The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word has come to Ottawa this week and it finishes up tonight at the Dominion-Chalmers United Church. Over 100 talented Slam Poets from all over Canada have traveled to Ottawa to compete in this National Championship. The final night of the festival gets going at 7pm, with a showcase including the Poets of Honour. At 9pm, the finals begin and the Canadian champions will be decided. 

Come out tonight and check out some truly gifted artists.

The Dominion-Chalmers United Church is at 355 Cooper Street and tickets are $15. 

Friday

"Presenting: Canterbury" features paintings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media pieces created by eight promising young artists enrolled in 'Arts Canterbury', a specialized intensive arts program offered at Canterbury High School in Ottawa. Dale Smith Gallery is pleased to present the second annual exhibition of work by graduating visual arts students.  Last February the first exhibition of work by student artists was a great success.  My aim is to offer these talented young people an authentic exhibition experience.  At this stage in their career, they are constantly experimenting and changing, and their work is fresh and original-and it's of truly amazing quality. The artists are Rose Anderson, Hannah Bailey, Anna Cumyn, Tricia Flohr, Jason Guo, Lisa Sleiman, Darya Tonkykh and Alice Zhang. Join the artists and friends at the opening reception on Friday, February 5, from 7-10 p.m. | 137 Beechwood Ave. The exhibition continues until March 2.

Canteen presents "What I See," an Art Show Curated By Pierre Richardson
5 - 28 February 2010
Opening Party: Friday, February 5th, 7pm
238 Dalhousie Street

Saturday

INVITATION TO VIEW UNIQUE ROCK ART IN MIXED MEDIA
BY JAG MARU
WHERE: LOBLAWS  STORE IN BELLS CORNER
      59-A ROBERTSON ROAD
      (AT THE CORNER OF ROBERTSON ROAD AND MOODIE DRIVE)
WHEN:  SATURDAY THE 6th FEBRUARY, 2010
      FROM 9:00 am TO 9:00 pm.
WHAT:  ORIGINAL ART PIECES IN MIXED MEDIA
      EXCELLENT QUALITY DIGITAL PHOTOGRAHS (FRAMED
      AND UNFRAMED) OF THE ORIGINAL ART PIECES.

Sunday

City Hall Art Gallery
Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West
Adrienne Herron, "Over 18, Over 80: The Generations Project"
ARTIST TALK (in English):
Sunday, February 7 at 2 p.m.
Free of charge |  Exhibition continues until February 28, 2010

I invite you to the Opening and Reception of "Deborah Arnold: Selected Works", this Sunday, 7th February 2010, 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. at Snapdragon Gallery | 791 Bank Street at Third Avenue
Deborah Arnold is a recognised sculptor working in Carrara and Venus marble, Italian alabaster, Mariash limestone, chlorite, Italian chrystolino, pyrotholite, bronze, steel and wood.

Black History Month
PrufRock - Spoken Word Poet
When: Sunday, February 7, 2010
Location: Swizzles Bar & Grill
246-B Queen St., Between Kent and Bank Streets
Time: 2:00-5:00 p.m. | Admission is free

The Ottawa Chamber Music Society, under the Artistic Direction of Roman Borys, the Gryphon Trio, and in partnership with the Extra Curricular Creative Arts Program, of the Continuing Education department of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, proudly announces the Ottawa debut of Rob Kapilow to reveal What Makes It Great?©.  Commentator, composer and conductor Rob Kapilow will take his audience on a riveting exploration of Brahms' Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8 (Revised Version - 1891), followed by a performance of the work by the Gryphon Trio, on Sunday, February 7 at 3 PM at Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street, Ottawa.

Any time you like!

Unique and thought-provoking photographic works greet visitors at Ralph Nevins's exhibition beginning February 1st at Gallery Farina. The show continues until March 28th. Gallery Farina is located upstairs at Johnny Farina Restaurant, 216 Elgin Street, Ottawa.

Bright Bold Art Show at Foyer Gallery
The works range from colourful acrylic reliefs depicting Las Vegas showgirls and carousel horses through Dhanashri’s watercolour florals, including waterlilies; to duets by Patricia Kirby of the same floral subjects done first in watercolour, then in oil; as well as Ray’s vibrant, abstract expressionist works in acrylic. The show continues through February 14 at the Foyer Gallery, which is located at 1701 Woodroffe (Nepean Sportsplex, Entrance 1).

