HA&L 13th ANNIVERSARY
in Partnership with the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival
and the Art Gallery of Hamilton!
THURSDAY DECEMBER 2, 2021
View screenings in-person at the AGH
& CELEBRATE with HA&L on ZOOM!
CELEBRATING:
HA&L Issue 14.1 ~ THE HAMMER
WITH A Look Forward To: HA&L issue 14.2
The Science Issue
with Guest Editor Sima Rabinowitz
JOIN US! CELEBRATE WITH US!
This year Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine marks its 13th anniversary in partnership with the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
ZOOM WITH US!
December 2nd at 7pm
HA&L’s 13th Anniversary will be celebrated through a Zoom event with special guests: filmmaker Sedona Micale, composer Dusty Micale, artist Clarence Porter, writers Elizabeth Tessier, Richard Van Holst, Leo Dragtoe, Bernadette Rule, and Jeffery Donaldson. Issue 14.2 Guest Editor Sima Rabinowitz. Sheila Murray on Michael Mitchell’s film Steam Pump. AND AbleHamilton Poetry Festival Director Shane Neilson.
CELEBRATE WITH US!
HA&L editors Paul Lisson and Fiona Kinsella want to see you on ZOOM December 2nd at 7pm!!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
FOR HA&L’s 13th ANNIVERSARY ZOOM PARTY !! >>>
IN-PERSON at the AGH Pavilion
Thursday December 2,
from 1pm to 8pm
+ Free Admission to all exhibitions
Visit the Art Gallery of Hamilton in-person for a one-day on-site HA&L installation.
DROP IN TO VIEW HA&L’s SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Looping Films from: 1pm to 3pm and 4pm to 8pm
The Foundry directed by Sedona Micale:
based on a poem by Elizabeth Tessier, voiced by Leo Dragtoe, artwork by Clarence Porter, composer Dusty Micale.
The Perfect Archive directed by Simon Richards:
based on a poem by Paul Lisson, composer Dusty Micale.
Steam Pump directed by Michael Mitchell:
inspired by the Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station, a National Historic Site of Canada, composer Charles James.
VIDEO POEMS:
“Lady in Shadow” by Richard Van Holst
The story of how a poem becomes a song: “JADE” by Leo Dragtoe
AND WATCH AN INTERVIEW:
Time: 3pm to 4pm
Art Waves radio host Bernadette Rule and writer Jeffery Donaldson interview one another. Donaldson tells the story of his discovery of a book length poem written about Hamilton in 1839. Bernadette Rule looks back on thirteen years of hosting Art Waves 101.5 FM THE HAWK. (This hour length video will also be available in HA&L issue 14.2). In-person viewing time at the AGH for this interview: 3pm to 4pm.
WHEN?
THURSDAY DECEMBER 2nd, 2021
HA&L magazine 13th Anniversary at the Art Gallery of Hamilton
In-Person film and video screenings at the AGH Pavilion:
Times: 1pm to 3pm AND 4pm to 8pm
In-Person screening – Bernadette Rule and Jeffery Donaldson Interview (one hour long). Time: 3pm to 4pm
HA&L ZOOM PARTY: December 2nd, 7:00pm (B.Y.O.B. or a cuppa chai).
Please refer to the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s website for information on Accessibility.
COVID-19:
As of November 11, the AGH requires proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or valid medical exemption plus personal identification to be presented by visitors entering the building aged 12 and up. Proof of vaccination can be a digital or paper document. Visitors 11 years and younger must be accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult.
All visitors are required to wear a face mask and practice physical distancing.
MORE INFO on Planning Your Visit: https://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/plan-your-visit/
HA&L 13TH ANNIVERSARY PARTICIPANTS:
SEDONA MICALE is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, actress, and filmmaker. Originally from New Jersey, she relocated to Canada in 2014 to pursue her creative and academic ventures. She has performed in a wide variety of venues such as The Bowery Poetry Club (NYC), The Count Basie Theatre (NJ), The Sound of Music Festival (ON) and The World Café Live (PA) to name a few. Favourite credits include: Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing… (BST), Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber… (LOT) and the Musical Director of Shakespeare’s As You Like It (TRTC).
