Eleni Zisimatos reviews Dennis Tourbin's The Stream and other poems (2014) and The Peter F. Yacht Club #21

Vallum co-editor/publisher Eleni Zisimatos was good enough to review Dennis Tourbin's The Stream and other poems (2014) here, and The Peter F. Yacht Club #21 (2014) here. Thanks so much!

Missing Jacket magazine, writing & visual art, bibliography: 1996-1997

Given my recent post detailing the bibliography of STANZAS magazine, I thought it might be interesting to go through another one of my late projects through above/ground press, the lamented Missing Jacket. Throughout the 1990s, I noticed how far apart the different artistic communities within Ottawa were, but for occasional individuals such as Dennis Tourbin and Michael Dennis that existed as a link between artistic groups. There was so much activity that wasn’t interacting, and artistic practices that somehow kept up barriers between them. There were stories of the late 1980s at Gallery 101, when Dennis Tourbin ran it, with literary events beside shows of artwork (back when Rob Manery and Louis Cabri ran The Transparency Machine events there).

I had spent a couple of years prior hanging around the Enriched Bread Studios and Gallery 101, as well as with artists Diane Woodward and David Cation, and wanted to attempt a magazine of writing and visual art through the City of Ottawa. We held the first issue launch at Enriched Bread, with artwork from all of the artists featured in the issue, and readings from a variety of contributors.

Had I had more resources (and perhaps wasn’t doing the entire journal by myself), perhaps it might have been able to continue, and the weight of which might not have simply collapsed. Almost exclusively run by myself, I was fortunate enough to have various authors and artists contribute enormously, whether their own work or via interviews, and former Montreal writer and ga press co-editor/publisher Colin Christie even designed the last couple of issues (before it all fell apart).

If anyone is interested, I still have mounds of copies sitting around the house. I would like to think that there is some interesting material within. Perhaps, even, a little portrait of the late 1990s arts community in Ottawa.

Where did the title come from? We had a little gathering in the apartment Tamara Fairchild and I once shared, and Brian Hill, co-editor of Ink magazine, had left his jacket behind; I misunderstood the phone message when Tamara informed: “Brian from missing jacket called.” I thought it was a magazine that already existed. When I realized it wasn’t, well…

Missing Jacket magazine, writing & visual art, #1. 500 copies, January 1996. edited by rob mclennan. poetry by Robin Hannah, David O'Meara, Lorraine Gamble. fiction by Catherine Jenkins. interviews with David W. McFadden (by David Collins), Daniel Nadezhdin (by Tamara Fairchild) and Dennis Tourbin (by michael dennis). artistic statements by Eliza Griffiths, Jonathan Brownz and Angela McFall. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker. Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price $3. 8 1/2" x 11". 38 pages.

Missing Jacket #2, spring, March 1996. poetry by Tamara Fairchild, David Collins, John Barton and Sean Johnston. fiction by David Scrimshaw and Dayv James-French. interviews with Ken Norris (part I, by rob mclennan), Mary Borsky (by rob mclennan) and Marie-Jeanne Musiol (by Cindy Stelmackowich). artistic statements by Valerie Roos-Linse, Adrian Gollner and Anna Kempffer-Paul. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah by rob mclennan. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price, $3.50. 40 pages.

Missing Jacket #3, summer, August 9, 1996. poetry by Stephanie Bolster, Joe Blades, Nadine McInnis & Jim Larwill. fiction by Douglas Ord. interviews with Ken Norris (part II, by rob mclennan), Joe Blades (by rob mclennan) & Diane Woodward (by David Collins). artistic statements by Maria Shin, Barbara Gamble and David Cation. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah by rob mclennan. ISSN#1203-5076. cover price, $3.50. 44 pages.

Missing Jacket #4, fall, October 1996. poetry by Clare Latremouille, Una McDonnell, Michael Holmes (from 21 Hotels) and Karen Massey. fiction by Douglas Ord and Stan Rogal. interviews with Eliza Griffiths (by David Collins), Judith Fitzgerald (by rob mclennan) and Greg Kerr (by rob mclennan). artistic statements by Eric Walker, Marcia Lea and Doug Van Rosen. project pages by Mark Marsters. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah by rob mclennan. layout by Colin Christie. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price, $3.50. 42 pages (including inside cover).

