Over 1/2 Century of Writing. Editing & Publishing Poetry & Plays …
In chaotic times, we need poetry and all the arts more than ever. Please do buy our books and CDs.
UpdatesCelebrating Poetry in 2024
✨ New!✨Interview on CV2 with Penn Kemp by Sophie Guillas: https://contemporaryverse2.ca/interviews/an-interview-with-penn-kemp/ ✨ March 1, 2024: "The Lords and Ladies of the Fermi Bubbles", a collaborative poem with Harol Rhenisch. Masque & Spectacle. An arts & literary journal, https://masqueandspectaclejournal.wordpress.com/ ✨ "The Big Ask”, the Transitions issue, Uproar, https://lawrencehouse.ca/the-big-ask/ For my beloved granddaughter, Ula Podesta Chalmers: https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2023/12/13/for-ula-two-poems/ ✨"Losing the Vernacular", with image by Jim Kemp. The Vernacular Journal, https://vernacularjournal.com/On-Losing-the-Vernacular, Winter 2024 ✨Jim Andrews from Vancouver included my poem “Lethologica” in his wondrous See of Po series: https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk. And on Jim Andrews’s manifesto, manual, and magazine, https://vispo.com/writings/essays/Sea_of_Po2.pdf: P. 61. For Sea of Po, I wanted to write a language poem that would lend itself to animation, to movement, to be read in swirls, side to side, and yet form couplets. Hence, Lethologica, so that the word is not lost in Lethe's forgetful current, but is re-imagined as image, as colour. Forthcoming Publications: ✨ March, 2024: “Searching For His Original Face”, Sage-ing With Creative Spirit, Grace and Gratitude, #48, https://www.sageing.ca/ ✨ March, 2024: Interview with me by Richard Capener, Hem Press. “The Conference of the Birds” with Harold Rhenisch, Canadian Literature, 2024 ✨Upcoming In-person Poetry Readings: ✨ Sunday, April 28, 2-4pm. Poetry Reading among the Alpacas by Penn Kemp and Katie Jeresky with cellist Luc Julian. 2211 Egremont Drive, RR5 Strathroy ON, N7G 3H6. Contact: Thandi, [email protected]. Celebrating National Poetry Month on the theme of Weather. $15 ✨ Wednesday, June 5, 6:30-8pm. Black Mallard Reading Series features Penn Kemp and D.A. Lockhart, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON. It’s World Environment Day! https://blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home. Free. My reading is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts. ✨ Saturday, June 15, 10:30-11:30am. Sounds of the Forest: Music and Poetry Reading at Meadowlily Nature Reserve on the south side of the Thames River between Highbury Avenue and Meadowlily Road, London, ON N6G 2N5. Passport to Nature in support of Thames Talbot Land Trust, https://www.thamestalbotlandtrust.ca/passport_to_nature. Free ✨ Monday, September 23, 2024, 7pm. Art Bar Reading Series, Free Times Café, 320 College Street. Toronto, ON M5T 1S3 w. of Markham. Features Penn Kemp, https://www.artbarpoetryseries.com/post/upcoming-events. Contact: (416) 967-1078 [email protected]. Cover $10.00. Now up! Intent on Flowering, anthology, Rose Garden Press, 2024. Contributing poets: Katie Jeresky, Penn Kemp and Jessica Lee McMillan. This remarkable collection is curated by Rose Garden Press for their handprinted book. Contact: [email protected], Michelle Arnett and Michele Vanderwal @rosegarden_press. To order: https://rosegardenpress.ca/intent-on-flowering/ Chapbooks are available @rosegarden_press. Check out: Catherine Owen, Episode 5, “Performing your Poetry”.https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/catherine960/episodes/Episode-5-Performing-your-Poetry-e2f9etr She draws from my piece, “Performing Your Work”, https://poets.ca/performing-your-work/. Kevin Spenst, “Chuffed About Chapbooks” on my project, “Poem for Peace in Many Voices”. SubTerrain issue #95, 2024. ✨Recent Launches, INTENT ON FLOWERING : Sunday, February 25, 12:30-1:30pm EST. Penn Kemp and Katie Jeresky read from INTENT ON FLOWERING with cellist Luc Julian in Heeman’s Greenhouse, 20422 Nissouri Road, Thorndale ON Saturday, February 