‘Poetry in the Gallery’ set with three poets scheduled

This year, to complement its return to Memorial Hall’s Bainton Gallery for in-person shows originally scheduled for 2020, the Blyth Festival Art Gallery will be hosting three “Poetry in the Gallery” events in conjunction with its shows.

“This year, the Blyth Festival Art Gallery is bringing the spoken word and fine arts together as we host our inaugural ‘Poetry in the Gallery’ evenings in conjunction with our three professional shows,” reads a press release from the gallery, authored by Gallery President Carl Stevenson.

Lucknow-based photographer Hannah Dickie will open the season with an exhibition of her farmfocused photography between June 16 and July 15. During her show, Nathanya Field will open the “Poetry in the Gallery” series on July 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Field is a poet, playwright and storyteller whose work often explores her “rural and queer roots and all the places they tangle together”.

She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, earned at the University of Guelph, a Bachelor of Art (Honours) in Theatre and English from the University of Windsor and is the former Windsor Grand Slam Champion and Slam Team Captain. Field, after spending a number of years outside of the community, has returned home to Huron County.

London-based Blair Trewartha will be the next artist to host a “Poetry in the Gallery” event on July 28 at 7:30 p.m., in conjunction with Rob Tetu and his collection of potters exhibiting Japanese Shino techniques and more from July 21 to Aug. 12.

Trewartha’s debut, full-length poetry collection, entitled Easy Fix, was published by Palimpsest Press in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Relit Award. He is also the author of three chapbooks - Break In , 2010; Porcupine Burning , 2012, and Human Energy, 2022 - and his poetry has appeared in Carousel, Prism, Event, Existere, CV2, The Dalhousie Review, and Prairie Fire Magazine

While Trewartha now lives in London, he was born and raised on a farm outside of Clinton.

To end the season, Blyth-based artist Kelly Stevenson will bring her work to the walls of the Bainton Gallery from Aug. 18 to Sept. 9.

Coinciding with her show will be the “Poetry in the Gallery” event featuring London’s Joanne Stryker on Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Stryker divided her time between

Huron County and the United Kingdom before returning to Ontario to live in London. Her poetry has been published in a number of anthologies and journals and has won prizes both in Canada and abroad.

After, a sequence of mourning poems, was published in Wales and launched in England in 2018. She currently has work in three collections: The Swedish Death Purge, Here/After, and a series of love poems.

The “Poetry in the Gallery” evenings are meant to bring people together in the Bainton Gallery after so many years to take in the art, followed by the poetry events, Stevenson said in the release, and add a new aspect of art to a gallery that has traditionally hosted visual arts.