Missing Jacket #5, spring, April 1997. poetry by R.M. Vaughan, Michelle Desberats Fels, Ian Whistle and Rob Manery. fiction by Death Waits and Elizabeth Hay. interviews with Christian Bok (by Tricia Postle), John Moffat (by David Collins) and Patrick Kavanagh (by David Scrimshaw). artistic statements by Lesya Granger, Christopher Lea Dunning and Bhat Boy (the artist formerly known as Ian Van Lock). project pages by Adrian Gollner. Notes from the Bleeding Edge by James Spyker and Ottawa Boy cartoon by Greg Kerr. blah blah editorial blah blah blah by rob mclennan. layout by Colin Christie. ISSN# 1203-5076. cover price, $4.00. 48 pages (includes whole cover).

Ryan Pratt reviews Dennis Tourbin's THE STREAM and other poems (2014) and Camille Martin's Sugar Beach (2014)

Ryan Pratt was good enough to review Dennis Tourbin's THE STREAM and other poems (2014) and Camille Martin's Sugar Beach (2014) over at the ottawa poetry newsletter. Thanks, Ryan! This is the second review of Martin's Sugar Beach, after Jack Goodall's review over at the Flat Singles Press blog.

new from above/ground press: THE STREAM and other poems, by Dennis Tourbin

THE STREAM and other poems
Dennis Tourbin
$4

We fish in a stream
near Millbrook,
for brown trout.
The stream ambles through
a beautiful countryside,
twisting and turning,
creating pools and holes
and wonderful homes
for fish...

And every year
the stream changes.
A tree falls in a forest;
it makes a great sound,
it splashes in the water
of the stream,
it alters the current,
changes the way
the water flows,
the way a fish,
a brown trout,
receives its food,
defends its territory.

We hunt for brown trout;
we do not fish for them.
It has been said before.
How do we hunt...
This is what I am interested
in now. How do we hunt
for fish; how do we hunt
for the elusive brown trout... ("THE STREAM")

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Co-published with Carleton University Art Gallery, as an extension of “Dennis Tourbin: The Language of Visual Poetry,” curated by Marcie Bronson; organized and circulated by Rodman Hall Art Centre / Brock University, 3 February – 27 April 2014.

Born in St. Catharines, May 8, 1946, and the eldest of five siblings, Dennis Tourbin grew up in Port Dalhousie, lived in Toronto, Peterborough, Paris (France), and in Ottawa, where he died of a stroke, aged 51. Poet, painter, performance and video artist, novelist, magazine publisher, artist-rights activist, and angler, Dennis Tourbin was a key part of the development of the lively regional art scene since the seventies.

A drummer in a rock-and-roll band with a growing reputation in Ontario in the sixties, Dennis Tourbin began publishing poems and stories in 20 Cents magazine in 1969. Ten books of poetry and fiction were published during his life. To name a few: The Port Dalhousie Stories (Coach House Books, 1987), the coming to age autobiographical story of a young boy; the poetry books, In Hitler’s Window (The Tellem Press, 1991), and Thinking of America (above/ground press, 1995); The Complete TV Angler (vol. 1 and 2, Penumbra Press, 1995, 1996), the reproduction of his hand-written fishing journal.

Dennis Tourbin painted words in vivid colours and referred to his paintings as visual poetry. He explored the area between painting and literature and moved the word beyond the printed page. He also had developed a multi-media form, which he called a painted play. He created five painted plays: The Writing of Painting of Martha, commissioned and performed at the Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto, 1976; FLC/CBC on the 1970 October Crisis, also performed at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1981, to name a few.

Dennis Tourbin was best known for his work on the 1970 October Crisis, which is a subject that inspired him throughout his life. In 1982, Dennis Tourbin was awarded the Canada Council studio in Paris, where he met his wife Nadia Laham, and which had a major influence on the development of his collage-like art works.  His works can be found in the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the National Archives of Canada, and in private and public collections throughout Canada.

This is Tourbin’s second above/ground press chapbook, after Thinking of America (1995).

[THE STREAM and other poems launches as part of a poetry reading at Carleton University Art Gallery, 7pm on March 10, 2014 by Michael Dennis, Catherine Jenkins and rob mclennan. A limited number of copies of the chapbook will be available free at the door.]

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com