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Ian Ferrier

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Ian Ferrier
Born1954 (1954)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died (aged 68)[1]
Occupation(s)Poet
Musician

Ian Ferrier (1954 – 3 November 2023) was a Canadian poet, musician, and cultural arts organizer. As co-founder of the Wired on Words record label, longtime organizer of The Words and Music Show, author of four chapbooks, and member of the voice/music fusion collective Pharmakon MTL, he was a central figure in the Montreal music, poetry, and spoken word scene from the 1990s until his death in 2023.

Biography

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Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier[2] was born in Montreal in 1954. He studied literature and creative writing at Concordia University,[3] where as an undergraduate he co-founded the literary journal Los in 1975.[4]

Montreal environments feature in his first book of poetry, From yr lover like an orchestra, published by Davinci press in 1974.[5] David Lawson of The Gazette wrote, "most of his collection consists not of observable poems but of paragraphs, sometimes indented, and occasional spare lines, all of which add up to a frankly experimental effect."[6] Louis Dudek, reviewing the book in Anthol, a Montreal literary magazine, acknowledged it as the work of a poet in a "preliminary" stage and called it "a documentary of chaos" whose "poetry ... is not aiming at a higher aesthetic but is drawn down to the messiness of the surrounding environment."[7]

Ferrier was the author of an early interactive online novel, The Heart of the Machine, started in 1986 with Fortner Anderson and illustrator Philip Mackenzie.[8][9] The novel was published serially on CompuServe, The WELL, and other early internet services, and the publishers invited readers to influence the story with their comments, suggestions, and character sketches.[9]

In the mid-1990s, live poetry was gaining popularity in Montreal due to the rise of poetry slams in the United States, the increasing impact of rap and hip-hop, and the crossover of poetry to pop music. Lollapalooza's first visit to Montreal, in 1994, included a spoken word stage featuring local performers.[10] Ferrier became an important figure in the scene. With Fortner Anderson, he co-founded the record label Wired on Words in 1993.[11] The label recorded performances by Montreal spoken word artists for broadcast on CKUT-FM, the campus radio station of McGill University.[10] Several poets made the top ten on the station's charts,[10] and the program won a Standard Broadcasting Award.[11] Ferrier used the award money to record Millennium Cabaret, a 1998 CD release featuring poetry by Anderson, Heather O'Neill, Todd Swift and others.[12][13]

Ferrier grew interested in combining his poetry with music.[14] In 2000, he released a book/CD titled Exploding Head Man on Planète Rebelle [fr]. The work features instrumentation from area musicians, and was a critical success. Ilana Kronick of The Gazette praised the "sonic power" of its "heady, impassioned, sometimes hallucinogenic" poetry and the "smart guitar, bass, percussion and tablas".[14] Hal Niedzviecki reviewed the release for Broken Pencil and the National Post, writing that the "poems/songs merge into each other, become a musical score lament for an absent world" and calling it one of the year's best spoken word releases.[13][15]

On Ralph Alfonso's Bongo Beat label, Ferrier released two more projects combining music and spoken word: 2007's What Is This Place? and 2010's To Call Out in the Night.[1] On What Is This Place?, Ferrier began a collaboration with Pharmakon MTL, a "voice music improv project"[16] with Kris Mah on guitar and Dave Stein on drums.[17] What Is This Place? was reviewed positively by UK Vibe.[18] In Arc Poetry Magazine, Kai Cheng Thom gave To Call Out in the Night a mostly positive review, calling it "[j]azzy and sensuous... a landmark in the fledgling tradition that is Canadian spoken word", though noting that Ferrier could widen his range of intonation.[19]

Ferrier continued to be an active organizer in the Montreal cultural arts scene throughout the 2000s. He helped launch the inaugural Festival Voix d'Amériques in February 2002,[10] and organized The Words and Music Show, which presented live music, literature, and art at Casa del Popolo, a venue on Montreal's Saint Laurent Boulevard.[1][20] The series was founded in the early 2000s and produced monthly shows until 2021; Ferrier's organizing included grant writing, artist invitations, and advertising.[21] The show's performances were recorded, and eventually digitally archived as part of Concordia University's SpokenWeb project.[22]

From 2002 to 2005 Ferrier was president of the Quebec Writers' Federation.[23] In 2010, he became the editor of LitLive.ca – The Canadian Review of Literature in Performance, an online journal of literature performance, and started the Mile End Poets' Festival.[23] In 2011, Ferrier won the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival's Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret for his work in the spoken word community.[24][25] In 2017, a translation of his poems was published by Éditions du Noroît under the title Quel est ce lieu.[26] For his contributions to Montreal literary arts, he was awarded the 2022 Judy Mappin Community Award by the Quebec Writers' Federation.[23]