10, 2024. Book launch and poetry reading from Rose Garden Press’s new release, Intent on Flowering, with three poets: Penn Kemp, Katie Jeresky and Jessica Lee McMillan. On the Lunar New Year! Missed this lovely weaving of voices? Here it is https://fb.watch/q7u_oWXOJq/! Thanks @RoseGardenPress! Special #thanks to @JoshLambier https://wordsfest.ca/ And from 2023: Thanks to @wordsalouddfest for a delightful, delicious, resounding October weekend in Owen Sound! If you enjoy participatory sound poetry, join us at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_kl_I1nMs&list=PLiywD8uW8V27EClMDI6BEmr1EwiajhqM0&index=6&t=315s December 15, 2023. "For an Elder, Turning, Returning” .Norma West Linder Tribute issue. https://lawrencehouse.ca/for-an-elder-turning-returning/ December 4, 2023. “3 favorite reads in 2023”, https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/penn-kemp My choices: Emma Donoghue, Susan McCaslin and Harold Rhenisch. My 4th: Alicia Elliot's new AND THEN SHE FELL. "Heraclitus Ongoing", "Invocation Beyond Building Bridges", Leviathan Meets Behemoth", Wordsfest Zine 2022, p. 64-66. https://wordsfest.ca/assets/images/zines/Bridging-Divides-Wordsfest-2022-Zine.pdf Kevin Spenst’s Chapbooks Review of “Poem for Peace in Many Voices” book and CD, subTerain magazine, WINTER, #96. https://subterrain.ca/ Want a sense of the workshops I offer? Here you go: https://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/news/local-news/sound-poet-shares-secret-finding-her-muse. You can hear more of my techniques on "The Craft of Writing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn2HRTLuQOA Doesn't this great review make you want to read/hear Incrementally?https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2023/10/laura-kerr-incrementally-by-penn-kemp.html The text, Incrementally (88 pages and free!) is now up on https://www.hempressbooks.com/shop/p/incrementally-by-penn-kemp ! Album is on https://angrystarlings.bandcamp.com/ https://www.hempressbooks.com/angrystarlings https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp E. Ruth Strebe filmed "Night Orchestra" when I was reading it with audience participation that included alpacas and...:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okzs9hnbvQc 1.232 3“from Night Orchestra”, “Declination”, “Bees Needs”, Interpoem: A Visual Anthology. Editor, Laura Kerr, https://sedserio.com/about Recent Readings January 17, 7 pm. Antler River Poetry, Celebrating small presses! Karen Schindler and Rob McClennan. With readings by Katie Jeresky and Penn Kemp from Intent on Flowering, Rose Garden Press, [email protected], rosegardenpress.ca 2 POEMS for Ula Podesta Chalmers, Celebration of Life. Sunday, December 17. AIA, Toronto Island. https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2023/12/13/for-ula-two-poems/ CAROLS & POEMS! Sunday, December 10 to a full house. Grosvenor Lodge, 1017 Western Rd, London ON N6G 1G5. Heritage London Foundation presents the 4th concert of the 2023 Community Music Series, featuring 'Carols & Poems' with local poet Penn Kemp, cellist Lucas Tensen and singers from the Waldorf Faculty & Community. December 6, 2023, 6:30-8pm. Black Mallard Reading Series features Madeline Bassnett and Jennifer Wenn. Penn reads "Invocation" for the 14 women killed in the Montreal Massacre. Open mic, Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON November 15, 2023, 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Launch of the anthology, Stones Beneath the Surface. Mykonos Restaurant, 572 Adelaide St. N., London ON https://blackmallardpoetry.wixsite.com/home/books November 14, 2023, 7pm ET. “Heart to Art”, video for Quai Nocent Docent (What Hurts Teaches): A Collection of Poems and Musings. The Friendly Spike Theatre. Contact: [email protected] November 4, 2023. Reading from Joey and his Friend Water and Barbaric Cultural Practice for the Power Up Climate Solutions Rally, Council of Canadians, Victoria Park, London ON, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsHGUz_z0H8&list=PLGO4M_omdRNuZHjHSitWmk8vPQRuYrHws&index=6 October 31st to 5th November.