You can find her @sedonamicale on Instagram.
ELIZABETH TESSIER is a Hamilton poet. Her work is informed by her 30 years working in Hamilton museums and her current life with early onset Parkinson’s. She has previously published in Evenings on Paisley Avenue: Seven Hamilton Poets. She has a self-published book, The Words They Cannot Say, edited by her friend and mentor Marilyn Gear-Pilling. Her chapbook entitled Frozen Charlotte is published by Frog Hollow Press edited by Shane Neilson as part of their Dis/Ability series. She currently has work in RAVE and the Spring 2021 HA&L thanks to her friend, inspiration and editor Bernadette Rule.
CLARENCE PORTER is a visual artist and his work is represented by Earls Court Gallery in Hamilton. His work has been collected locally and internationally. He received his Master Pastel Artist of Canada (MPAC) signature designation from Pastel Artists Canada in 2014 and was elected a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA) in 2016. He is also a member of the International Association of Pastel Societies.
Clarence is an instructor at the Dundas Valley School of Art, and Sheridan College, Visual and Creative Arts Department. He has also held positions as an occasional instructor at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Aurora Cultural Centre.
DUSTY MICALE pursued his interest for Classical Music through the study of Composition at the Juilliard School in NYC, and private studies with American composer Stanley Wolfe. Dusty completed a Bachelors of Music from Mannes/The New School in NYC and was awarded a prestigious scholarship for further study at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He later received a position as a “Participating Composer” in the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. He recently scored two documentary films, “Prayers of the Ancient Ones,” and “Contemporary Days” and both are in current release worldwide.
Dusty has been ASCAP member since 1989. He has collaborated with other songwriters, teaming up with the best to write and produce. While professional performance, composition, arranging, and recording have been the core of his musical career, Dusty has taught music and piano throughout the years with great passion and enthusiasm. He joined the Mohawk Faculty in 2013 to contribute to the success of his students in this outstanding musical program.
RICHARD VAN HOLST is a research assistant and copy-editor at Redeemer University. He enjoys reading and listening to classical music. The author of three published short stories, he won the Short Works Prize in Fiction (2014) and the Hamilton Emerging Artist Award for Writing (2017). He is currently working on a new short story. In the meantime, his book reviews, which are sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes liberally sprinkled with bad puns, continue to educate and amuse members of the Goodreads community.
LEO DRAGTOE is a disabled poet, musician, artist and writer who resides in Hamilton, Ontario. He loves the city and it loves him back. Leo has always had a very friendly relationship with words and he has been constantly captivated by the power, weight and beauty they possess. His lyrics, prose and poetry are all attempts to capture ‘the rhythm of the moment’ and explore the dynamic nature of the Word itself as it merges with emotion, expression, mind and soul. Leo’s work has appeared in Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine as well as Imaginary Safe House Dis/Ability Series anthology. His first solo album of original music Alive at Zyla’s was released in 2020.
BERNADETTE RULE‘s first novel, a creative nonfiction book entitled Dark Fire, was released spring 2021. She has published seven volumes of poetry, most recently Earth Day in Leith Churchyard: Poems in Search of Tom Thomson (Seraphim Editions). Rule also hosts Art Waves on 101.5 The Hawk Sundays from 7 to 8 pm. Among other awards, she has received two Short Works Prizes, one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction, as well as the 2017 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing. An eighth collection, a chapbook of longer poems entitled Deep Breath, is forthcoming from Frog Hollow Press. [Photograph by Carys Rouleau.]
JEFFERY DONALDSON came to Hamilton 32 years ago when he escaped from Toronto to join the English department at McMaster University, where he has been propagating fibs and fictions ever since. His seventh collection of verse, a series of near sonnets on the matter of metaphor entitled Granted, will be published with Porcupine’s Quill in the spring of 2022.
SIMA RABINOWITZ is the author of The Jewish Fakebook (Elixir Press) and Murmuration (New Michigan Press). Her poetry and prose poems have appeared in Slag Glass City, Amp, Trivia, Writer’s Resist, and in numerous issues of HA&L, among other publications. Her essay, “What She Said,” was published last year in the 20th Anniversary Commemorative Issue of The Saint Ann’s Review. Sima is Guest Editor for HA&L issue 14.2. She lives in the Bronx, New York.
