Press Release

On November 12th two Montreal literary organizations — Les Filles électriques and Wired on Words Productions — will be presenting the first “The Voice Electric” award — a $2000 prize for achievement in literature in performance.

The award is designed to honour a spoken word performer for personal achievement, originality, contributions to the aesthetics of the genre, and contributions to the national and international scene for spoken word. The award will be presented to an English performer one year and a French performer the next. Spoken word perfomers from Canada’s First Nations communities are eligible at any time.

This year’s inaugural $2000 prize winner is the poet and performer Fortner Anderson, a man whose career has spanned the rise of the North American spoken word movement. Mr. Anderson is being honoured for an international career as a poet and performer, and for his ongoing contributions to the genre.

An American by birth, Mr. Anderson arrived in Montreal in 1976. Since that time he has published poetry, presented it online and — through his Montreal Dial-a-Poem project — presented it over the telephone. He is the producer and host of Dromotexte — a one-hour weekly radio show dedicated to spoken word, and a founding producer of Wired on Words, a record label the presents spoken word on CD. He has released two full-length CDs of his own work, as well as a special CD single project entitled “He Sings” which highlighted the continuing imprisonment of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who has been held at the American-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay since he was 15 years old.

The award will be presented at the monthly Words & Music Show, at the Casa del Popolo, 4873 boulevard St-Laurent, Montreal on November 18th at 9pm. On hand to join the celebrations will be spoken word performers from the West Coast, New York, Montreal and other parts of the English and French spoken word milieu.

In choosing Mr. Anderson for this award, the jury heard citations from North America and Europe regarding his skill as a performer, his performances at national and international events, his recordings and writings on the genre, and his continuing presence as a major contributor to the genre. One paragraph summed these up by saying:

“Most important to my mind, is Mr. Anderson’s rare talent as a spoken word artist. There are few performers with the skill and focus to powerfully move an audience with words alone. With his dedication to the craft, and his fearless pursuit of difficult political and philosophical themes, Mr. Anderson is one such artist.”

The Voice Electric award is financed by a bequest from the estate of Michael Riddell, a Montreal businessman, and will be presented by his daughter Lucy Riddell. Applications for the award in French or in English can be sent to Les Filles électriques, 5143 boulevard St-Laurent, Montréal, Québec, H2T 1R9.

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For more information, please contact:

• Les Filles électriques
  514-495-1515
  d.kimm@electriques.ca
• Wired on Words Productions
  514-849-2353
  poets@wiredonwords.com

[7515] News posted Monday, November 12, 2007.