SNARES AND TRAPS: POETRY AND THE VISUAL ARTS, A LITERARY BRUNCH
Part of the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival

Join poet/artists Stephen Addiss and Shin Yu Pai in an intimate literary brunch as they explore the connections between the visual arts and poetry, in their own work and in Zen traditions.  The brunch will take place at SoupeSoup Old Montreal, the latest addition to the trio of restaurants known for their wholesome and delicious food and cosy atmosphere.

Stephen Addiss, a renowned calligrapher and poet/scholar/artist will look at the interdependence of word and image as expressed in the tradition of haiga, “a combination of arts that I find fascinating… where a haiku and a visual image can combine to reach a deeper expression than either one might alone.”

Shin Yu Pai, poet, translator and visual artist, will look at her work in terms of its visual/textural languages: “My work is concerned with the contemplation of the spirit and inherent nature of the aesthetic object-both the poem as object or experience, and the subject matter of my poems, which very naturally gravitate towards the concrete, physical world,  articularly the visual arts.”

The event starts at 11 a.m., Sunday, March 08, with a simple but satisfying brunch, followed by the presentations. Total cost for the event is $20 full or $15 concession. Reservations are required. SoupeSoup Old Montreal is located at 649 Wellington Street, two blocks west of McGill Street. For more information go to: www.montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca

Stephen Addiss is a world-renowned calligrapher and a leading authority on Japanese art, as well as a musician, poet, translator and painter. He has published 36 books and exhibition catalogs, including Old Taoist: The Life, Art and Poetry of Kodojin (2001), 77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars 1568-1868 (2006) and Haiga: Takebe Socho & the Haiku-Painting Tradition (1991). He holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Michigan, and taught for 15 years at the University of Kansas before joining the faculty at the University of Richmond in Virginia as Professor of Art and Tucker-Boatwright Professor in the Humanities. He is the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and one from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Shin Yu Pai, born in 1975, is a second-generation Taiwanese-American poet and photographer. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with additional graduate studies at the Naropa Institute. She is the author of Haiku Not Bombs (Booklyn Artists Alliance), Works on Paper (Convivio Bookworks), Sightings: Selected Works [2000-2005] (1913 Press), The Love Hotel Poems (Press Lorentz), Unnecessary Roughness (xPress(ed)), Equivalence (La Alameda), and Ten Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers (Third Ear Books). Her work is anthologized in America Zen: A Gathering of Poets (Bottom Dog Press) and The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry (Wisdom Publications). In addition to her work as a poet, Shin Yu has exhibited her visual work at the Paterson Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, and the Three Arts Club of Chicago. Currently, Shin Yu Pai lives with her husband in Seattle where she is pursuing graduate work in Sociocultural Anthropology and Museology at the University of Washington.

Contact Person: Myokyo, Enpuku-ji/Centre Zen de la Main 514.842.3648 publicity@montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca

Pour diffusion immédiate

Festival de poésie Zen de Montréal 2009

Oublie les mots!

Du 6 au 8 mars le Festival de poésie Zen de Montréal rassemblera des participants en provenance du Canada et des États-Unis pour un programme de lectures, d’ateliers, et de conférences, qui auront lieu à divers endroits entre le Centre-ville et le Plateau. Parmi les poètes Zen en vedettes se trouvent Peter Levitt, enseignant Zen et poète de longue date de Salt Spring Island, Chase Twichell, poète et fondateur de l’Ausable Press, situé dans le nord de l’État de New York, et Shin Yu Pai, jeune poète, artiste en arts visuels et multidisciplinaire, de Seattle. Se joindra également à nous Seido Ray Ronci, moine Zen, poète et musicien du Missouri.

Nous saluons le retour de Red Pine, traducteur prolifique et très respecté de la littérature chinoise classique (et un merveilleux conteur), qui nous arrive de Port Townsend, Washington. Le poète-traducteur David Hinton fera aussi le voyage du Vermont pour le festival. Il a été largement salué pour avoir su recréer la tradition de la poésie chinoise classique sous la forme de poèmes contemporains fascinants, qui renvoient fidèlement la texture et la densité des originaux.

