Dear Friends &: D.M. Bradford, Danielle LaFrance, Jane Shi

Description:

Produced in partnership with The Capilano Review, Dear Friends & is a monthly series showcasing the work of local and touring Canadian writers. Taking place on the first Thursday of each month, readings are hosted in the Grand Luxe Hall and made available to virtual audiences by livestream.

The series’ name draws inspiration from the salutations and sign-offs used by Roy Kiyooka in Transcanada Letters (1975), a collection which details the comings and goings of his literary sociality across Canada, the network of people and relations that enfold his writing, and the longings of his “Heart’s Geography” to be near the ones he loved. Kiyooka was an important figure for both Western Front and The Capilano Review, and this series invites his spirit of kinship, connection, and conviviality into the reading space.

Coinciding with the launch of the Summer 2023 issue of The Capilano Review titled “In(ter)ventions in the Archive,” the third event of the series included readings by Jane Shi, Danielle LaFrance, and D.M. Bradford. Each writer presented twenty-minute sets that included new work and selections from published texts.

Shi opened the evening with work drawn from her debut chapbook Leaving Chang’e on Read (2022); as well as her poem “before you were born,” which won The Capilano Review’s 2022 In(ter)ventions in the Archive writing contest and was featured in the Summer 2023 issue.

Combining poetry, correspondence, and autotheory, LaFrance shared excerpts from their books JUST LIKE I LIKE IT (2019) and #post-dildo (2022), as well as a selection of unpublished poems developed through their intertextual sound project Yes, Sydo with Josh Rose.

With accompaniment by Shi, LaFrance, and Adiran Ho, Bradford closed the evening with a polyvocal presentation of work drawn from their forthcoming book Bottom Rail on Top (2023), which was also included in The Capilano Review's newest issue. 

The readings unfolded against a projected image by resident artist Christian Vistan, who was invited to inhabit the peripheral spaces of Dear Friends & through a series of conceptual graphics, backgrounds, interventions, and ephemera reflecting on themes of friendship and correspondence through art. Vistan’s image was inspired by the previous Dear Friends & in which Leanne Dunic began her reading by gifting a calendar to an audience member. Vistan’s new work was conceived as a composite “calendar” of painterly sketches using water-soluble charcoal, graphite, and ink. Exploring interactions between the wet and the dry, the images evoke smoke, weather, and weathering—themes that are central to their practice, and serendipitously echoed across the reading series.

The evening was hosted by Deanna Fong, literary editor of The Capilano Review.

Presented with support from Kootenay School of Writing.