On August 20, in a desire to share, Saint-Venant-de-Paquette, a small village of 98 inhabitants, opens its arms wide to welcome a celebration of words, a free gathering that will make way for 12 continuous hours of poetry. In the form of songs, karaoke, readings, conferences and meetings with poets and poetesses, this little piece of countryside in the Eastern Townships will shine under the starry sky.
If the Great Night of Poetry has existed there since 2016 (David Goudreault then takes the reins), the importance given to the music of words is part of the DNA of the community of Saint-Venant-de-Paquette – and of Richard Seguin. “My wife and I have been here for 50 years […] and, quietly, over the years, the village has been recognized as a devitalized village. […] At that time, the mayor called all the citizens and asked if we had any ideas, ”says the artist on the phone.
The singer-songwriter then proposed to “put words in the landscape of Saint-Venant”. What the mayor did not really understand at first, but agreed, stressing that he “had nothing to lose”.
The first site of the Sentier poétique was born, dedicated to Alfred DesRochers, thanks to the help of a small team made up in particular of people from the Saint-Hyacinthe agricultural school, Rachel Lussier, who was a journalist in Sherbrooke , of Julie Shaffer, as well as of Hercule Gaboury (deceased this year), who was a professor at the College of Sherbrooke and who composed the biographies found on several plaques on the trail.
“And over the years, we created poetry evenings that attracted 200-225 people under a marquee. But these were evenings, ”explains the artist. Until the arrival in 2016 of David Goudreault, who agrees to take the torch while proposing to create a complete night.
“That’s where David surprised everyone. On the first night, we didn’t know what to expect. There were about sixty poets and poetesses. For our little village, it was a big challenge to receive all these people. […] And then, between 700 and 800 people arrived. Of all generations. It was quite amazing! Young people who arrived with their bus converted almost into a house, people who lived the night of poetry in the 1970s, who slept in their chariot. And the farmers allowed tents to be set up in places where they had had time to make hay. And there, it was a euphoria that took hold of the village, and we were really delighted,” continues Richard Séguin enthusiastically.
Regulars and newcomers
This year, the big party will receive more than 40 poets and poetesses who have come to celebrate and share their voices, in addition to a dozen musicians to accompany them. Diversity is also part of the richness of the event, thanks in particular to Goudreault, who managed to introduce us to some twenty lesser-known poets and poetesses — a tour de force, according to Richard Séguin.
In addition to new names, the Great Night of Poetry has its regulars. Normand Baillargeon, with whom “one has the impression of traveling back in time”. “He is going to talk about ancient Greece, about his great admiration for Prévert. Hélène Dorion, “bright as anything”. Pierre Nepveu. Queen Ka, “a ball of energy”. Jean Désy, “who comes to us with such a human vision and his love for Nordicity”, says the singer-songwriter.
Among the newcomers, Geneviève Rioux, poetess of survival, survivor of horrors, victim of an attempted sexual assault coupled with an attempted murder at home in the middle of the night in April 2018 and doctoral student in psychology.
Surrounded by Alexandre Ethier, Francis Brunet and Olivier Labossière, musicians from the group Forestare — who will be present to accompany other prose writers — and contemporary dancer Josiane Goneau, she will share the words of her collection Survivals (Inkwell memory). His relationship to the night, marked by horror and loneliness, is part of a symbolism turned here towards light.
“In fact, I think what stands out the most is that on the night of August 20, I will be surrounded, when I was in rather vulnerable situations and alone at the time of the attacks. There is a connection to support. What has been experienced will be able to be said and heard with the support of the people who will be present. It’s life-saving,” she confides to the To have to.
The poetic power
The Great Night of Poetry is a collective experience, a communion, in a way, during which “we celebrate sacred territories”, as Richard Séguin would say. Because poetry allows you to go to unsuspected places, to tell the real and to sublimate it.
For Geneviève Rioux, this sharing of words becomes in a way an ultimate tool of justice, a way of repairing oneself by telling one’s story. “Poetry allows you to touch emotions, and doing it in front of an audience has something very warm, human, that the justice system does not have. […] And beyond what it brings to me, I really hope that it can inspire people to express themselves in one way or another. »
The Great Night of Poetry opens the way to possibilities, insists the author-composer-performer.
“In any case, here, we make poetry accessible. In many different ways and from many different looks. […] It is not important to understand everything in poetic speech […] Sometimes you will travel with a word. I like Bachelard when he said that “a word can be a shelter, a refuge”. That’s it, sometimes: just one word is enough to help you get through a test or to amaze you. »