“Wishing Well” from www.riverrevery.ca. “Buenos deseos” Spanish translation by Camilo Bosso. Mary McDonald’s videopoem “Wishing Well” on www.riverrevery.ca will be shown in "CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUBJECTIVITY": Debate con Mary McDonald, Ian Gibbins y Sarah Tremlet. MALDITO FESTIVAL de Videopoesía /MALDITO FESTIVAL, Albacete, Spain. https://malditofestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MALDITO-FESTIVAL-Programa-VII-EDICION-2023.pdf. What a glorious weekend of poetry at www.wordsaloud.ca, thanks to Richard-Yves Sitoski and his grand team, and the POETS! This reporter stuck around for my 2 hour workshop on sound poetry... and participated:) https://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/news/local-news/sound-poet-shares-secret-finding-her-muse. My reading on October 22, with participatory sound poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_kl_I1nMs&list=PLiywD8uW8V27EClMDI6BEmr1EwiajhqM0&index=6&t=291s Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour. “On this trek of the Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour we examine how climate shapes and defines culture… And poetry performance by Penn Kemp with Bill Gilliam.” The show is up now, 44.42, https://radio.wcmu.org/show/great-lakes-od/2023-10-17/great-lakes-odyssey-october-14-2023. On October 21, 7 pm, WBFO-NPR Buffalo/Toronto aired it. October 21, 10 pm, WCMU-NPR Central/North Michigan aired it. The reach is 100,000 listeners! Re-Creative: Penn Kemp on Poets in Collaboration: https://re-creative.podbean.com/e/re-creative-penn-kemp-on-fellow-poets-harold-rhenish-and-sharon-thesen/. Re-Creative with Penn Kemp on collaboration and tipped canoes. A podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it. Hosts Joe Mahoney and Mark A. Rayner.October 11, Re-Creative with Penn Kemp on collaboration and tipped canoes. A podcast ab |
May poetry see us through!
Such deep gratitude for the ongoing support and love we have experienced over the last years of turmoil. In the midst of challenges and change, I feel warmly embraced. Much love returned to the community of family, friends and all those generous people whom I haven’t yet met. Thank you for your kindness on so many levels! Look how The London Free Press supports poetry! https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/poets-are-talking-tough-and-their-words-make-a-difference https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/loreena-mckennitt-headlining-sold-out-london-benefits-for-ukraine. From words to comfort to action, March 23, 2022. https://www.thelondoner.ca/entertainment/local-arts/london-poet-driving-force-behind-new-anthology-of-poems-about-war-in-ukraine/ https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/belanger-our-poet-laureates-financial-plight-and-a-call-to-help As every writer, every artist knows, this is a time of diminishing monetary returns....so please buy our work! My books are available from [email protected] or from https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Penn+Kemp&ref=nb_sb_noss. I'd rather you buy from me than Amazon! See https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126379.Books_by_Penn_Kemp. Recent Events Eco-Poetry: Using Arts to Celebrate the Earth London Public Library's 2022 Environmentalist in Residence Jennifer Chesnut is in conversation with local poet Penn Kemp on how poetry is a way to go beyond our normal perceptions and connect to the wonder of natural spaces that are sacred and magical, and to bring our inner lives and what we feel and value into the public realm. They share favourite poems that celebrate the Earth and nature. Penn's poems from 32.45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLw0HMtzI2k&list=PLhMxXgVpLqCCOCe__qsXCuASbUEKtTV98&index=4 Also on https://riverrevery.ca/news/ |