john curry, certainly a world class poet living in our community, is
presently facing almost certain eviction.
Stephen Brockwell alerted me of this precarious situation, by phone, and asked if I would get the word out, most recently at the TREE Reading Series on September 22, where we were able to scare up enough to cover one of his 5 months owed rent & save his telephone service.
currys been in constant production of his own and hundreds of others work since 1979. hes mainly ineligible for grants. His bookstore is mainly an unused resource. His archive documenting the growth of avant-garde writing in Canada is one of the key collections in the country. Nicky Drumbolis has said: curry and his work are the best-kept secret in Canada.
Since time is of the essence, if currys to avoid eviction, there are a few ways you can help:
Start to use his goddamn store!
Room 302 Books is the only bookstore in Canada ever to focusspecifically on the avant-garde and overlooked outsiders, specializing in concrete/visual/sound poetries (mainly Canadian) with a stock of over 20,000 mainly rare titles, including elusive ephemera, and probably the only source of most of jwcurrys various imprints and titles (which number
in the thousands). currys current lists finally focus on his own work as artist & publisher, virtually the first time everything thats (still) available has been made commonly available. You can purchase bookstore IOUs (or set up an account) today in any amount for those whod like to do that.
Subscribe to Curvd H&z, currys serial imprint. donor subscriptions (please indicate) of $100 or more get « the stash in a sampling of available titles from various of his imprints immediately, the remaining « put on account for forthcoming titles.
Donate outright.
I would like to encourage you to donate something so as to keep this excellent bookstore, publisher, archive and artist alive, and at the same time help prevent currys eviction from his apartment. For those whod like to purchase bookstore IOUs, Id ask you to write (#302-880 Somerset Street West, Ottawa Canada K1R 6R7) or call him at (613) 233 0417. Please
contribute as you can.
Roland Prevost (with collusions with curry)
