poetry | STAGING OUR HISTORIES

7 Reasons to Experience History off the Page

Posted on May 13, 2015 by staginghistories

Although math is not her strong suit, Co-Director Sinead Cox lists her top seven reasons to snag tickets for History (a)Live:

ONE: THE TALENT

Our performers are multi-talented artists, storytellers, poets and filmmakers, and they actually constitute eight great reasons to be at the National Arts Centre on May 31st. Staging Our Histories brings this group of diverse amateur and professional artists together in the same room for the first (and probably only) time. Their artistic voices and perspectives on history are entirely original and distinct, but their pieces complement each other by asking similar questions about identity, memory and legacy.

TWO: IT’S NOT THE HISTORY YOU READ IN SCHOOL

Our organizers are interested in how stories and memories change across different mediums, and how performance can be a powerful platform for unwritten or unrecorded histories. Each of the seven histories presented on stage on May 31st is personal and revelatory, and interrogates how we share and forget the past on and off the page.

THREE: IT’S A PARTY

Ticket-holders for Staging Our Histories are invited to a reception following the performances. There will be refreshments, snacks, and a chance to mingle with the performers and organizers.

FOUR: YOU CAN BE PART OF HISTORY

Staging Our Histories is a conversation, not a lecture. The evening’s discussion of performative histories will extend beyond the stage, as host Adrian Harewood moderates talkbacks between the artists and the audience. We hope theatre-lovers, students, historians, and just about everyone else, will be inspired by the convergence of history and performance, as we continue to be.

FIVE: THERE’S A CHANCE TO GET IN FOR FREE!

You can win tickets to Staging Our Histories, and a copy of History, Memory, Performance, just by tweeting your favourite history experience to @stagehist with the contest hashtag #mylivehistory.

SIX: RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE

Staging Our Histories happens at ‘Canada’s Stage’, the National Arts Centre, in lovely downtown Ottawa. It’s conveniently close if you’re in town that week to attend the 2015 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa, or you’re taking part in the Walk for Reconciliation, also on May 31st.

SEVEN: THE (HISTORY) A(LIVE) TEAM

Once again, this is six good reasons for the price of one. The Staging Our Histories organizers are volunteers motivated by the desire to expand public access to unconventional and thought-provoking histories. The co-directors and core volunteers are all recent grads or current students of Carleton University’s history program; they’re also keen, passionate about history, and a lot of fun to hang out with– so look for us at the reception after the show.

If you care to join us for a night of extraordinary performances, you can GET TICKETS NOW at the NAC’s box office.

Need another reason? Contact the co-directors with any questions at staginghistories@gmail.com!

Angela Wright

Posted on March 15, 2015 by staginghistories

Angela Wright began writing poetry at the age of fifteen, using it as a way to
explore the world around her. The biggest influence on her poetry has been her
training as a historian, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her poems
often transcend temporal boundaries and demonstrate that, because of the
fluidity of time, events do not occur in a vacuum but rather reverberate across
generations.

For Staging Histories, Angela will perform a collection of poems that explores the
often-tenuous experience of people of African descent in North America. It is an
assemblage of poems written at vastly different moments, each poem with its
own inspiration, but they all explore the many legacies of the enslavement and
colonisation of black peoples on both sides of the Atlantic. These poems,
however, are not stories about the past. Rather, they are meant to serve as
contemporary stories that gaze into their historical antecedents to offer an
explanation for an imperfect present.

Though primarily a literary poet, Angela has dabbled in performance poetry,
participating in various showcases while an undergraduate student at the
University at Buffalo. She holds a bachelor’s in History and African-American
Studies and a master’s in History from The University of Iowa.

Elise Gauthier

Posted on March 9, 2015 by staginghistories

http://delireszeliens.blogspot.ca/p/my-ottawa-moi.html

Ottawastiltunion.ca

Elise Gauthier is a bilingual, multidisciplinary creator with deep roots in her native Ottawa. She’s best known as a theatre performer, and is a core member of the Ottawa Stilt Union, a colingual theatre company using various forms of physical expression to tell stories. She also writes, directs and teaches in various capacities. When not telling stories through her art, Elise tells stories as a tour guide with the Haunted Walk of Ottawa. She’s been a tour guide in Ottawa for the past ten years, and has developed an intense love for her city, inspiring her series of bilingual poems: My Ottawa à moi. One of the joys of being a tour guide is making history come alive for the visitors, out of the history books and into the streets. The poems, and the videos that were eventually produced to accompany the poetry, are the perfect way to combine Elise’s identity as an artist to her life as a tour guide. Follow Elise on Twitter: @OttawaZel