died in Toronto on September 25, 1988. A street in the Annex district behind Coach House Press was named in his honour, with an eight-line poem by Nichol written into the pavement: “A / LAKE / A / LANE / A / LINE / A / LONE”.

Name:

Kearns, Lionel

Dates:

1937-

URL:

http://viaf.org/viaf/30784380

Role:

"Author", "Performer"

Notes:

Canadian poet Lionel Kearns was born in Nelson, British Columbia in 1937. His father, C.F. Kearns, a Great War flyer, outdoorsman and short-story author encouraged Kearns to pursue a literary career. In the mid 1950’s, Kearns embarked on trip, traveling the world and even playing professional hockey in Mexico. Kearns then returned to B.C. and studied poetic theory and structural linguistics at the University of British Columbia, where he met and worked with George Bowering, Frank Davey and Fred Wah in the Tish collective. His M.A. thesis was published by Tishbooks as Songs of circumstance in 1962. His second publication, Listen, George (Imago Press, 1965) was a verse-letter to George Bowering about his youth, written while he was studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Kearns was influenced by the European concrete and sound poetry movements, and spent a year in Trinidad analyzing the West Indian English dialect. In 1966, upon returning to Canada, Kearns held a position at the English department at Simon Fraser University, which he held until 1986. His next publications include By the light of the silvery McLune: media parables, poems, signs, gestures and other assaults on the interface (The Daylight Press, 1969), Practicing up to be human (1978), Ignoring the bomb (1982), and his highly acclaimed book, Convergences (1984). Kearns was the writer-in-residence at Concordia University from 1982-3. Since 1986, Kearns created a continent-wide on-line graduate course, ‘The Cybernetics of Poetry’ for ConnecEd, the distance learning facility of the New York School for Social Research in New York, which he teaches from home. Interested in the electronic and online poetry potential, Kearns became the first writer-in-electronic-residence, assisting Trevor Owen establish the ‘Wier’ project, an on-line writing project.

CONTRIBUTORS

Name:

Bowering, George

Dates:

1935-

URL:

http://viaf.org/viaf/34469976

Role:

"Series organizer", "Presenter"

MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

Recording Type:

Analogue

AV Type:

Audio

Material Designation:

Reel to Reel

Physical Composition:

Magnetic Tape

Extent:

1/4 inch

Playback Mode:

Mono

Tape Brand:

Scotch

Sound Quality:

Poor

Physical Condition:

Unfortunately, the recording appears to contain many cuts and occasionally jumps back and forth in time. At many points, it also sounds as though the sound of one tape has been layered over the other creating a doubling effect, which most likely occurred sometime after the original recording and digitization process.

Recording Type:

Analogue

AV Type:

Audio

Material Designation:

Reel to Reel

Physical Composition:

Magnetic Tape

Extent:

1/4 inch

Playback Mode:

Mono

Tape Brand:

Scotch

Sound Quality:

Poor

Physical Condition:

DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION

File URL:

https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-026-1.mp3

Show Content

File Path:

files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3

Duration:

01:01:57

Size:

148.7 MB

Content:

Notes:

