|
Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival
Carolyn Marie Souaid
Trois Rivières is well versed in poetry
Gaston Bellemare has built his little poetry festival into a major annual event that draws enthusiastic crowds
CAROLYN MARIE SOUAID
Freelance
Saturday, September 27, 2003
Gaston Bellemare himself never dreamed poetry could get this big. Now, nearly two decades after he launched his inaugural "fête for the soul," the 61-year-old founder and president of the Festival international de la poésie de Trois-Rivières still recalls what moved him to take action in the first place: "Poets are virtually invisible. You don't see them on TV or in everyday life. ... No one ever pays attention to them unless they're dead or very famous."
Part dreamer, part realist, and acutely aware that poetry is a tough sell, Bellemare's goal was to "create an event," a way to instill verse into the collective heart of Quebecers. The very first festival, in 1985, lasted three days and attracted 5,000 visitors. (The event was known until 1991 as the Festival de la Poésie de Trois-Rivières.)
Now in its 19th year, the festival, which runs from Friday to Oct. 12, will showcase 130 poets from 25 countries spanning four continents. Organizers expect that about 30,000 people will attend more than 400 activities planned for 90 venues across the city.
Some of the poets laureate this year include Governor-General's award winner Robert Dickson, Pierre Nepveu (winner of the Grand Prix du Festival International de la Poésie), Yves Boisvert (Prix Félix-Antoine-Savard), Serge Mongrain (Prix Gérald-Godin) and Madeleine Gagnon (Prix Athanase-David). Also on hand from Quebec, among others, will be Claude Beausoleil, Nicole Brossard, Bernard Pozier, Émile Martel and Carole David. Among those on the international roster are French poet Daniel Leuwers, Sabah Zouein (Lebanon), Sibila Petlevski (Croatia), Stephen Romer (Britain) and Louis Mizon (Chile).
At the heart of all the prizes and the hoopla, however, is Trois Rivières itself, a town located midway between Montreal and Quebec, at the confluence of the St. Maurice and St. Lawrence rivers. Not just an industrial, deepwater port, but a city with a soft spot for metaphor.
Imagine a place that resonates with the sights and sounds of poetry, 365 days a year - on building plaques and in buses, in schools and in art galleries. Picture a place where even the mayor takes an active role, laying flowers every Valentine's Day at the foot of the Monument au poète inconnu, paying tribute to all the unknown poets around the world. Bellemare's 10-day festival is simply the logical extension of what's become quotidian in Trois Rivières.
And if you only remember poetry as a dull classroom experience, something that was good for you, like cod liver oil, but not very palatable, Bellemare has something else up his symbolic sleeve: a perfect blend of life and literature. Picture candlelit dining on pavé de boeuf and Bordeaux, with a side order of haiku. How about a sonnet at a nearby pulp-and-paper centre? In for something more racy? Try the nightly "off-festival" set, staged in a dank, downstairs, after-hours bar. If you can squeeze your way in, that is.
In fact, starting Friday and for the next 10 days, the entire town of Trois Rivières will transform itself into a veritable Woodstock for poetry, hosting simultaneous events in bars, cafés, restaurants, prisons, galleries, schools and theatres. A short walk from city hall, a giant clothesline of poems will hang flapping in the wind - offerings by plain, ordinary folks who just want to share a little of the Rimbaud in them.
Festivities will culminate in La Grande soirée de la poésie, a more formal reading by 30 of the visiting poets chosen to sign the mayor's official guest book. Most events, except the Grande soirée, are free to the public. Depending on the venue, spectators only pay for what they consume on site.
As a general rule of thumb, poets speak for three minutes apiece, with a brief musical interlude punctuating each set. International poets, usually proficient in French, either read their own French texts or translated versions of the original. But connoisseurs say you've only truly tasted Bellemare's festival when a featured poet, in a burst of spontaneity, rattles off something in a foreign tongue, lending an exotic ring to the event.
A few years ago, Bellemare made an addition to the predominantly French-only package: an English reading in an 18th-century Anglican church in historic Trois Rivières. Among those who have read there are Montrealers Endre Farkas, Michael Harris, Ruth Taylor and the U.S. beat poet Anne Waldman. This year, Quebecers Jennifer Boire and Munira Judith Avinger will be at the lectern. A parallel Spanish-only reading is also scheduled for the same night.
Now retired from an administrative career, Bellemare began his love affair with poetry as a student at the University of Quebec in Trois Rivières. It was the late 1960s, and he and some friends, mentored by poet and professor Gatien Lapointe, negotiated a loan for $3,000 to found a small poetry press, known today as Écrits des Forges. Since its modest beginnings in 1971, the company has produced more than 750 titles, including Bellemare's own bleu-source de terre, one of the first off the press. Of the original members, he is the only one still on board.
And he has no plans to quit any time soon. Constantly on the hunt for new poets, he spends a good chunk of the year roaming the globe, taking in festivals wherever he can. After years in the business of putting poetry on the map, he has managed to gather together a dedicated team of organizers, people who are as earnest as he in their belief that poetry is the lifeblood of the planet. People like Maryse Baribeau, Bellemare's partner in business and in life, who is now general manager of the festival.
To some, it may all sound eerily like the Little Festival That Could. But to the late Quebec icon Félix Leclerc, who eloquently spoke at the first festival back in 1985, it seemed only a matter of time that the second-oldest city in North America would become "La Capitale mondiale de la poésie."
Prophetic or just plain bold, time has proven him right. No other town does poetry quite like Trois Rivières.
For detailed listings of events and a complete list of poets, visit the festival Web site at: www.fiptr.com
Carolyn Marie Souaid is a Montreal poet.
© Copyright 2003
| Go Up |
 |
|
Carolyn Marie Souaid. "Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival." Ampersand. Ed. Carolyn Marie Souaid. Montreal: Editorial Poetas de América. Apr 26, 2006.
<
>
|
|
|
|