Dennis Maloney, fondateur de la White Pine Press de Buffalo, New York, participera en tant que traducteur, poète tanka et éditeur d’une petite maison d’édition. Quant à Stephen Addiss, calligraphe mondialement reconnu et spécialiste en art japonais, qui est également musicien, poète, traducteur et peintre, il nous fera partager son amour pour le haiga, un art visuel qui fait des liens entre la poésie et la peinture.

Le Festival biennal de poésie Zen de Montréal est en train de devenir rapidement un événement culturel à ne pas manquer. Inauguré en 2007 sous les auspices d’Enpuku-ji / Centre Zen de la Main, un centre de pratique du zen Rinzai situé sur le Plateau, ce festival s’inspire des liens profonds entre le Zen et la poésie, tout en essayant de faire connaître le Zen et la culture Zen à un plus grand public.

Le thème du programme de cette année, Oublie les mots! est aussi l’intitulé d’une conférence-discussion autour de la traduction, présidée par Erín Moure, l’une des poètes les plus célèbres du Canada. Ce vers pris dans un texte de Chuang Tzu, le philosophe taoïste chinois, fait référence à l’interdépendance du langage et du sens, un problème bien connu des écrivains.

Cette année, on invitera les participants du festival à débuter la journée par une séance de méditation Zen. Parmi les activités quotidiennes, on compte un atelier de création littéraire avec Peter Levitt en collaboration avec la Quebec Writers’ Federation, et un atelier de poésie collective avec Shin Yu Pai.

David Hinton donnera une conférence sur Paul Hsiang, parrainée par le Centre d’études de l’Asie de l’Est de McGill. Et l’académicien et moine Zen Victor Sogen Hori animera une soirée « Poetry : Memory and Dharma » avec Chase Twichell et Peter Levitt comme invités.

La clôture du festival sera marquée par un brunch littéraire et visuel au Soupesoup, un restaurant branché du Vieux-Montréal. Shin Yu Pai et Stephen Addiss présenteront leurs oeuvres, qui créent des passerelles entre la poésie et les arts visuels.

Personne-ressource :

Myokyo

Enpuku-ji/Centre Zen de la Main

514.842.3648

publicity@montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca

www.montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca

For immediate release

Memory and Dharma – two poets and a scholar monk in conversation at the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival
Come and deal in contradictions and paradoxes as two poets and a Zen monk have a conversation about memory and Dharma. Asking questions as fundamental as What is the self? and What is the nature of time?, the evening will be a foray into some deeply philosophical issues as well as a riveting conversation with two very personable and accomplished poets, Chase Twichell and Peter Levitt.

The practice of Zen is concerned with non-duality and a direct manifestation of the self, and yet so much of Zen poetry has references to memory. How does time come into our notion of the self? The paradox of Zen poetry is that it uses words to express the inexpressible. How can we use language to do this?

The discussion will be led by Professor Victor Sogen Hori of McGill’s Religious Studies Department.

Following the discussion, both Chase Twichell and Peter Levitt will read from their work.

Victor Sōgen Hori is a Rinzai Zen monk, translator and author of Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice. He has co-edited several books on Buddhism, and is currently Associate Professor of Japanese religions at McGill University.

Peter Levitt is an award-winning writer, poet and writing teacher. He is author of Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, and ten books of poetry. Formerly an MFA faculty member in poetry at Antioch University, Peter Levitt currently teaches in the UBC Creative Writing Optional Residency Program.

Chase Twichell is a widely published poet, editor and teacher, whose books of poetry include Dog Language (2005), The Snow Watcher (1998) and The Ghost of Eden (1995). Many of Chase’s poems are heavily influenced by her years as a Zen Buddhist student of John Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery. In 1999, Chase founded Ausable Press, which was recently acquired by Copper Canyon Press. She lives in Keene, New York, with her husband, novelist Russell Banks.

When: 7:30pm – Poetry: Memory and Dharma (75 minutes)
Where: Alfred Dallaire Memoria, 4231 Boulevard St Laurent, corner Rachel

Tickets: $15/12(available at the door or on the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival Website)

For full details of this discussion and reading and all other events of the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival, go to:
www.montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca

Contact Person: Myokyo, Enpuku-ji/Centre Zen de la Main 514.842.3648
publicity@montrealzenpoetryfestival.ca