Lionel Kearns reads from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967) and poems published later in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures, and other Assaults on the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969). bpNichol reads from a wide variety of his works, some published, some unpublished, including Dada Lama (England: Tlaloc, 1968), The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid (Weed/Flower, 1970), Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (Weed/Flower Press, 1973), and Selected Writing: As Elected (Talonbooks, 1980). Many unnamed poems may belong to two of Nichol’s series, the Captain Poetry Poems The Martyrology. 00:00- George Bowering introduces BP Nichol and Lionel Kearns. [INDEX: second reading in third series, rumours, BP Nichol, Lionel Kearns, intermission, reading, poet, joint reading, sense, Kearns: linguist, social care of human beings, Nichol: radical therapist, border-blur poems, reading together night before at Carleton University, Kearns: Vancouver Renaissance, Canadian poetry in 1960’s, Nichol: east, Vancouver, born, opening ears, reading four hours.] 02:25- Annotation: Recording drops in volume, “looped” recording begins where another part of the reading can be heard in the background of the recording. 02:26- Lionel Kearns introduces “Telephone”. [INDEX: media parable, set of poems, new collection to be released soon [perhaps The birth of God (Trigram Press, 1968) or Trips out (Western Press, 1968); from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 02:49- Lionel Kearns reads “Telephone”. 07:04- BP Nichol introduces unknown poem, first line “Out of the dark wood workings of the mind’s memories, we are alone...”. [INDEX: strange pastiche, loosing work written over past year, selected weirdness; from unknown source.] 07:23- BP Nichol reads unknown poem, first line “Out of the dark wood workings of the mind’s memories, we are alone...”. 08:54- BP Nichol reads “Uneven Song”. *Note recording is looping over itself, so both BP and Lionel can be heard reading other poems in the background. [INDEX: from unknown source.] 09:28- BP Nichol reads unknown poem, first line “Out of the middle the ends are taken...”. 10:26- Lionel Kearns reads “Word”. [INDEX: from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 11:27- BP Nichol introduces “Poem found among the ruins”. [INDEX: series of quiet poems, loud poems; from unknown source.] 11:43- BP Nichol reads “Poem found among the ruins”. [INDEX: from unknown source] 12:19- BP Nichol reads “The Business”. [INDEX: from unknown source] 12:43- BP Nichol reads “Geners” [sp?] first line “Each human body a temple of the holy ghost...” [INDEX: from unknown source] 13:51- BP Nichol reads “Computer Riddle Poem”. [INDEX: from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (Weed Flower Press, 1973).] 15:05- BP Nichol introduces “Labia Digital” [sp?.] [INDEX: piece of sculpture, Haida art exhibition, West Coast Indian art, carved figure of a woman, poem; from unknown source.] 15:55- BP Nichol reads “Labia Digital” [sp?.] 16:41- BP Nichol reads “The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid”. [INDEX: published in a booklet The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid (Weed/Flower, 1970), and later published in Craft Dinner: Stories & Texts 1966-1976 (Aya Press, 1978).] 20:46- Lionel Kearns introduces “Expression”. [INDEX: from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 21:32- Lionel Kearns reads “Expression” 22:39- Lionel Kearns introduces “Transport”. [INDEX: clap in between poems, good poems, media parable; from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 22:56- Lionel Kearns reads “Transport”. 26:33- BP Nichol introduces chant poem “umpa-pa beach park...”. [INDEX: personal poems, written at Port Dover, on Lake Eerie, beach, sunburns, summer, song “Over the white cliffs of Dover” (perhaps Vera Lynn’s “There’ll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover”), Pussycats (unknown reference), phrase “podunk”, playing football, weird; from unknown source.] 27:25- BP Nichol sings sound poem “umpa-pa beach park...”. 29:06- BP Nichol introduces “Dadalama”. [INDEX: Hugo Ball, dadaist, Switzerland, World War I, first sound poems, strange, Hugo Ball’s diaries, final public reading, sound poem, earlier space in his mind, remembering, terrified, left poetry, poem’s changes; originally published in Dada Lama (England: Tlaloc, 1968), collected in Selected Writing: As Elected (Talonbooks, 1980).] 30:28- BP Nichol reads “Dadalama”. 30:52- CUT in tape, silence. 30:53- Recording starts again, silence. 33:38- Lionel Kearns introduces “Situation”. [INDEX: new collection Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967), for sale at reading, quiet poems, measured voice, West Coast poetry scene, shouting, experience in Mexico; from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 35:06- Lionel Kearns reads “Situation”. 36:36- Lionel Kearns reads “Insights”. [INDEX: from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 36:55- Lionel Kearns introduces “Homage to Machado” [INDEX: early poem, translation of a poem by Antonio Machado, Spanish poet, switched central image, boat, lake, ripple of water, changed metaphor; from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 37:45- Lionel Kearns reads “Homage to Machado”. 38:17- Lionel Kearns reads “Remains”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 39:08- Lionel Kearns reads “Total Presence”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 40:05- Lionel Kearns reads “Witness”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 40:38- Lionel Kearns reads “Profile”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 41:32- Unknown audience member asks question, but is CUT by the recording. 41:37- Lionel Kearns answers question [INDEX: reading order, quiet poems, louder, street, excited, loud, funny, serious poems, juxtaposed relationships.] 42:12- BP Nichol answers question [INDEX: difficulty listening to long poetry readings, listening.] 42:32- Lionel Kearns makes a joke [INDEX: locked doors.] 42:37- BP Nichol introduces “Martyrology”. [INDEX: lost poems, long poem, series of saints, St. Reet, St. Ranglehold, St. And, complicated, Stranglehold; from an early version of The Martyrology (Coach House Press, 1972).] 43:05- BP Nichol reads part of “Martyrology”, line “Days numbered as the years are even, time cannot withstand such order. St. Reat...”. 43:58- BP Nichol introduces “Ruth”. [INDEX: loudness of reading, good friend David W. Harris, quote from Ruth; most likely from Ruth (Toronto: Fleye Press, 1967) (book unavailable to researcher).] 44:20- BP Nichol reads “Ruth”. 46:20- BP Nichol reads first line “Measure the clock, talk back time...” [INDEX: from unknown source.] 46:57- BP Nichol introduces first line “Living now in terrible times, the TV talks from the next room...” [INDEX: line from a poem by bill bissett, CUT in recording and the rest of the explanation is cut out; from unknown source.] 47:18- BP Nichol reads poem with first line “Living now in terrible times, the TV talks from the next room...” 49:43- Lionel Kearns introduces “Color Problem”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 40:49- Lionel Kearns reads “Color Problem”. 50:06- Lionel Kearns introduces “The Woman Who” [INDEX: concrete poem, BP Nichol inspires, purely visual, to hang on the wall, sonic, or both visual and sonic, page title “Studies in Interior Decoration Border Design”; from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 51:20- Lionel Kearns reads “The Woman Who”. 53:14- CUT in tape, silence, from this point to 54:05.82 is actually from a part in the second half of the recording from 38:10.41 onwards. 53:25- Lionel Kearns reads “It”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 54:02- Lionel Kearns begins to explain next poem, but there is a cut in the tape and the original recording continues. 54:15- Lionel Kearns introduces “Kinetic Poem”. [INDEX: from Pointing (Ryerson Press, 1967).] 54:26- Lionel Kearns and BP Nichol read “Kinetic Poem”. 55:57- Distortion in recording. 56:00- BP Nichol introduces unknown poem “Karnijikawa” [sp?.] [INDEX: Japanese filmmaker, Olympics 1964, audience participation; from unknown source.] 56:23- BP Nichol, Lionel Kearns and audience chant “Karnijikawa”. 57:22- Lionel Kearns introduces “The Parable of the Seventh Seal”. [INDEX: ‘karne’ means meat in Spanish, Louis Dudek’s courses (at McGill University), students, pessimism, student question, reading poems, up-beat ending; published as “The Seventh Seal” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969).] 57:59- Unknown audience member asks question. [INDEX: pessimism] 58:00- Lionel Kearns answers question, continues to introduce “The Parable of the Seventh Seal”. [INDEX: upbeat ending, media parable, movie, “The Seven Samurai”, Hollywood, movie “The Magnificent Seven”, Western movie made in Japan, stolen by Hollywood, West, Northern locale, New Romans publishing, anti-American poem, $30 payment for story.] 59:38- Lionel Kearns reads “The Parable of the Seventh Seal”. 01:01:57.91- END OF RECORDING (story is cut short, continues in second part of reading).

