WESTERN FRONT – Dear Friends &: Elisa Ferrari, River Halen, Kaie Kellough

A red abstract monotype print with gestural white and red markings that resemble cursive handwriting.

Western Front and The Capilano Review are pleased to present the next event in our monthly reading series Dear Friends &. Join us for an evening of poetry by Elisa Ferrari, River Halen, and Kaie Kellough, hosted by Deanna Fong.

About the Artists

Elisa Ferrari is an artist who works with sound, performance, and writing. Her practice and collaborations are concerned with memory formations, idleness, sonic sediments, translingual ecologies, somatic inquiries, and the infrasonic. She hosts aux-sends—a quarterly radio series about experimental music, sound, and poetics—on Vancouver Co-op Radio. She occasionally curates exhibitions and sound events. She lives as an uninvited guest on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh territories (Vancouver, Canada) and in Brescia, Italy, where she grew up.

River Halen is a writer, editor, and educator based in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang (Montréal, Canada). Their poems and essays have dealt with relation, ecology, transformation, and sexuality. Their most recent book, Dream Rooms, a collection of essays and poems, was shortlisted for the A.M. Klein Prize and selected by Renee Gladman for Artforum Magazine as a top-ten pick of the year. Halen is an acquiring editor for Brick Books and has taught sessionally in the Toronto Metropolitan University publishing program.

River Halen holds a soft gaze and close-lipped smile. They have short textured brown hair and are dressed in a blueish-grey collared button up shirt.

Kaie Kellough is a poet, fiction writer, and sound performer based in Montréal, Canada. His work emerges at a crossroads of social engagement and formal experiment. His long poem Magnetic Equator (McClelland and Stewart, 2019), won the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize. His solo and group sound performances have toured internationally, and he is a vocalist for FYEAR, a nonet whose debut was released in 2024 with Constellation Records.

Kaie Kellough holds a soft expression while gazing into the camera. He has short silver hair, and wears black framed glasses and a white mandarin collar shirt with the top button undone. He stands outdoors with blurred green foliage and dappled light in the background.

Accessibility

The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor of Western Front, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. While plans for a full building upgrade to facilitate access for wheelchair and scooter users are still underway, events in the Grand Luxe Hall are made available virtually via high-quality livestream (see link above). Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here.

Acknowledgements

Produced in partnership with The Capilano Review and with support from the BC Arts Council.

Jonathan Alfaro, Jungle Cactus from the series Daylight Lover (2024).

Jonathan Alfaro, Jungle Cactus from the series Daylight Lover (2024).
Portrait of Elisa Ferrari. Photo by John Brennan.

Portrait of Elisa Ferrari. Photo by John Brennan.
Portrait of River Halen. Photo by Justine Latour.

Portrait of River Halen. Photo by Justine Latour.
Portrait of Kaie Kellough. Photo by Kevin Calixte.

Portrait of Kaie Kellough. Photo by Kevin Calixte.

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.