The Final Days of Q Space
A rainy day at Q SpacePuritan Publicity Agent Tracy Kyncl finalizes her farewell in part two of her series on Toronto's beloved hub, Q Space.As a final send off to Q Space, Luciano Iacobelli organized and hosted the Lyrical Myrical Author’s Festival from Friday, August 23rd until Sunday, August 25th and on Saturday, I went to see the readings and to say goodbye to the literary hideout. The list of authors was long and impressive and it was a pleasure to arrive as the first guest and to end up being one among dozens by the end of the night. This festival, perhaps even more than Art Bar, showed how well-loved Q Space had been during its short term. And while there may be latent fears that Toronto is losing its poetic venues, the sheer volume of supporters and fans reassured me that conceptual spaces are capable of thriving in the city as long as a dedicated group of bibliophiles can get something started. The Lyrical Myrical “family,” as Luciano calls it, includes a number of poets who stood out and should be watched as they release more work.Steve McCabe is a poet and visual artist whose work interrogates the relationship between words, images, and sounds. His beautiful piece “A Star in a Manboat” is a response to Robert Frost’s “A Star in a Stoneboat” and part of Guernica Editions’ anthology Poet to Poet. Steve explained that he wanted his poem to sound like the smooth bottom of a wooden bowl and his unique standpoint on the relationship between images and words can be further discovered on his blog poemimage.wordpress.com where he creates visual art to accompany poetry. Steve also started a trend that we Puritan interns couldn’t help but notice, namely, the preponderance of poems dedicated to or about inspirational writers and artists.Sue Chenette also referenced famous artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, but my favourite poems were those that revealed enormous emotional depth and technical skill. “Long Distance” is one of the best pieces about depression I have ever heard and tactfully describes the difficulty of loving someone you cannot make happy, while the incredibly rich “Oceanus” contained moments of musical bliss.Poet and rocker Joseph Maviglia dealt with very personal and local issues, and his poem “102 College Street” shored up the generational divides in Toronto’s Italian community. Maviglia made a point of showing that some really good writers can write really long poems without losing your attention, and his “jazz dharma,” written on the 50th anniversary of Ginsberg’s Howl, was lengthy, relevant, and written in a spirit of fidelity with Ginsberg’s anti-establishment notions.John Barlow provided yet another take on daily life, and “There is No There” mused on the dissipated Windsor community in Toronto and the ways in which we find our bearings. “Speed of Time” was a lovely short poem about his mother and the milestones in her life, while “Blessing” was an exciting abstract piece that really stood out.Final highlights included Ricardo Sternberg, a true master of his craft, and his reading of “Kings,” “Morals,” and “The Shack.” His themes are incredibly diverse and he is clearly capable of handling anything from painful heartbreak to a phlegmatic neighbour. Sternberg is definitely someone to watch when his new collection comes out next year. You should also look up Rocco de Giacomo, who Luciano playfully boasted to have discovered. Rocco read his recently completed quartet of pornography centos to the raucous delight of the audience, work which is a staple for anyone interested in representations of gender, the cento form, or in finding out how hardcore pornography and poetry might intersect.Now we must bid adieu to Q Space and all its offerings. But before I close the book on the literary landmark, I want to thank the poets and publishers who invest time, effort, and art into making Toronto a cultural centre, and thanks to Q Space especially for making my first weeks on the job so enjoyable.