Books@Torontoist continues its coverage of Toronto reading series with a look at the Vagabond Trust Reading Series, a unique bi-monthly event that features prose writers, poets, playwrights, DJs, and visual artists working in tandem to unite the city’s diverse arts communities and possibly save the world. Books@Torontoist editor James Grainger spoke with Kathleen Brown, a host and organizer of the series.
James Grainger: The Vagabond Trust is more than a local reading series isn’t it? What is it and where did it originate?
Kathleen Brown: The Vagabond Trust is a national community of writers with chapters in several provinces. We call ourselves “writers at home in migration.” We’re a diverse, hodgepodge group who come from different artistic backgrounds and write in every genre you can think of. The Toronto chapter of the Trust curates the Vagabond Trust bi-monthly reading series, and we had a writers group going like gangbusters that was meeting every two weeks but is now on hiatus.
The Vagabond Trust is actually the nestling of Jordan Trethewey and Ryan Griffith, two Maritime writers based in New Brunswick. I met them while completing my Masters in Creative Writing at UNB in Fredericton. Jordan and Griff wanted to create a writers group that connected the literary communities and theatre communities in Fredericton, as well as connect the University to the local arts scene. I was working with Griff on a play of mine, he was doing dramaturgy, and he kept bugging me to come over to the north side of town to check out this experimental writing group. Finally I did. A lot of amazing things happened in a very short period of time – we wanted to go on expedition, as writers, on a ferry journey across the Southern Coast of Newfoundland. Those towns are being resettled by the Newfoundland government and we wanted to see that way of life that is rapidly transforming. One of the port towns we spent time in, Grand Bruit, is up for resettlement this spring. This trip was deeply important to all of us, but especially for Step Taylor, born and raised in Chapel Arm. We managed to secure funding for the trip, and we made it, and . . . there was certainly a lot to write about. Through that zany trip I met playwright and arts activist Darrah Teitel, and when I moved back home to Toronto last year, we decided to start up a writers group and reading series that is an Ontario extension of the group in the Maritimes. Through another fortuitous set of circumstances we managed to connect with a fab poet, Blair Trewartha, who works with Misunderstandings Magazine. Blair just launched a chapbook with Cactus Press. I think he sold out in something like the first ten minutes of his launch.
Both of our chapters do our best to promote and support the various literary activities of our members and past readers.
Grainger: How often are the events and where are they normally held?
Brown: The readings were originally once a month, and we were alternating between This Ain’t the Rosedale libraryand another venue, usually an art gallery. We’re true to our migratory principles in that we haven’t committed to a single venue yet, because we’ll have different audiences depending on which neighbourhood the reading is in and we like to mix it up. However, we love having our events at This Ain’t, no one could ask for better hosts than Charles Huisken, Jesse Huisken, and James Gunn. They are so supportive and do so much to promote the readings to their patrons, and to make their space welcoming for our readers and our audience.
Grainger: Why include an artist?
Brown: The Vagabond Trust is interested in diversity amongst the arts, as well as diversity amongst literary genres. The visual arts are a particularly compatible art form with the reading series, we curate an artist with every reading and are able to promote them and their work through our advertising, and introduce the artist and their work to a new audience. This kind of cross-pollination of the arts is very much a central tenet of the Vagabond Trust.
Grainger: How does the mixed-media aspect of the show affect the performances and the audience reactions?
Brown: Mixed-media mixes it up and gives a dynamic quality to the programming. We usually program 6 readers, and try to have a range of poets, prosers, and playwrights. We try to mix up authors from different publishing houses. Sometimes we have a wild card in the mix, like The Custodians, who are a performance art group ,or Stuart Berman, author of the Broken Social Scene’s biography/cultural history, or Steven Kado of The Blankket and founder of blocks recording club. I’m also pretty sure we’re the only reading series in the nation with a DJ-in-residence. DJ Bronson Lee is always there to play some sweet beats while the crowd settles in and during our intermission – though I’m afraid we’re going to disappoint this time ’round, as he’s currently rockin’ the UK.
Grainger: How do you find readers and other artists for the events?
Brown: Blair, Darrah, and I are closely connected to the literary and theatre scene in Toronto, and we all read a lot. If I read a book by someone that stirs me or punches me in the gut, I want to see them read. It’s the same with my partners-in-curatorial-crime. We’ll read something and want them in the series, and either track writers down through the internet (websites or blogs), or through their publishers. Sometimes we’re fortunate and happen to have a connection to them. We’ve had some fantastic readers: Zoe Whitall, angela rawlings, Jay MillAr, Marjorie Chan, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Rebecca Rosenblum, Erin Shields, Greg Shupak, Sean Dixon, David Seymour, Stacey May Fowles, Lisa Foad, Jenny Sampirisi, Norman Yeung . . . I could go on. Everyone who’s read in our series has been vivid and engaging – so I guess we’ve got horseshoes where the sun don’t shine. I think having three people curate each reading means we’ll have a provocative and unique evening. Right now we contact all our readers, but we’d love to have writers who are interested in reading get in touch with us.
Grainger: What’s in store for the future of the project?
Brown: We hope to start the writers group up again soon thanks to the efforts of Vagabond Georgia Webber, of gangLion comics. Georgia is going to be rejuvenating the Writers Workshop this winter, and we always welcome new members. The Maritime and Toronto chapters are planning another expedition for August 2010, to the Magdelene Islands, off the shores of Northern Quebec. And of course the reading series will continue. We were fortunate enough to receive funding from the Toronto Arts Council for our 2010 season, and that means we can now offer honorariums for our readers and artists, which is very exciting and means we can sustain the series.
Friday night’s Vagabond Trust Reading Series event happens at This Ain’t the Rosedale Library (86 Nassau Street, 9 p.m., FREE) and features Guy Cools, Lauren Kirshner, Adrienne Kress, Jason Maghanoy, Sandy Pool, Sarah Teitel and artist Yuula Benivolski.