Content Type:

Sound Recording

File URL:

https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-026-2.mp3

Show Content

File Path:

files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3

Duration:

00:46:47

Size:

112.3 MB

Content:

bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-026-2.mp3 [File 2 of 2] Lionel Kearns 00:00:00 Reads "The Parable of the Seventh Seal" [published as “The Seventh Seal” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; reading resumes from previous recording; audience laughter throughout]. bpNichol 00:06:17 Reads "Historical Implications of Turnips" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer]. bpNichol 00:07:01 This is called, for a reason I cannot remember at all, "Cycle Number 22". bpNichol 00:07:13 Reads "Cycle Number 22" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and published later in Selected Writing: As Elected]. bpNichol 00:07:49 This next poem's called "The Child in Me". It's kind of what all sound poetry's about anyways. Enough said. bpNichol 00:08:09 Reads "The Child in Me" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer]. bpNichol 00:09:10 This is a poem called "The New New Captain Poetry Blues" and it's for David McFadden . Captain Poetry is kind of this person that happened a long time ago in a magazine I used to edit called Ganglia, and David McFadden is still happening in Hamilton , and is probably Canada's best poet and what else is there to say? Oh yes, a little footnote, there's a place in here called Plunkett which really exists and my mother was born there strangely enough. This is all about that. bpNichol 00:09:48 Reads [sections of "The New New Captain Poetry Blues: An Undecided Novel" from The Captain Poetry Poems]. Lionel Kearns 00:12:53 This poem is called "Split". Lionel Kearns 00:12:59 Reads "Split" [published as “Personality” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Audience 00:14:05 Laughter. Lionel Kearns 00:14:07 People occasionally, when they're put on the spot to ask me questions, say "What's it like to be a poet", or "Is it true that so and so and so and so..." and things like that, questions that are impossible to answer. But there is something about being a poet, and this is one of the things, this is one of the differences, and this poem is called "The Difference". Lionel Kearns 00:14:40 Reads "The Difference" [published as “Roles” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; audience laughter throughout]. Lionel Kearns 00:15:40 This is an older poem, it's a Christmas poem, it was written at the time when [Khrushchev (?)] got his call down, also about the time of the American intervention in the Dominican Republic , where the Americans came in because they knew that there were Cuban influences, or the Cubans were behind the so-called rebels in the Dominican Republic and one of the proofs was that some of the rebels had been seen wearing green uniforms [audience laughter]. Of course, most military uniforms are kind of green, but they pointed out that some of Fidel Castro's soldiers had green uniforms too. But this is a Christmas poem. Lionel Kearns 00:16:51 Reads "Christmas Poem” [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:17:57 I make most of my living teaching at Simon Fraser University and we have some troubles out there sometimes. One of the things that troubled us was the fact that when we were giving lectures to large crowds, we sometimes used the public address system and we found out that back--that the public address system was hooked up with-- operated with an FM band, and the, all your lectures could be picked up on an FM set, for example, an FM set in the President's office. We've since lost that President. And this is called "University". Lionel Kearns 00:18:55 Reads "University" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:19:24 This one is called "Economic Chronology". Lionel Kearns 00:19:29 Reads "Economic Chronology" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. bpNichol 00:19:42 This one's called "Alimony, Old Baloney". bpNichol 00:19:51 Reads "Alimony, Old Baloney" [most likely from the Captain Poetry series]. Unknown 00:24:14 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:24:15 Reads unnamed “Captain Poetry” poem. Lionel Kearns 00:26:25 Well if bp is going to keep reading his Captain Poetry poems, I'm going to read my “Ventilation Parable”. This is an epic. Lionel Kearns 00:26:43 Reads "Ventilation Parable" [published as “Ventilation” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:31:19 This poem is called "Creation". Lionel Kearns 00:31:24 Reads "Creation" [from Pointing]. bpNichol 00:31:52 I'm going to do that dangerous thing and read a poem I wrote last night. That's [inaudible]. Unknown 00:31:59 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts back to 00:31:40]. Lionel Kearns 00:32:00 Reads section of “Creation” [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:32:18 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts back to 00:31:52]. Audience 00:32:19 Laughter. bpNichol 00:32:21 I'm going to do that dangerous thing and read a poem I wrote last night [laughter]. That's waking Lionel up at 7:30 this morning which he didn't quite forgive me for. It starts off with a quote from a poem by Bobby Hoat [?.] Well, yesterday we were up at Carlton doing a reading there. It's a poem called "Zero Phase". There's a town referred to in here called Vars which happens to be where he lives. It's a very groovy little place, just outside of... Lionel Kearns 00:32:51 Can you hear? bpNichol 00:32:52 Is that okay? If I talk kind of into it like this? bpNichol 00:33:04 Reads "Zero Phase". bpNichol 00:34:36 This is a poem called "Returning". It sort of was written after I wrote a book of poetry called Journeying and the Returns. bpNichol 00:34:58 Reads "Returning". Lionel Kearns 00:37:49 I'm going--I'm going to read a series of poems again, from my collection Pointing. This one is called "It". Lionel Kearns 00:38:13 Reads "It" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:38:45 A lot of the poems in this book derive their images from dreams, and this is a poem which is about a dream I had. And it's--I've interpreted the dream. Some extent of the poem--I interpreted as a kind of message about where I get my images for my poems, or where I got them at this particular period. And I called "Ambergris, a Statement on Source". Ambergris, being that stuff that sick whales cough up and which floats around on the ocean and it's very smelly stuff but it's very valuable stuff if you find it floating around because you can sell it for a great deal of money to perfume factories. And that's the interpretation of the series of images that follow. Lionel Kearns 00:39:55 Reads "Ambergris, a Statement on Source" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:40:42 And this one, called "Contra Diction", it's a poem that is often anthologized. It's a poem that I like because I think it does what usually I'm trying to do in poems. It's not a very big poem, but it's neat, I think. Lionel Kearns 00:41:12 Reads "Contra Diction" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:41:40 This one is called "Both". Lionel Kearns 00:41:45 Reads "Both" [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:42:06 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Lionel Kearns 00:42:07 This is an early poem that I wrote, it fits into a series of poems that I was writing at the time in which I was dealing with my own background, trying to come to terms with things like my own Catholic background, and as you will see the central image is a Christian one. The situation is the fairgrounds actual--the actual situation is the PNE- the Pacific National Exhibition . It's an easter poem called "Friday at the Ex" Lionel Kearns 00:43:07 Reads "Friday at the Ex" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:44:34 And this one, called "Prototypes". Lionel Kearns 00:44:41 Reads "Prototypes" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:45:33 And I think this is the last one I'll read, it's called "End Poem". An appropriate title. Lionel Kearns 00:45:42 Reads "End Poem" [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:46:04 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:46:05 Reads unnamed poem. END 00:46:47

