Reprint: P.I. New Poetry

So I was interviewed Sunday afternoon on CKUW, the campus and community radio station at the University of Winnipeg.

It was blizzard-y out and I was headed to the MWG's fundraising dinner at McNally's afterwards, so I was wearing my big faux-fur jacket as I walked down Ellice to the uni.

The most notable feature of the jacket is its hood, which is enormous. (I figure two faux-fur beasties died for its sake...)

All of which is to say, I looked suitably dramatic for the interview, which was for Winnipeg poet Carmelo Militano's new spoken word/poetry show, P.I. New Poetry.

Here's Carmelo's description of the show:

"P.I. New Poetry is where we investigate, interrogate and speculate poetry by the usual and unusual suspects. Hosted by poet and novelist, Carmelo Militano, man of cafes and cabarets, flaneur and general doppleganger."

(P.I. apparently stands for Post-Imperium.)(You'll have to ask Carmelo what, precisely, that means....)

Now the previous show, about all things comic book-related, went long, so our interview didn't start on time. But then the host of the show that followed Carmelo's was late—probably because it was blizzard-y out—so we went long in the interest of filling the dead air.

You can listen to the interview here, if you want, and then follow that up with the archive of interviews with other Winnipeg poets, such as Steve Snyder (October 26), Kristian Enright (November 2), and Brenda Sciberras (November 9).

Suffice to say, it was nice to gnaw away at the connective tissue between the different sections of Stowaways with Carmelo.

It was also pleasant to sit on the couch before the interview and contemplate CKUW's offices. Which, of course, were once the Uniter's offices, back when I was a student at the University of Winnipeg and worked as A&E Editor for the student newspaper.

CKUW had always had their offices/studios in the basement (I had a show one year and discovered that it really wasn't my thing...) and one year staff decided that they wanted our offices, which were on the fourth floor, up a set of stairs in the middle of the cafeteria.

They attempted to take our offices at the next UWSA AGM by stacking the meeting with their volunteers, but we got word of it and attended too. In the end, we registered our anger at the fact that they hadn't just asked to trade offices...and then shrugged and agreed to trade.

Despite all the new bricks and mortar that has expanded the University of Winnipeg's footprint into the surrounding community, the main buildings persist in looking the same way they did in 1991, my first year of university.

And I sort of like that. I also like spending a blizzard-y Sunday afternoon talking poetry, especially if it's MY poetry.

Ahem.