The launch of Here We Are Among the Living (Tightrope Books) will take place Wednesday, June 20 at 7:30pm at Revival, 783 College St. in Toronto.�� A second launch will take place July 8 at 5pm in Dufferin Grove Park.

An inter-generational story, the book documents the first years of the 21st century, beginning with a conflict between Bernstein and her mother over the meaning of 9-11 and their responses to it. In another early scene, Bernstein finds a letter from her father to her mother written after their divorce in which he rails against flower child hypocrisy. Here We Are Among the Living is in part about our attempts to reconcile ourselves to history, both familial and cultural.

Samantha Bernstein

The epistolary form has for over 200 years been an outlet for social criticism and an expression of engagement, especially for young people.�� Bernstein’s memoir in e-mails captures both her generation’s political sensibilities and desire for instant communication.��

Bernstein started writing it while completing her master’s degree thesis in Interdisciplinary Studies in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the story  includes her time as an undergraduate student in the University’s Creative Writing Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Her poetry and prose has appeared in various publications, including Exile Literary Quarterly, Books in Canada, The Fiddlehead and the anthology TOK 3: Writing the New Toronto.��

In addition, Bernstein received federal funding for her dissertation this year, which considers some of the central questions about ethics and aesthetics posed in Here We Are Among the Living.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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There are three launches scheduled for Keeney's new books, First Woman (Inanna Publications) and You Bring Me Wings (ANTARES Publishing House of Spanish Culture). The first is Tuesday, Nov. 8 at The Art Bar at 8pm, second floor of the Paupers Pub, 539 Bloor St. W. in Toronto.

The second will be at 91��ɫ on Wednesday, Nov. 16, from 3 to 4:30pm, as part of the Canadian Studies Speaker Series, in the Senior Common Room, 010 Vanier College, Keele campus, where she’ll also read and discuss her creative work and research. The third launch by Inanna Publications���ڴǰ���First Woman will take place Thursday, Nov. 24, from 6 to 8pm, at the College Street United Church, 452 College St. in Toronto.��

Keeney draws her greatest inspiration from the intersection of cultures, whether between members of one family, intimate friends or peoples around the world. She is a constant traveller.��This academic year alone, she was involved in conferences and arts festivals from Russia to Slovenia to Iran. As Keeney puts it, "I'm a wanderer...more of a cultural explorer than a tourist." And it is those wanderings that seep deep into the layers of her work, emerging as poems that often express a different way of seeing the world.

Left: Patricia Keeney

For You Bring Me Wings, Keeney travelled to Mexico City for a summer of imaginative conversation with Mexican poet Ethel Krauze that spilled onto the pages of their new book.��This bilingual (English and Spanish) collection is infused with what  identifies as "poems and conversations around love, the creative process, the conditions of womanhood and the marginalization of two distinct cultures co-existing along the American border.” The conversations explore approaches to writing poetry and living life fully. As writer Eva Tihanyi puts it in her introduction: “Finally a book that presents talking and poetry as a partnership, that dares to embrace its own ���ܲ���𳦳پ������ٲ�.”

Keeney was one of the first Canadian writers to be given a grant under the North American Free Trade Agreement to open up areas of cultural exchange with Mexico.

Keeney's poems have been hailed as lyric and political, ranging from sexual love to individual relations, to confrontations with power and profound meditations on life and culture. In her First Woman collection of poems, she examines, at a "deeply personal level, the richly ambivalent experience of living in South Africa, for instance, and it explores the dynamics of family. So, the interior life is both personal and political, local and global.��For me, there is no discrepancy in this," says the author of nine books of poetry and a novel.��"The way we see things and the weight we give them determines their importance in our sense of who we are." 

Keeney continued her investigation of cultural borders in Iran recently where it is mandatory for women, including foreign visitors, to wear a hijab. "The ambivalence I felt about this was echoed in some extraordinary conversations with women in academia and the arts around various kinds of repression in a society that is deeply divided. I am writing about it already," she says.

Left: Patricia Keeney sharing a traditional meal in Iran with her husband, 91��ɫ theatre Professor Don Rubin, and a friend (left)

Her poetry has been translated into French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Chinese and Hindi. As a book and theatre reviewer, and an arts journalist for over 20 years, Keeney has written extensively in various Canadian and international publications, including The Canadian Forum, Maclean's magazine, Canadian Literature, Canadian Woman Studies, Arc Poetry Magazine, New Theatre Quarterly, based in London, England, South African Theatre Journal and Critical Stages, a web journal.

Some of Keeney’s previous work includes her first collection of poetry Swimming Alone (Oberon Press, 1988); a post-feminist novel, The Incredible Shrinking Wife (Black Moss Press, 1995); and Selected Poems of Patricia Keeney (Oberon Press, 2002). She is currently working on new fiction.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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This world premiere is the season opener for Toronto’s DanceWorks and kicks off Harbourfront Centre’s dance series NextSteps 11/12.

The show is co-produced by Native Earth Performing Arts and Signal Theatre, a company Greyeyes founded for this production.

Right: Ceinwen Gobert performs in from thine eyes

Greyeyes����𱹱���DZ��� from thine eyes in collaboration with Aboriginal writer Yvette Nolan. It is set to an original score composed by former 91��ɫ theatre student Miquelon Rodriguez and Sharon Hann (BFA ‘06) designed the costumes.�� 

The title is taken from a passage in the Koran: "Lift the veil from thine eyes”. It refers to making the passage from this life into the next and seeing ourselves and others truthfully.�� 

The six performers, including dance grad Shannon Litzenberger (MA ‘05), express the struggle to find meaning at the end of their lives as they confront their deepest fears, most cherished memories and each other.��

“These thoughts about mortality came from conversations with my mother before she passed,” said Greyeyes. “In my culture [Plains Cree], we don’t view death as an end. It is the next step on a journey. For me as an Aboriginal artist, it’s essential that my company communicates my worldview and cosmology.” 

The cast has been rehearsing on campus in the Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts over the summer and moves into the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film & Theatre next week for additional preparation.��

Left: Michael Greyeyes

91��ɫ theatre Professor James McKernan is serving as technical director and has involved the production in colleague Peter McKinnon’s research project on sustainability in live performance. “Building on existing data and tools already in use in the construction industry, we’re using from thine eyes as a test piece to create a budgeting tool that tracks the carbon footprint of a show, similar to the way designers track financial expenditures on their materials,” said McKernan.�� 

The design team has been designing a shadow production, tracking the materials they would have used were sustainability not a factor. At the end of the production, the two tracking documents will be compared, so the sustainability gains can be measured. The extra time and work involved in designing two editions of the show and sourcing the most sustainable materials available is where support for the project from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada has been most valuable, McKernan noted.��

Left: James McKernan

“We’re learning that sustainability at this stage in the game is all about long-term planning,” he said. “We’ve found that the eco-option is rarely more expensive – it’s just sometimes harder to find and more time consuming to buy. Hopefully, as the demand grows and as designers learn the best sources for these materials, it will become even easier to reduce the impact of a production on our environment.” 

from thine eyes runs Sept. 22 to 24 at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre. For more information and tickets, visit the ���ɱ�������ٱ�.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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