River Revery launched at Wordsfest 2019

River Revery launched at Wordsfest 2019
cover of River Revery book by Penn Kemp
available now

Penn’s latest book, River Revery (Insomniac Press) is now out! 
River Revery features photographs by Mary McDonald and QR codes linking to poetry films by Mary McDonald and by Dennis Siren.

Diana Beresford-Kroeger joined Penn Kemp with a reading “In Conversation”, moderated by Nina Desjardins, on November 2, at Wordsfest, Museum London. After watching Mary MacDonald’s poetry film, Wishing Well, we launched RIVER REVERY along with Diana’s visionary new book, To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest. Diana wrote the Forward to RIVER REVERY (Insomniac Press, 2019).  You can join the excitement on Dennis Siren’s video of the event on http://pennkemp.weebly.com/.

The London Free Press helped celebrate our river on https://lfpress.com/entertainment/books/london-poet-helps-explore-identity-at-wordsfest.

Updates: http://pennkemp.weebly.com/

International Travel for River Revery

International Travel for River Revery

Wishing Well and Silicon Valley have been selected for the Newlyn Film Festival occurring this weekend in Penzance, UK. Both of these films were shown at the wonderful Reel Poetry festival in Houston, Texas. And on April 11 Wishing Well will be shown here at the London public library for Gathering Voices, and across the ocean at #OER19 in Galway, Ireland, land of the poets! Penn Kemp’s beautiful text travels out into the world to be heard by audiences across the water!

I was very lucky to be able to accompany Wishing Well and Silicon Valley to Houston for Reel Poetry festival where I was warm welcomed by the wonderful people I met. I experienced a wide variety of poetry and explored the roots of the poetry film genre through the events and workshops they had organized. I participated on an international panel discussion of creating poetry films. I’m glad to say that both poetry films were very well received by both the Houston audiences and the other international poetry filmmakers! I’m looking forward to connecting further with the poetry filmmakers I met through Reel Poetry and will introduce you to them in further posts when I am finished my wandering travels, spreading the word about poetry films and River Revery!

And in other news, in preparation for upcoming workshops, a new Community Resources page has been added to the Story Wall section of the website. Stay tuned for downloadable images, video, nature sounds and music clips to jumpstart or remix your own project!

announcing international Travel for River Rivery with yellow forsythia blossoms up close in London Ontario
magic blooms….

You are invited to Gathering Voices

Join in the Gathering Voices reading to celebrate April, National poetry month! Celebrate poetry, and our natural Canadian beauty at London Public Library!

Thursday, April 11, 2019. 7-8:30 pm. Gathering VoicesKaterina Fretwell, Penn Kemp, Susan McCaslin and Susan McMaster are reading for National Poetry Month on the theme of Nature: poets.ca/npm. We’ll be showing Mary McDonald’s 4-minute film interpreting Penn’s poem, “Wishing Well”, from RiverRevery.ca
Stevenson & Hunt Room, Central Library, 251 Dundas Street, London, Ontario N6A 6H9. Sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. 

sun coming in to light up berries in London, Ontario

Across the ocean, on the same day, April 11, Wishing Well will also be shown at the Open Educational Resources Conference in Galway, Ireland as an example of how connecting artists and community together can create a resource which can be used for many levels of education.

Become part of the River Revery story and join the Gathering Voices on April 11 in London! This is where the magic happens — community, poetry, nature, sound and visual delights….join in!