MICHAEL MITCHELL (1943-2020). A graduate of the University of Toronto and Ryerson, Michael Mitchell returned to Toronto after working in Mexico as an archeologist. Mitchell’s work has appeared in many national magazines, including Weekend, Saturday Night, Descant, and Canadian Art. As well as working as a teacher, he was on the curatorial and acquisitions committee for prints, drawings, and photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario and a founder of several enduring arts organizations. Mitchell’s photographs are in the collections of Sweden’s Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, the Portrait Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as many private and corporate collections. Michael was born in Hamilton.
SHANE NEILSON is a disabled poet, physician, and critic. He received the Governor General’s Gold Medal for his dissertation work in disability studies and the Regional Dean’s Award for Excellence in Medical Education which was also bestowed for Shane’s championing of disability in McMaster’s medical faculty. He is the festival director of the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival, and Poetry Advisor for the Canadian Medical Association Journal where he actively works to include poems by disabled writers. His poems have appeared in numerous journals.
SIMON RICHARDS is a writer, illustrator, director and actor with 25+ commercial film and TV credits, perhaps the most unexceptional that of playing Mickey Rooney’s son in Home for Christmas (1990). The most notable might be the Genie nominated film House written and directed by Laurie Lynd as an adaptation of Daniel MacIvor’s one-man play. The film premiered at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival. Simon has also performed in and co-directed independent films, perhaps the most notorious being Death in the Hammer by Denise Lisson. In addition Simon has performed numerous roles onstage including at the McManus Studio of the Grand Theatre, London ON and Nightwood Theatre at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto ON. Simon’s film, The Perfect Archive, based on the poem by Paul Lisson, premiered at the Art Gallery of Hamilton Film Festival in 2021.
PAUL LISSON is a poet, editor, and visual artist. Hamilton Arts Award for Arts Management (2017) and for Visual Art and Writing (1997). Founding Member of the Ontario D/deaf/HoH, Disabled, Mad, Sick and Neuroatypical Poetics Collective. Recipient of the McMaster University Rand Memorial Prize for writing and an International Merit Award for poetry from The Atlanta Review. Facilitator – the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival – among the first dis/Ability-focused poetry festivals in Canada. Member of the League of Canadian Poets. Paul’s book, The Perfect Archive, (“Bloody amazing stuff.” – Judith Fitzgerald, The Globe and Mail) is available from Guernica Editions. Paul acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council for both his writing and visual art. (PaulLisson.com).
JOIN US! CELEBRATE WITH US!
WE’D LOVE TO SEE YOU THERE!
DECEMBER 2, ZOOM PARTY 7pm: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER >>>
CLICK HERE TO READ / SEE / HEAR >>>
HA&L issue 14.1 – THE HAMMER
Nicola Winstanley • Stephanie Lewis • Rae Bates • Rae Hendershot • Liz Tessier • C. P. Boyko • Gord Pullar • David Collier • Nichole Fanara • Jeffery Donaldson • William A. Stephens • Jeff Mahoney • Theresa Picone • Earl Miller • Michael Hansen • Mohammad Ferdosi • Wayne Lewchuk • Tom Mcdowell • Stephanie Ross • Cees and Annerie van Gemerden • Maxwell Kennel • Leo Dragtoe • Brian Palmu • Anna Veprinska • Ben Robinson • Danny Jacobs • Linzey Corridon • Carl Watts • Jeff Tessier • David Brace • Natalie Hunter • Bart Gazzola • J.S. Porter • Dennis Lee • Terence Kinsella • Camille Kinsella • Clarence Porter • Janice Kovar • Paul Enright • Keeping Six • Strom • Kelly Wolf • Martin Verrall • John Harvey • The Hated Uncles • Michelle Findlater • James McDonald • Bernadette Rule • Timothy Christian • Peggyanne Mansfield • Daniel Coleman • Camille Nivera • Margaret Watson • Angela Zheng • Mahnoor Memon • Sowmithree Ragothaman • Sahanah Thirukumar •
Questions? Email: HAL@HALmagazine.com
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