Glebe Report

Frank Johnson has a review of David Chernuishenko’s new climate change novel, Burning Souls, and the Sunnyside branch of the Ottawa Public Library has recommendations for exploring the natural world through reading this summer.

For your summer theatre fix, we have articles on the Company of Adventurers, the local young-people’s Shakespeare troupe; A Company of Fools, who are doing Romeo and Juliet; and Odyssey Theatre and its Spanish masterpiece.

Looking for recommended reading for your children? Ildiko Sumegi has reading suggestions highlighting Black History Month, and Caitlin Giffin has an array of non-fiction suggestions from the Ottawa Public Library.

Before school was out in June, the Glebe Report got in touch with local high schools to see if there were any fledgling writers willing to take their first flight of fancy with us. We asked them to write a short story of any kind, on any theme, as long as it relates in some way to the Glebe – as setting, character, plot, whatever.

The following four stories were submitted by Grade 12 students in Debra Palmer’s Writers’ Craft class at Glebe Collegiate Institute.

Open call for poetry submissions for poets in the Glebe neighbourhood and surrounding areas. The Glebe Report monthly community newspaper will begin publishing a number of poems as a regular feature, four times a year, beginning in the fall 2015. The feature, to be called “Poetry Quarter”, will be curated by JC Sulzenko, Glebe poet, author and educator.

We are interested in receiving submissions of poetry from: adults, teens 14 to 17 (high school students), or children 9 to 13 (about grades 4 to 8). We are open broadly to submissions from poets who live, work, study or volunteer in the Glebe or its close neighbouring communities.

Summer 2015 marks the fifth anniversary of the revival of the Glebe Art in Our Gardens and Studio Tour, which will be held on the weekend of July 4 and 5. Momentum has been building over the past five years, bringing attention to local artists and attracting many visitors to our neighbourhood for this highly anticipated event. Although there are many art tours in our region, it is always special to meet your talented neighbours and support their work.

Modern art will go nowhere if everyone insists on supporting dead artists. Forget the gallery, go for a walk in the park, support the arts industry by buying art from an artist who is breathing, an artist who might just create something next week thinking about the conversation they had with you in the grass. Bring the kids, bring the dog, run around, don’t be afraid to touch things, pretend it’s not the gallery, because it’s not. These are real artists in the real world, to whom you can talk, not just read about on plaques. And it’s not just for grown-ups, because kids can learn about art too.

Eats, beats and grilled meats. That’s what will be cooking up at TD Place July 11 when Canadian DJ Skratch Bastid rolls into town with a busload of beats, burgers and big name DJs for an all-day outdoor dance party. There are also tons of local shows happening at music joints in the Glebe this summer.

Irene’s Pub has music every Thursday through Sunday with bands like Ottawa rockers Small Black Dog hitting the pub July 3. Ottawa soft rock kings PleasureCraft will be bringing all the “yacht rock” the Glebe can handle when they cruise into the pub July 11. So pick up a pair of festival shoes, a decent backpack, a good water bottle and just spend your time strolling through the Glebe this summer; there will be lots to see – and hear.

February may be the coldest month, but duck into Roast’n Brew to warm up and take a look at Bhat Boy’s new series Nuns Having Fun and Sylvia Williams’ first solo show North of 49 with Antlers. The Glebe Community Centre is also showing “Four Legs Good … II,” an exhibit of paintings by Gwendolyn Best and Ellen Schowalter. Be sure to check out this awesome timelapse of Glebe painter MaryAnn Camps producing her work large-scale triptych “Saturday Night” (the video is in the article), and don’t miss out on the 10th annual Great Bowls of Fire, a fundraising event for the Ottawa Food Bank, organized by the Ottawa Guild of Potters.

Having grown up in Saskatoon, Zmud says, “It takes a while for a Prairie girl to feel at home, but the Glebe has done that for me.” Although she came to Ottawa in 2000 to study at Carleton University, she then went to Toronto and back to Saskatchewan, where she taught political studies at the University of Saskatchewan. But in 2006 she decided that Ottawa was a better place for her music and the Glebe turned out to be the perfect spot.

Our community is home to numerous artists, practicing in a multitude of mediums. There are wonderful studios, cafes, galleries, and gardens that showcase these creations. Art events are happening well into autumn — read about the upcoming Art of Imagination Day and Glebe Fine Art Show — and don’t forget to check out photos from this summer’s Garden & Studio Tour and New Art Festival.

Summer festivals are still happening in Ottawa! Don’t miss out on the awesome lineup at the Arboretum Festival (August 18-23), and be sure to check out the 11th annual House of PainT celebrations. Punk rock has a new home in the Glebe at the House of Targ, where you can also indulge in perogies and play a little pinball. It’s not too late to pick up a new skill (or polish up an old one) — St Giles Presbyterian Church is hosting “sight-singing” classes, which resume in September, so sign up soon!

by Joachim Moskau
To “face the music” gets a new twist at St Giles Presbyterian Church in the Glebe. Organist and passionate choir master Desmond Hassell has launched a tutorial avalanche to teach all comers, young or old, rich or poor, the surprisingly simple basics of singing a song straight off the printed score. The philosophy is simple – even Mozart, Verdi and Bach began with “do-re-mi.”