Beaulieu, Derek and Gregory Betts, eds. Avant Canada: more useful knowledge.

Calgary: No press, November 2014. 98 copies.

A boxed edition with individual leaflets and chapbooks by Jordan Abel, Lillian Allen, Gary Barwin, Christian Bok, Jaap Blonk, Louis Cabri, Stephen Cain, Natalee Caple, Margaret Christakos, Carmen Derkson, Skawannati, Neil Hennessy, Karl Jirgens, Derek Knight, Jason Edward Lewis, Tanis MacDoanld, Shannon Maguire, Lee Maracle, Nicole Markotic, Steve McCaffery, Andrew McEwan, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Michal Nardone, Julia Polyck-O’Niell, Katie Price, a.rawlings, Shane Rhodes, Lisa Robertson, Eric Schmaltz, Stephen Scobie, Ron Silliman, Natalie Simpson, Chet Singh, Christine Stewart, Fenn Stewart, Natalie Zina Walschotts, d’bi.young anitafrika and the editors.

Distributed free to contributors and registrants at the Avant Canada: artists, prophets and revolutionaries. (Brock University, Nov 5-7, 2014)

I’m thrilled to announce that my ACAD ENGL216 students have just published:

Antiphon:
a suite of responses to Natalie Simpson’s Thrum

In Antiphon, seventeen undergraduate art students reply to the poetic implications of Natalie Simpson’s Thrum (Talonbooks, 2014). In Thrum Simpson explores how language “gapple[s] every filament twisting without wind” in a roiling boil of the everyday made strange. An “antiphon” is a call-and-response, choir-based form of chant and with Antiphon a choir of students add their artistic responses to the fray.
Each piece is accompanied by a short statement of artistic intent, allowing the artists to expand upon visuality.
In this volume each contributor explores the boundaries of their own expectations allowing language to be loosened from the need to mean in favour of a reveling in sound.
Including work by:
AYA ALLA HASSAN | DEREK DEBOER | MELANIE GAUDET | SAJE DAMEN | EMILY LIGHTHEART | AUDREY BURCH | SHELBY CHARLESWORTH | HAILEY MCLEAN | JUSTINE VAN ELSEBERG | TANISHA WESLEY | LEE HANASIEWICZ | LIAM KREUNEN | MICHELLE GUNST | MARIA MUNAR | MAEVE ORLADY | TAYLOR ROSE CHAPDELAINE | DANIELA OLAGARAY AMIEVA

Compiled and edited by derek beaulieu.

48 pages, full-colour, perfect-bound

Copies of Antiphon are now available for $3.41 + postage

I’m extremely proud to announce that my ACAD ENGL315 students have just produced

Re:Comp:
a suite of responses to Jordan Scott  + Stephen Collis’s Decomp.

In Re:Comp, thirty-two undergraduate art students explore the poetic implications of Jordan Scott + Stephen Collis’s Decomp (Coach House Books, 2013).
Each piece is accompanied by a short statement of artistic intent, allowing each artist to expand upon visuality. With Re:Comp, Collis + Scott’s book is a springboard for artistic response; a place to explore the implications of decomposition and recomposition. Across a variety of disciplines, the work in Re:Comp is a studied yet playful dialogue where art begets art. Including work by:
KAREN KRYZAN |SHERI SURKON | ZOEY CHILAND | KYLE GREEN | JASON COX | ANGUS HARDEN | SUSANNE AALTONEN | ERIN MCDONALD | MICHAELA KLASSEN | MASON GRAFF | NEVADA FREISTADT | C. ROSE KRUK | KELLIE FRANCES REID | HOLLY TOTTEN | AMANDA SALMON | NICOLE CHARLTON | KAT MACLEAN | VAUGHAN MCMILLAN | BRIANNA GLUSZAK | TONI NICOLE | KELLSEY RONAGHAN | BRENDAN SCHMIDT | DAN MCCARTNEY | TREY MADSEN | JOANNE TOWNSEND | KALEB ROMANO | ANGELA CORAM | TOMMI WATTS | STEPHANIE SANDERS |JOHN MAGUSS | GAYLE SUI | RYAN GAUDREAULT

Compiled and edited by derek beaulieu.
no press, 2014

76 pages, full colour, perfect-bound.

Copies of Re:Comp are available for purchase for $4.67 + postage here.

UK-based sound poetry choir Juxtavoices recently performed my visual poem “Helvetica” (which was created for the 2014 Textfestival in Bury, UK) on the stairwell of Sheffield Central Library Oct 11th …

(October 6, 2014 – Calgary, AB) Wordfest engaged Calgary’s poet laureate, derek beaulieu, and partnered with Pattison Outdoor Advertising to bring new forms of poetry into the everyday.

Word Powered Art presents a text-based poem by derek beaulieu to appear on digital billboards located along Macleod Trail and along Barlow Trail, beginning September 15 and leading up to the 19th annual Wordfest from October 14-19.

The artwork is randomly inserted in-between advertising with the aim of “interrupting” the unsuspecting audience with the power of words and story. A mockup of one of the locations and the original slide appears below.

Presented with support from Pattison Outdoor Advertising

146 Ave SE and Macleod Tr: Located deep in the heavily residential South-end of Calgary reaching downtown commuter traffic.

Find derek beaulieu’s digital poem at the following locations:

Barlow Tr N/O Airport Rd
Barlow Tr N/O Airport Rd
Macleod Tr 100m S/O 146 Ave SE
Macleod Tr 100m S/O 146 Ave SE
Barlow Tr 30m N/O 114 Ave SE
Barlow Tr 30m N/O 114 Ave SE

Chris Turnbull has embedded my visual poetry in the solar panels of Baxter’s Conservation Area…

I’ll be reading in Lethbridge, Alberta on September 21st as part of Word on the Street … see you there!

My brother-in-law Jon  was diagnosed with Kidney disease in 2001 and began peritoneal dialysis in early 2013. The road is long and his health – like so many people with Kidney Disease – is precarious.

On the weekend of September 5, 2014 , my wife Kristen (Ingram) Beaulieu is participating in The Kidney March with her aunt and cousin. Kristen will be walking 100 kilometres over three days from Kananaskis Country to Calgary with hundreds of other courageous people to raise money to fight kidney disease. The net proceeds from the event will support non-profit kidney health programs in every region of the country and cutting-edge medical research on kidney diseases at leading academic institutions. The Kidney Foundation, a registered charity, will award grants to these types of organizations.

As part of this fundrasier, Kristen as created www.jonnysangels.wordpress.com. Please check it out to learn more about the March. There is also a donation page on the site in hopes you may make a fully tax-deductible pledge to help us meet Kristen’s fundraising goal of $2800.

Kidney disease can strike anyone at any age. 1 in 10 Canadians have kidney disease, with millions more at risk.  It’s a silent killer; most people don’t know they have it until their kidneys are near failure. Once that happens, it’s a fight for survival.

Please do consider donating in support of Jonny’s Angels and the Kidney March.