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 Empress of Poetry to Read at Trent University on World AIDS DayFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jill Battson poetry reflects on 25-year history of AIDS pandemic Monday, November 29, 2010, Peterborough
Poet Jill Battson will read from her new book Dark Star Requiem in honour of World AIDS day in the Champlain Living Learning Commons at Champlain College, Trent University on December 1 at 3:00 p.m. and at 8:00 p.m. at The Sapphire Room on Hunter Street as a part of PARN: Your Community AIDS Resource Network’s AIDS Awareness Week 2010. Dark Star Requiem’s cycle of poems reflects on the realities of the 25-year history of the worldwide AIDS pandemic with astonishing power. Ms. Battson’s poems shine a light on those affected by the fear, confusion and devastation that the disease has wrought. Dark Star Requiem was also recorded as a dramatic oratorio performed by Tapestry New Opera with music composed by Andrew Staniland, co-produced by Tapestry and Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity. CBC Radio 2 will broadcast a recording of the world premiere of Dark Star Requiem between 10:00 p.m. and midnight on World AIDS Day, Dec 1. Listeners will be able to follow the text and view production images online at http://www.tapestrynewopera.com/. The Toronto Star called the oratorio “Artistically adventurous and intellectually provocative.” Classical Music Guide called it “a ‘tapestry’ quite consistently mesmerizing to the collective senses and conscience of the rapt audience” and “a work of vital . . . lasting, thought-provoking power.” Jill Battson is an internationally published poet and poetry activist. She has been widely featured in literary journals and anthologies in North America and the UK and has performed her work around the globe. Hard Candy, her first book, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award. She has also written several plays and solo works, including Ecce Homo – an enhanced monologue for dance and voice that premiered at Peterborough New Dance/Public Energy’s Emergency festival. Recently, she has written the libretti for two short operas, Netsuke and Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind produced by Toronto’s Tapestry New Opera Works. Her last book of poems, Ashes are Bone and Dust, was published by Insomniac Press, and her new book of poems, Dark Star Requiem, has just been published by Folded & Gathered Press. -30- For more information or to book a media interview with Jill Battson on the morning of Dec 1, please contact: Dr. Mike Allcott, head of Champlain College, Trent University; michaelallcott@trentu.ca or 705.748.1280 |