RÉTRO-VISION, UNE EXPOSITION PRÉSENTÉE PAR MARIELLE ROULEAU À L'ESPACE PIERRE-DEBAIN
L'Espace Pierre-Debain de la Ville de Gatineau est heureux d'accueillir les œuvres de Marielle Rouleau dans le cadre de l'exposition intitulée Rétro-vision présentée du 29 janvier au 28 février 2010 inclusivement au 120, rue Principale, à Gatineau.

There are so many arts things happening in town tonight that it just seems like a better idea to combine them in one post than to keep posting them separately. Duplicate info will be deleted shortly.

ABSTrACTS/RéSuMÉS: An Exercise in Poetry
Thursday January 28, 7 pm
Performances at 7:30 pm
Club SAW, 67 Nicholas Street, Ottawa
Free admission (donations are welcome)
In the context of the exhibition Fibred Optics, the Ottawa Art Gallery and The A B Series present a reading by six poets who transform Michele Provost's installation into an evening of performance poetry. Provost's visual art installation references text from contemporary art criticism and forms the raw material for the commissioned poets' projects.
The A B Series specializes in presenting readings of performance, sound and experimental poetry by professional local, national and international artists. For more on The A B Series, please visit www.abseries.org.

THE CFI IS PROUD TO PRESENT:
ATOM EGOYAN IN PERSON with THE ADJUSTER (1991)
Screening and Book Launch
Thursday, January 28
7:00pm
Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington)
$10 Students, Seniors, CFI Members
$15 General Public
No Passes
Atom Egoyan in person! Restored 35mm scope print!
Throughout 2010, the CFI will be celebrating its 75th year with special cinematic events.
The first of these will take place on January 28, when Atom Egoyan – who showed his first feature film, NEXT OF KIN, at the CFI way back in 1984 – will come to Ottawa to introduce the CFI's screening of a restored print of his 1991 film, THE ADJUSTER.  This screening will also feature the official Ottawa launch of  the book, ATOM EGOYAN’S THE ADJUSTER, written by CFI Executive Director, Tom McSorley, and published by University of Toronto Press.

Are you interested in performing in, contributing to, or attending the following? If so, please email radicalvulvasottawa@gmail.com - we would love to have you!

"The Radical Vulvas" originated in 2007 in Halifax at the Dalhousie University Women's Centre. It is a community response to The Vagina Monologues: a play that started a necessary dialogue that should absolutely not end there, or be limited only to a certain kind of woman, or limit itself to women at all. The Radical Vulvas aims to be a multi-disciplinary art and discussion forum, enabling further discourse about women's experiences and gender issues.

As such, we are inviting anyone and everyone to express themselves through any medium (song, monologue/dialogue, poetry, visual art, dance, performance, etc) on the subject of women. As a "write your own" production, the Radical Vulvas is whatever the community makes of it. Since its original performance in Halifax, it has been performed in Victoria, BC, Montreal, and here in Ottawa last summer as well! We hope that this summer's incarnation will be an empowering evening of respectful communication and a celebration of women everywhere.

The event itself will take place on August 14th at 7:00 p.m. at Mercury Lounge in the Byward Market (56 Byward Market Square). If you would like to perform or participate, that's wonderful! We are accepting submissions by email until July 30th. Please send either a copy of your text or a sound recording to radicalvulvasottawa@gmail.com. If your piece does not include text or if the bulk of the piece is made up of some other element, a description of your piece and what you are communicating would be ideal. You can perform original work or someone else's work, or they can perform yours; whatever makes you feel comfortable. We would also like to include the visual arts at the Ottawa show and are looking to display paintings, photography, etc.

Performance submissions should be under ten minutes. If you are interested in performing but are unable to meet the July 30th deadline, please contact us anyway, as soon as possible, so we can do our best to include you! Questions or comments can also be directed to us via email.

Thank you!

Alison Hunt and Hannah Morrow

On Saturday, the Dusty Owl publishing house hosted a reading of four Aboriginal poets: Mosha Folger and Dorothee Komangapik, both Inuit; Lisa Abel, a young poet from the M'Chigeeng Reserve on Manitoulin Island, now studying journalism at Carleton; and Rob Friday, a First Nations artist and writer.

There was a wide range in the ages and backgrounds of the poets, and in their styles. Folger, young and trim, with a slightly nervous manner,  read mainly short poems that he mostly wrote as spoken word pieces. (His "Old Indifferences," about coming across destitute Inuit on Rideau Street in Ottawa, was particularly affecting.)

Komangapik, on the other hand - originally from Germany, but who married an Inuit and has been part of the Inuit community for decades - read longer narrative poems. She deftly and subtly teased out larger truths about community and tradition from examinations of very specific objects and events: an old comb found on the ground, a particularly harsh few weeks spent at her family's summer camp.