In the 1990s, there were unofficial “Acadian delegations” that went to the Trois-Rivières Poetry Festival or to Montreal in large gangs, ”says with a big smile the director of Perce-Neige de Moncton editions, Émilie Turmel. , herself a poet. “It was the time [des poètes] Gerald Leblanc and Guy Arsenault [décédé en mars dernier], poets we want to salute. And it is this kind of legacy that we want to reinstate: coming to town, making yourself known by being present”, by reading, saying or performing poetry, this time during the 24e Montreal Poetry Festival (FPM).
The Acadie Rock evening, acadielove, for a long time to come, will bring together the 1er june twelve acadian poets on the stage of the mythical café Cléopâtre, located on boulevard Saint-Laurent. Georgette LeBlanc will be there. “I’m going to read from my most recent collection”, Little poem about my father who died (2022). At his side, Sébastien Bérubé, Sarah Marylou Brideau, Léa Doucet, Eric Kennedy, Guillaume Lavoie, Serge Patrice Thibodeau.
Also Mo Bolduc and Luc-Antoine Chiasson, “who have as much Hochelaga as New Brunswick in their collections”, illustrates the artistic director of the FPM, Catherine Cormier-Larose. And Jonathan Roy, director of the Acadian Poetry Festival of Caraquet, “whose new collection, in my opinion, discusses with the texts of Martine Audet and Louise Dupré, as much about the future of poetry as that of the world”. And Émilie Turmel, poet, the only one of the lot not to be published by Editions Perce-Neige, which she has been running since March.
“The thing that brings us together is Acadia and the Perce-Neige house,” says Georgette LeBlanc when asked if this gang of poets has aesthetic similarities, if it also forms a community of ideas, or rhythms, sounds, musicality. Emilie Turmel smiles. “There is a strong sense of belonging at home. That’s why I can take seven poets from Moncton to Montreal in a van. “We haven’t experienced it yet, it may go wrong! »retorts laughingly Mme The White.
Mme Turmel signs the artistic direction of the evening with Mme Larose and musician Joseph Edgar, who will provide entertainment. The title, Acadie Rock, acadielove, for a long time to come, “suggested three blocks to her, explains Émilie Turmel: a ‘rock’; A “love”more centered on intimacy and emotion, and a “for a long time yet”, which launches us towards the future, with voices which I believe are building a work, which we will continue to hear” .
This is how she reflected on the evening, inspired “by the assertive side of Acadian poetry, sometimes very committed, quite political. Identity is built a lot in Acadie from poetry. This is the most popular genre in literature. And the Perce-Neige house, unknown in Quebec, almost unknown to booksellers. We say to ourselves that to be there, we must be present”. So here they are.
How to read his poetry on stage?
Georgette LeBlanc, Félix-Leclerc prize for poetry (2007, Alma), 2020 Governor General’s Award for Translation (Ocean, by Sue Goyette), ex-Poet of Parliament, will be on stage with the poems for her late father. How does she think about her poetry readings? “I introduce myself, and I listen to what is happening in the moment”, she answers while reflecting, “of the others around me, of the poets before me…”
“I very rarely rehearse, I read and re-read my texts so much while writing them… Yes, I remember the text all alone in my room, like a mini rehearsal, late at night. I don’t see it as a performance, but as a reading that requires a presence rather than a performance, yes; but I’m the only one who does that; I am very coolI am the most cool of all the poets who come to the show,” she smiles.
“I’m from the old gang and generation of poets and writers, I don’t know, poetry readings, that was it, reading your text, just that!, and maybe to see, to be in presence of the poet, it was already a lot. She repeats the word “presence.” How does she manage to be present in the text?
“I’m writing about it these days, precisely because I need to explain it to myself, and I don’t really know yet. It’s just being really, like in dancing; to be centered, present, listening to what is happening around, and not arriving there with something prepared, bottled, delivered like a commodity, therefore. »
And how does she manage to be present to her own text? “I wrote it, already. But you have to resituate yourself in the text too, because life goes on after the writing of the text, other things happen, there are children, the laundry and all the rest, you have to get back a little bit in the bath of emotion, of the charge of the text. There is a form of repetition in that sense, of preparation. »
The Montreal Poetry Festival runs from May 29 to June 4. Evenings are free. The Montreal Poetry Market will welcome some sixty publishers at Place Gérald-Godin, in front of Mont-Royal station, and also a series of activities.