Notes:

Content Type:

Sound Recording

File URL:

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 1 - Back

Credit:

Drew Bernet

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Photograph

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 1 - Front

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Drew Bernet

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Photograph

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 1 - Spine

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Drew Bernet

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 1 - Reel

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

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Show Content

Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 2 - Back

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0cAe1GF8xZsc62jpUDXwgvyCd6ZmvSw

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 2 - Front

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 2 - Spine

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

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Title:

Kearns and Nichol Tape Box 2 - Reel

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

Dates

Date:

1968 11 22

Type:

Performance Date

Source:

Accompanying Material

Notes:

Date written twice on the reel and tape's box

LOCATION

Address:

Unknown

Venue:

Unknown

CONTENT

Contents:

bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-026-1.mp3 [File 1 of 2] George Bowering 00:00:00 The second reading in our third series, I don't feel very happy tonight that the crowd is nice and big, and also that because I don't quite know what's going to happen, although I've heard rumours. We have Lionel Kearns and bpNichol , as you know, and they have elected instead of doing a reading by each poet, with an intermission in the middle or anything like that, a manner of joint reading. And I think, in a sense, that makes a lot of sense, because Lionel Kearns is by one of his professions, a linguist, and also one of his main, one of his main themes is the social care of human beings. bpNichol is a radical therapist, and is known especially for his border-blur poems, and it makes a lot of sense, I think, for that reason that they do read together. They read together last night at Carleton , apparently worked out very well. Lionel is as you probably know is one of the centres of the so-called Vancouver Renaissance that took over Canadian poetry in the 1960's, threatened to do that too [laughter]. bp was one of those blessed children from the east, although he had lived in Vancouver before, who kept his ears open. Well, he says he was born there. bp managed to grace the city of Vancouver for a few years and I guess that's where he got the ears open in the first place, but since that time he's been opening all our ears. So seeing as how this reading threatens to last four hours, according to rumours, I think I'll stop now and give the floor to either, and, or bpNichol and Lionel Kearns. Lionel Kearns 00:02:26 Well, I'll begin by reading a poem called "Telephone". It's what I call a media parable, I have a whole set of poems that are media parables and things, which are coming out in a collection very soon. This one is called "Telephone". Lionel Kearns 00:02:49 Reads "Telephone" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; audience laughter throughout]. bpNichol 00:07:04 What you're going to get out of me this evening is a strange pastiche, since I managed to do that clever thing of losing everything I wrote over the last year. So this is selected weirdness. bpNichol 00:07:23 Reads [“Monotones”, part I from Gifts: The Martyrology Book(s) 7 &”]. bpNichol 00:08:45 Reads "Uneven Song". bpNichol 00:09:28 Reads unnamed poem. Lionel Kearns 00:10:26 Reads "Word" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:11:27 I'll read a series of quiet poems. Because we've got some really loud ones to read too. "Poem found among the ruins". Lionel Kearns 00:11:43 Reads "Poem found among the ruins" [published as “Medium” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:12:19 This one's called "The Business". Lionel Kearns 00:12:24 Reads "The Business" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:12:43 This one is called "Genres”. Lionel Kearns 00:12:45 Reads "Genres” [published as “Content” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:13:51 Reads "The Answer" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:15:05 And this one, derives from my seeing a piece of sculpture, an exhibition of Haida art I think, or some West Coast Indian art. A little figure of a woman carved, a carved figure of a woman, but she is in a very strange position, she's doing a kind of funny thing. It seemed worth writing a poem about. It's called "Labio Digital". [Audience laughter]. Lionel Kearns 00:15:55 Reads "Labio Digital" [published as “Sculpture” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. bpNichol 00:16:41 Reads "The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid" [published later in The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid and collected in Craft Dinner: Stories & Texts 1966-1976; audience laughter throughout]]. Lionel Kearns 00:20:46 This one is called--I'll try reading with both the mic and without the mic and if you can't hear me, then shout and tell me that you can't hear me. I'll try this one without the mic. It's called "Gestured” My titles are always very abstract. That's not very abstract [audience laughter]. Most of my titles are very abstract. This is written for a friend, I had to [inaudible] with a sketch. Lionel Kearns 00:21:32 Reads “Gestured” [published as "Expression" in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Audience 00:22:36 Applause [cut off]. Lionel Kearns 00:22:39 Actually, actually, I don't think it's a good idea to clap in between the poems, because bp and I have got so many good poems that you're going to wear your hands out. [Audience laughter]. This one is