Last week in a nutshell

Well, it's a torrent of activity in the land of raw. In a nutshell:

• spent my second-last OAC AiE project with students at Aldershot Secondary School in Burlington last week. There was such enthusiasm for the work we covered, and I was particularly impressed by the willingness to take risks and explore new ground exhibited by grade twelve students. Some fascinating linguistic and sound experiments offered by students, too. A great memory. I'm sure I'll encounter these students again in the future, and look forward to returning to Aldershot next year.
• visited Parkdale Collegiate to work with drama students on poetry and sound improvisation. Again, such open-minded and thoughtful participants. Wholly impressed.
• lost my voice due to overuse and so spent half the week froggy.
• enjoyed Coach House Books spring launch, with new work by Maggie Helwig, Jen Currin, RM Vaughan, Claudia Dey, and Jordan Scott (see note below for more on Jordan's book).
• also enjoyed an intimate reading by Rachel Levitsky and Gail Scott. It was a real treat to hear Rachel's work, as I'd not had the pleasure. She even read a poem in Icelandic, one of hers translated into Icelandic by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl (and hey! I even understood part of it as she pronounced it!! Gold star for me slooooooowly learning elements of the language). Gail shared work in progress that was playful, strong, and kept my brain busy pondering subtext. Can't wait for this book.
• met with Dennis Lee for inspiring conversation in preparation of Influency next month. Dennis is deeply cool, and his last book (yesno) felt like a sibling to Wide slumber in an odd way.
• 'risi aged! Rocka!
• Ciara and I attended the Summerworks Theatre Festival launch, to represent bluemouth inc. Finally got to see an excerpt from Anorexican, the one play I missed last year but really wished I'd caught. Just stellar comedic performance, dark delivery. Now I want to see it entirely. Remount, please??
• chased this with a photo shoot for a Luminato project called Milles Femmes.
• and then a bluemouth board meeting, which netted a few quite thrilling ideas which may come to pass this summer, in anticipation of their next major Toronto project, The Dance Marathon. I'll post more once plans are confirmed.
• and throughout it all, work work work. I'm in a mad dash to finish several contracts and get ahead on others before I leave for Europe next week. More soon on that. I'm remiss in posting my countdown to Belgium, but it'll happen. Ridiculously hyper for this excursion, feeling so fortunate and awed. I wake up everyday ready to jig!