Ian Ferrier died on 3 November 2023 of brain cancer.[1] Following his death, the Quebec Writers' Federation renamed their prize for spoken word to the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize in his honor.[27]

Works

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Poetry

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  • From yr lover like an orchestra (1974)
  • Exploding Head Man (2000)
  • Coming & Going (2015)
  • Bear Dreams (2016)

Youth

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  • A Child Sees Winter Coming and a Bear Dreams (2018)

CDs

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  • What Is This Place? (2007)
  • To Call Out In The Night (2010)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Obituaries". Billboard Canada. 2023-11-09. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  2. ^ "Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier (Ian): 1954-2023". The Gazette Obituaries. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  3. ^ Ian Ferrier on LinkedIn
  4. ^ Camlot, Jason; Swift, Todd, eds. (2007). Language acts: Anglo-Québec poetry, 1976 to the 21st century. Montréal: Véhicule Press. p. 358. ISBN 978-1-55065-225-3 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Morrissey, Stephen (2021). "Starting Out from Véhicule Art". Mouse Eggs. 3 (7): 4–5 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ Lawson, David (1975-02-15). "The poetry of Montreal". The Gazette. p. 41. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  7. ^ Dudek, Louis (Winter 1975). "DA VINCI PRESS: Four Books - Montreal, 1974". Anthol (4): 42–43. ISSN 0316-2583 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ "The Heart of the Machine". Fortner Anderson. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  9. ^ a b Hill, Heather (1987-08-01). "First electronic novel hits computer screens". The Gazette. pp. J9.
  10. ^ a b c d Camlot, Jason; Swift, Todd, eds. (2007). Language acts: Anglo-Québec poetry, 1976 to the 21st century. Montréal: Véhicule Press. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-1-55065-225-3 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ a b Stanton, Victoria; Tinguely, Vincent (2001). Impure: Reinventing the Word: The Theory, Practice, and Oral History of Spoken Word in Montreal. Conundrum Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780968949610.
  12. ^ Williamson, Mary. "TDR Interview: Ian Ferrier". The Danforth Review. ISSN 1494-6114. Retrieved 2024-05-04 – via Library and Archives Canada.
  13. ^ a b Niedzviecki, Hal (Summer 2000). "Ian Ferrier: Exploding Head Man. CD/Book, $20, Wired on Words/Planete rebelle (3958 ave. Laval, Montreal, QC, H2W 2J2)". Broken Pencil (13): 83. ProQuest 1430523918.
  14. ^ a b Kronick, Ilana (2000-02-17). "Exploding Head poetry". The Gazette. Montreal. pp. D14. ProQuest 433571116.
  15. ^ Niedzviecki, Hal (2000-01-15). "Get on the road again, please". National Post. p. 15. ProQuest 329676680.
  16. ^ "PHARMAKON MTL". Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  17. ^ Harrison, Tom (2011-03-11). "PHARMAKON MTL: To Call Out In The Night (Bongo Beat)". The Province.
  18. ^ Williams, Steve (July 2009). "Ian Ferrier 'What Is This Place?' (Bongo Beat) 5/5". UK Vibe. Archived from the original on 2009-08-07.
  19. ^ Thom, Kai Cheng (Fall 2015). "Pharmakon MTL. To Call Out in the Night. Montreal, QC: Wired on Words, 2010". Arc Poetry Magazine: 130–131.
  20. ^ Kankesan, Koom (2001-01-20). "Out loud and proud: With more events, Montreal's spoken-word scene has come of age". The Gazette. pp. I4. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  21. ^ du Plessis, Klara (April 2023). The Relational Poetry Reading Series: In Live Performance and Audio Archives, Montreal from the 1960s to the Present: Positing Framed, Open, Self, and Deep Curatorial Modes of Literary Event Organization (PDF). pp. 91–92.
  22. ^ "The Words and Music Show Becomes a Digital Archive". The Link. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  23. ^ a b c "Remembering Ian Ferrier, Winner of the 2022 Judy Mappin Community Award". Quebec Writers' Federation. 2023-11-06. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  24. ^ Tinguely, Vincent. "Ian Ferrier". LitLive.ca. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022.
  25. ^ "Golden Beret Award". Sheri-D Wilson. 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  26. ^ "Ian Ferrier". PoésieGo! (in French).
  27. ^ "The Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize". Quebec Writers' Federation. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
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