called "Transport", it's also a media parable. Lionel Kearns 00:22:56 Reads "Transport" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Unknown 00:26:32 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:26:33 There's things that I try to be absolutely very, very personal [inaudible] thing I ever wrote. I wrote it at Port Dover , in, on Lake Erie . It's one of those days when I was flaked out on the beach, covered up because I get vicious sunburns and just peel the whole summer, and in the background was playing "(There’ll Be Bluebirds) Over the white cliffs of Dover" and “What’s New Pussycat” sort of juxtaposed, there was sprawled over the beach was this weird phrase "Podunk" and these two cats were playing football overtop of my head. So anyways I felt very sort of, weird, and wrote the following poem. bpNichol 00:27:25 Performs unnamed poem. bpNichol 00:29:06 Hugo Ball was kind of the daddy of us all, and he was kind of a very fine dadaist who lived in Switzerland during the first World War and sort of did the first sound poems. It was very strange, if you read Hugo Ball's diaries, it's rather fascinating because it was more or less, when he gave these sort of his final public reading he got really carried away in the midst of a sound poem an kind of got thrown back into sort of a--how to put this--an earlier space in his mind, anyways he went back and started remembering all sorts of things right back through his life doing this sound poem. As you read the diaries, there's a real feeling he became totally terrified of what was happening to him. Because at that point he then just split and left the whole thing behind. So this is kind of for Hugo Ball. It's called "Dada Lama". This poem's gone through so many changes I can't even keep track of it anymore. bpNichol 00:30:28 Reads [sections of Dada Lama: a sound sequence in six parts, collected later in Selected Writing: As Elected]. Lionel Kearns 00:33:38 I'm going to read some poems now from my collection, Pointing, which I see is for sale out on the other room. These poems are, for the most part, quiet poems, poems of my own measured voice. They're poems that originated a few years ago and they came out of the general West Coast poetry scene that was going on very intensely--hello? George Bowering 00:34:09 It’s hard to hear... Lionel Kearns 00:34:10 Is it hard to hear back there with this? Unknown 00:34:12 Ambient Sound [voices and laughter]. Lionel Kearns 00:34:20 I'll try--If I talk louder into the mic can you hear that? Keep letting me know, if you can't hear, shout. I'd like to read this one into the mic because they aren't poems that can be shouted. This one is called "Situation" and it derives from an experience I had in Mexico many years ago. Lionel Kearns 00:35:06 Reads poem "Situation” [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:36:24 How's that for sound, can you hear that? "Insights". Lionel Kearns 00:36:36 Reads "Insights" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]/ Lionel Kearns 00:36:55 I'm very sentimental [audience laughter.] This is an early poem I wrote, it's called "Homage to Machado". It's really a translation of a poem by Antonio Machado , the Spanish poet. I've not only translated it, I've switched the central image, but used his statement. His image was that of a boat going across a lake and he looked out and saw the ripple of the water behind it and then commented on that. But I changed the metaphor. Lionel Kearns 00:37:45 Reads "Hommage to Machado" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:38:17 Reads "Remains" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:39:08 Reads "Total Presence" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:40:05 A very small poem called "Witness". Lionel Kearns 00:40:07 Reads "Witness" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:40:38 And this one, called "Profile". I'll read it without the mic. Lionel Kearns 00:40:45 Reads "Profile" [from Pointing]. Unknown Audience Member 1 00:41:32 Have you ever thought of pausing it and-- Unknown 00:41:34 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Lionel Kearns 00:41:37 We thought of reading all of our quiet poems at the beginning, and then getting louder and louder and louder, but we thought this would get you too excited and you'd go out onto the street and...[audience laughter.] So we decided to mix them all up and you'll get everything quiet and loud and funny and very serious and that's part of it,you know,getting them all at once all in juxtaposed relationships. bpNichol 00:42:12 This way you can sort of do what you want with which ones you wanna do. It's very hard to listen to a poetry reading all the way through. I can never hack poetry readings myself [audience laughter]. What Lionel and I are trying to do is maybe do you a favour so you can listen for a longer time maybe [audience laughter]. Lionel Kearns 00:42:32 Who locked the door? [Audience laughter]. bpNichol 00:42:37 Among my poems from the last year which I lost, was a very long thing called The Martyrology which included all these things about a whole series of saints I'd evolved. Which had included St. Reet and St. Ranglehold and St. And and it's kind of too complicated to go into what they all sort of were doing, but St. Ranglehold came from the word 'stranglehold' and the rest you can kind of figure out maybe. bpNichol 00:43:05 Reads unnamed poem from The Martyrology series. Lionel Kearns 00:43:56 Was that loud enough by the way? bpNichol 00:43:58 Could you hear that? It's hard to tell from behind here. This is a poem called "Ruth" and it was for a good friend of mine, David W. Harris, who now calls himself David W. And it begins with a quote from Ruth. bpNichol 00:44:20 Reads "Ruth" [from Ruth]. bpNichol 00:46:20 Reads unnamed poem. bpNichol 00:46:57 And this uh, this is a poem that begins with a line from a poem by bill bissett . Actually-- Unknown 00:47:01 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:47:18 Reads unnamed