BE BLANK CONSORT LAUNCHES THE A B SERIES 3RD SEASON

THE BE BLANK CONSORT

performs ensemble

with local poets AMANDA EARL, COLIN MORTON and SANDRA RIDLEY

+ surprise guests!

Doors open at 7pm
Performance at 8pm

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Gallery 101
301 1/2 Bank Street (upstairs)
Ottawa, Ont.

$15 admission

cash bar
book table

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After completing two very successful seasons of readings, The A B Series is set to launch its third season. The A B Series began life and its first season with a reading on November 1st, 2007. That first season culminated with a performance by Dutch sound poetry sensation, Jaap Blonk. The A B Series second season, which ran from fall 2008 to spring 2009, was equally auspicious. We witnessed the staging of 'MESSAGIO GALORE', a locally produced sound poetry spectacular. On February 6th, four Australian poets rocked The National Arts Centre's Fourth Stage. And we welcomed, amongst others, poets Clifton Joseph, Penn Kemp, bill bissett, Robert Priest and Christian Bok to The A B Series stage. We're looking forward to continuing this spirited tradition with readings in the third season, which will run between October 3rd and early June 2010.

THE A B SERIES LAUNCHES ITS THIRD SEASON with a performance by American sound poetry ensemble THE BE BLANK CONSORT on OCTOBER 3rd. It takes place in Ottawa's own and very dynamic artist-run centre, GALLERY 101. During the performance, The Be Blankers will call invited local artists to the stage for performance of select works from the Be Blank repertoire.

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THE BE BLANK CONSORT was born in June 2001 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) when all of its core members were part of a literary residency convened by Richard Kostelanetz. Each member is a writer using language in greatly expanded and often completely new ways and contexts. THE CONSORT was formed to perform various kinds of texts and visual texts, many of them created collaboratively, in ways that would reveal new resonances and possibilities. Some pieces in their repertoire are poems written by an individual member and scored for multiple voices by another. A few are entirely written and scored by one person. Many more were written in collaboration between two or more of the performers + others. Scott Helmes, in January 2002, initiated the first poems specifically designed for performance by THE CONSORT and many have followed since, created by all the members. In 2003, they released a CD, SOUND MESS: + OTHER POEMS.

THE CONSORT has performed numerous times with past engagements in Miami, New York, Columbus, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Roanoke, Prescott and elsewhere in The USA.

October 3rd, 2009 marks THE CONSORT'S first Canadian performance!

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CONSORT members performing on October 3rd, 2009:

JOHN M. BENNETT has exhibited and performed his word art worldwide, and has published over 300 books of poetry; among the most recent are LA M AL (Blue Lion Press), CANTAR DEL HUFF (Luna Bisonte Prods), LENTES, (Blue Lion Press), and SPITTING DDREAMS (Blue Lion Press). He is Curator of the Avant Writing Collection at the Ohio State University Libraries.

SCOTT HELMES' professional activities have been mainly in the fields of architecture and education. Starting in 1972, he began writing experimental poetry and pursuing mail art activities and artistic printmaking/drawings. His writing archive from 1972 to 1997 is in the Avant Writing Collection of the Ohio State University Libraries.

MICHAEL PETERS is the author of Vaast Bin (Calamari 2007). Various manifestations of his written images have appeared in journals like SleepingFish, Word for/Word and Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, among others. With Poem Rocket and the Be Blank Consort, various manifestations of his recorded sounds have appeared on labels such as Atavistic and Luna Bisonte Prods. His visual-poetic manifestations can be found in various libraries and special collections, as well as appearing in both galleries and sound-image anthologies.

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For more information on The Be Blank Consort and other upcoming events in The A B Series 3rd season, please refer to:

ABSERIES.ORG