poem. Lionel Kearns 00:49:43 We'll try it up there. It's called "Color Problem". Lionel Kearns 00:49:49 Reads "Color Problem" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:50:06 This, I'm going to read a concrete poem now. bp inspires me so much with his concrete poetry that I have begun to write concrete poetry too. Some concrete poetry is purely visual and you can't read it, it's to go on walls and things like that. Other concrete poetry is so sonic that it's nothing really to look at, but occasionally you can get the two combined so that you have something on the page which also is something else when read, but the two correspond. This one that I've got is to some extent like that, on the page it's called "Studies in Interior Decoration Border Design" because of the way it looks on the page, which of course being an audience at a poetry reading, you aren't concerned with. But I'll read it and it does work, I think, sonically too. It's called "The Woman Who Reminded Him of the Woman Who". Lionel Kearns 00:51:20 Reads "The Woman Who Reminded Him of the Woman Who" [published as “The Woman Who” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Unknown 00:53:14 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts to bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-0262.mp3 00:37:59]. Lionel Kearns 00:53:25 This one is called "It". Lionel Kearns 00:53:28 Reads "It" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:54:02 A lot of the poems in this book-- Unknown 00:54:05 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts back to approximately 00:53:13]. Lionel Kearns 00:54:15 This is called the "Kinetic Poem", my poem is called the "Kinetic Poem". Lionel Kearns 00:54:26 Reads "Kinetic Poem" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface] with bpNichol. Unknown 00:55:57 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:56:00 Kon Ichikawa is the name of a Japanese film maker that made a film about the Olympics . Okay? How should we start this out--'all together now?' [audience laughter]. Lionel Kearns 00:56:15 Think--think, pretend you're at the Olympics. [Audience laughter]. bpNichol 00:56:23 “Karnijakawa--Karnijakawa”, follow me. bpNichol 00:56:30 Chants "Kon Ichikawa” pronounced as “Karnijakawa" repeatedly with Lionel Kearns and the audience. bpNichol 00:57:11 Thank you. Audience 00:57:13 Applause [cut off]. Unknown Audience Member 2 00:57:16 Karni-jakawa! Lionel Kearns 00:57:22 Carne means meat in Spanish. I was at Louis Dudek's , at one of his courses today and we were talking and the students were talking and so on and I was reading a few poems, and they said, "Why are you so pessimistic about things?" and I'm not so pessimistic, and I'll read a poem now that's got an up-beat ending [audience laughter]. Unknown Audience Member 3 00:57:59 What led them to deduce your pessimism? Lionel Kearns 00:58:00 I read a poem without an upbeat ending [audience laughter]. This is another media parable. And it's called "The Parable of the Seventh Seal" and naturally, it derives from a movie. Um, the movie called The Seven Samurai . [Audience laughter.] Or you've probably seen that, there's a,Hollywood derived a few movies from that, one of them called The Magnificent Seven or something like that. The original one was a Western made in Japan , and Hollywood stole the idea and made a Western in the West. Now I've taken the same situation, the same story and given it a Northern locale. And that's why it's called "The Seventh Seal" [Audience laughter]. It was published in this New Romans thing, and that makes it an anti-American poem, but it really, when I wrote it, I didn't have this book in mind. But they paid me $30 so [audience laughter] I put it in here. Lionel Kearns 00:59:38 Reads "The Parable of the Seventh Seal" [published as “The Seventh Seal” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; reading cut off]. END 01:01:57 bpNichol_lionel_kearns_i086-11-026-2.mp3 [File 2 of 2] Lionel Kearns 00:00:00 Reads "The Parable of the Seventh Seal" [published as “The Seventh Seal” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; reading resumes from previous recording; audience laughter throughout]. bpNichol 00:06:17 Reads "Historical Implications of Turnips" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer]. bpNichol 00:07:01 This is called, for a reason I cannot remember at all, "Cycle Number 22". bpNichol 00:07:13 Reads "Cycle Number 22" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and published later in Selected Writing: As Elected]. bpNichol 00:07:49 This next poem's called "The Child in Me". It's kind of what all sound poetry's about anyways. Enough said. bpNichol 00:08:09 Reads "The Child in Me" [from Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer]. bpNichol 00:09:10 This is a poem called "The New New Captain Poetry Blues" and it's for David McFadden . Captain Poetry is kind of this person that happened a long time ago in a magazine I used to edit called Ganglia, and David McFadden is still happening in Hamilton , and is probably Canada's best poet and what else is there to say? Oh yes, a little footnote, there's a place in here called Plunkett which really exists and my mother was born there strangely enough. This is all about that. bpNichol 00:09:48 Reads [sections of "The New New Captain Poetry Blues: An Undecided Novel" from The Captain Poetry Poems]. Lionel Kearns 00:12:53 This poem is called "Split". Lionel Kearns 00:12:59 Reads "Split" [published as “Personality” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Audience 00:14:05 Laughter. Lionel Kearns 00:14:07 People occasionally, when they're put on the spot to ask me questions, say "What's it like to be a poet", or "Is it true that so and so and so and so..." and things like that, questions that are impossible to answer. But there is something about being a poet, and this is one of the things, this is one of the differences, and this poem is called "The Difference". Lionel Kearns 00:14:40 Reads "The Difference" [published as “Roles” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface; audience laughter throughout]. Lionel Kearns 00:15:40 This is an older poem, it's a Christmas poem, it was written at the time when [Khrushchev (?)] got his call down, also about the time of the American intervention in the Dominican Republic , where the Americans came in because they knew that there were Cuban influences, or the Cubans were behind the so-called rebels in the Dominican Republic and one of the proofs was that some of the rebels had been seen wearing green uniforms [audience laughter]. Of course, most military uniforms are kind of green, but they pointed out that some of Fidel Castro's soldiers had green uniforms too. But this is a Christmas poem. Lionel Kearns 00:16:51 Reads "Christmas Poem” [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:17:57 I make most of my living teaching at Simon Fraser University and we have some troubles out there sometimes. One of the things that troubled us was the fact that when we were giving lectures to large crowds, we sometimes used the public address system and we found out that back--that the public address system was hooked up with-- operated with an FM band, and the, all your lectures could be picked up on an FM set, for example, an FM set in the President's office. We've since lost that President. And this is called "University". Lionel Kearns 00:18:55 Reads "University" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:19:24 This one is called "Economic Chronology". Lionel Kearns 00:19:29 Reads "Economic Chronology" [from By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. bpNichol 00:19:42 This one's called "Alimony, Old Baloney". bpNichol 00:19:51 Reads "Alimony, Old Baloney" [most likely from the Captain Poetry series]. Unknown 00:24:14 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:24:15 Reads unnamed “Captain Poetry” poem. Lionel Kearns 00:26:25 Well if bp is going to keep reading his Captain Poetry poems, I'm going to read my “Ventilation Parable”. This is an epic. Lionel Kearns 00:26:43 Reads "Ventilation Parable" [published as “Ventilation” in By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures and other Assaults of the Interface]. Lionel Kearns 00:31:19 This poem is called "Creation". Lionel Kearns 00:31:24 Reads "Creation" [from Pointing]. bpNichol 00:31:52 I'm going to do that dangerous thing and read a poem I wrote last night. That's [inaudible]. Unknown 00:31:59 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts back to 00:31:40]. Lionel Kearns 00:32:00 Reads section of “Creation” [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:32:18 [Cut or edit made in tape. Recording cuts back to 00:31:52]. Audience 00:32:19 Laughter. bpNichol 00:32:21 I'm going to do that dangerous thing and read a poem I wrote last night [laughter]. That's waking Lionel up at 7:30 this morning which he didn't quite forgive me for. It starts off with a quote from a poem by Bobby Hoat [?.] Well, yesterday we were up at Carlton doing a reading there. It's a poem called "Zero Phase". There's a town referred to in here called Vars which happens to be where he lives. It's a very groovy little place, just outside of... Lionel Kearns 00:32:51 Can you hear? bpNichol 00:32:52 Is that okay? If I talk kind of into it like this? bpNichol 00:33:04 Reads "Zero Phase". bpNichol 00:34:36 This is a poem called "Returning". It sort of was written after I wrote a book of poetry called Journeying and the Returns. bpNichol 00:34:58 Reads "Returning". Lionel Kearns 00:37:49 I'm going--I'm going to read a series of poems again, from my collection Pointing. This one is called "It". Lionel Kearns 00:38:13 Reads "It" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:38:45 A lot of the poems in this book derive their images from dreams, and this is a poem which is about a dream I had. And it's--I've interpreted the dream. Some extent of the poem--I interpreted as a kind of message about where I get my images for my poems, or where I got them at this particular period. And I called "Ambergris, a Statement on Source". Ambergris, being that stuff that sick whales cough up and which floats around on the ocean and it's very smelly stuff but it's very valuable stuff if you find it floating around because you can sell it for a great deal of money to perfume factories. And that's the interpretation of the series of images that follow. Lionel Kearns 00:39:55 Reads "Ambergris, a Statement on Source" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:40:42 And this one, called "Contra Diction", it's a poem that is often anthologized. It's a poem that I like because I think it does what usually I'm trying to do in poems. It's not a very big poem, but it's neat, I think. Lionel Kearns 00:41:12 Reads "Contra Diction" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:41:40 This one is called "Both". Lionel Kearns 00:41:45 Reads "Both" [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:42:06 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Lionel Kearns 00:42:07 This is an early poem that I wrote, it fits into a series of poems that I was writing at the time in which I was dealing with my own background, trying to come to terms with things like my own Catholic background, and as you will see the central image is a Christian one. The situation is the fairgrounds actual--the actual situation is the PNE- the Pacific National Exhibition . It's an easter poem called "Friday at the Ex" Lionel Kearns 00:43:07 Reads "Friday at the Ex" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:44:34 And this one, called "Prototypes". Lionel Kearns 00:44:41 Reads "Prototypes" [from Pointing]. Lionel Kearns 00:45:33 And I think this is the last one I'll read, it's called "End Poem". An appropriate title. Lionel Kearns 00:45:42 Reads "End Poem" [from Pointing]. Unknown 00:46:04 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. bpNichol 00:46:05 Reads unnamed poem. END 00:46:47

Notes:

NOTES

Type:

General

Note:

Year-Specific Information: In 1968, Lionel Kearns was working on By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures, and other Assaults on the Interface (The Daylight Press, 1969) and published The Birth of God (Trigram Press, 1968) and Trips Out (Western Press, 1968). In 1968, bpNichol was editing Gronk, published Dada Lama (Tlaloc, 1968), Captain Poetry Poems (blewointment press, 1968), DA DEAD (Ganglia Press), a collaboration with David Aylward called Strange Grey Town (Gronk Press, 1968) and was working on The Complete Works (Ganglia Press, 1969), The Martyrology (Coach House Press, 1972). Nichol and Kearns read at Carleton University the night before this reading.

Type:

General

Note:

Local Connections: Kearns met George Bowering in Vancouver at University of British Columbia and was part of the Tish movement in the early 60’s. No direct connections to Sir George Williams University have been found, however bpNichol’s fame exploded in the mid-60’s in Canada and was well known to the Reading Series Committee and many of the other poets who read in the series.

Type:

Preservation

Note:

2 reel-to-reel tapes>2 CDs>2 digital files

Type:

Cataloguer

Note:

Original transcript, print catalogue, introduction, research and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro

RELATED WORKS

Citation:

“About bp: a short biography & select bibliography”. An Online Archive for bpNichol. Artmop Project and Ellie Nichol.

URL:

http://www.bpnichol.ca/about

Citation:

Davey, Frank. “bp Nichol”. From There to Here: a Guide to English-Canadian Literature Since 1960. Erin, Ontario: Press Porcepic, 1974.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/from-there-to-here-a-guide-to-english-canadian-literature-since-1960/oclc/441669839&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Davey, Frank. "Kearns, Lionel". The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds). Oxford University Press 2001.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/oxford-companion-to-canadian-literature/oclc/605246871&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Davey, Frank. “Lionel Kearns”. From There to Here: A Guide to English-Canadian Literature Since 1960. Erin, Ontario: Press Porcepic, 1974.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/from-there-to-here-a-guide-to-english-canadian-literature-since-1960/oclc/441669839&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Davey, Frank. "Nichol, bp". The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds). Oxford University Press 2001.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/oxford-companion-to-canadian-literature/oclc/605246871&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Kearns, Lionel. Pointing. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1967.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/pointing-ryerson/oclc/695590531&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Kearns, Lionel. By the Light of the Silvery McLune: Media Parables, Poems, Signs, Gestures, and other Assaults on the Interface. Vancouver: The Daylight Press & Talon Books, 1969.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/by-the-light-of-the-silvery-mclune-media-parables-poems-signs-gestures-and-other-assaults-on-the-interface/oclc/639996585&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Miki, Roy. “Nichol, Bp (1944-1988)”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly (eds). London: Routledge, 1994. 2 Vols.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-post-colonial-literatures-in-english-vol-1/oclc/32566813&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. ABC Aleph Beth Book. Toronto: Oberon Press, 1971.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/abc-the-aleph-beth-book/oclc/906049140&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Ballads of the Restless Are. Sacramento: Runcible Spoon, 1967-8.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/ballads-of-the-restless-are-two-versionscommon-source/oclc/910220806&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Beach Head. Sacramento: Runcible Spoon, 1970.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/beach-head/oclc/1147729759&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Briefly: the birthdeath cycle from The Book of Hours. Lantzville, British Columbia: Island Writing Series: 1981.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/briefly-the-birthdeath-cycle-from-the-book-of-hours/oclc/10260162&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Craft Dinner: Stories & Texts 1966-1976. Toronto: Aya Press, 1978.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/craft-dinner-stories-texts-1966-1976/oclc/562773039&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Dada Lama. Leeds, England: Tlaloc, 1968.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/dada-lama-a-sound-sequence-in-six-parts/oclc/877591459&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Extreme Positions. Edmonton: Longspoon Press, 1981.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/extreme-positions/oclc/729776791&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Journal. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1978.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/journal/oclc/797400077&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Journeying & the Returns. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1967.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/journeying-the-returns/oclc/458215&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer. Toronto: Weed/Flower Press, 1973.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/konfessions-of-an-elizabethan-fan-dancer/oclc/784883412&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Ruth. Toronto: Fleye Press, 1967.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/ruth/oclc/1056461719&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. Selected Writing: As Elected. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1980.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/selected-writing-as-elected/oclc/907413274&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. The Captain Poetry Poems. Vancouver: blew ointment press, 1968.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/captain-poetry-poems/oclc/839698718&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. The Martyrology. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1972.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/martyrology/oclc/44068798&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Nichol, BP. The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid. Toronto: Weed/Flower, 1970.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/true-eventual-story-of-billy-the-kid/oclc/915720355&referer=brief_results

Citation:

Schermbrucker, Bill. “Kearns, Lionel John (1937-)”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly (eds). London: Routledge, 1994. 2 Vols.

URL:

https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-post-colonial-literatures-in-english-vol-1/oclc/32566813&referer=brief_results

Citation:

“Lionel Kearns: Biography”. Canadian Poetry Online. University of Toronto Libraries, 2000.

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