As a complement to the #BackToTheRoots CONTACT Photography Festival open group exhibit, Brian Torner has curated a Women Authors Video Interview Series, which will launch on the exhibit’s opening night. Featuring contributions from four Canadian authors with a connection to the photo exhibit’s themes, the award-winning and bestselling authors will discuss the power of the written word, dance, community, the creative life and what it means for them personally to go #BackToTheRoots.
A special feature of opening night, Friday, April 26th, three of the four authors will be in attendance LIVE to give a reading and sign copies of their books. Highlights from the video interview series will also be previewed.
The women authors’ special feature, including readings and book signing, begins at 8 pm – not to be missed!!
Featured authors are:
Pollyanna Blanco, reading from her book, In Rhythm with Your Soul
Watch the Promo with Pollyanna
Pollyanna Blanco loves dancing through life. She is passionate about guiding you to discover how truly multidimensional you are as a creative being and awakening you to your chakra system and how it can support optimal wellbeing. Her mission is to inspire you to keep expanding your consciousness ever higher with the intention of embodying it so you can share your gifts with the world.
Through multiple modalities, she supports you to cultivate creative courage, encourages you to embrace your soul’s calling, and holds safe space for you to rediscover deep inner truth and joy. A licenced Chakradance FacilitatorTM, Samhara™ Reiki and Energy Medicine Practitioner, Wellness Retreat Leader, Ascended Numerologist, Divine Connections Practitioner, and Author (In Rhythm With Your Soul) she has also been an educator for more than 22 years (Hon. BA., B. Ed).
A Holistic Practitioner with the City of Toronto, she is also registered with the Canadian Reiki Association, and IICT (International Institute of Complementary Therapists). Dance has been both a literal and metaphorical journey for her as she has studied ballet, modern, flamenco, and ballroom. In 2013 she was named the North American Imperial Pro-Am Show Dance Champion, representing the Spring Tulip Classic in the 2013 Best of the Best, at the Ohio Star Ball.
Joie Lamar, reading from her latest book and first work of fiction, G
Joie Lamar published her first novel, volume 1 of a 2-part memoir called Mambo Lips in 2016. The much-anticipated second part, Salsa Hips, hit book store shelves shortly after. They both sold quickly, over 100k copies all over the world, and in a short time. More impressive than this feat, for a new writer with LGBTQ content, was that Mambo Lips became part of the curriculum and library portfolio of two LGBTQ+ schools in the USA- Harvey Milk High School, in New York, and Pride School, formerly in Atlanta. Her memoirs continue to be reader favourites.
Joie has gone on to add a poetry book to her portfolio, Sapphoetry, but also a beautiful coffee table book dedicated to the Orlando Pulse massacre victims, titled Cuarenta Y Nueve. Ms. Lamar was the visionary behind Cuarenta y Nueve, which means 49 in Spanish. The title was conceived because 49 innocent people lost their lives in this tragedy and because she organized 49 artists, of a multitude of disciplines, to contribute to the book. Joie contributed as part of the 49 artists as well.
While writing this novel, her first fiction, Ms. Lamar has also co-written a screenplay based on her memoir series. She is currently working towards further developing Las Alas, the screenplay, into a feature film with production to begin in 2019/2020. As the great niece of the late Rafael Ramos – Cobian, famed Producer & Film Maker, who built the first movie theatres and cinema chain in Puerto Rico and New York City, she is dedicated and honoured to carry on in her family’s tradition of bringing Latin film to the world.
Elizabeth Ruth, reading from her third acclaimed novel, Matadora
Watch the promo with Elizabeth
Elizabeth Ruth is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Ten Good Seconds of Silence, Smoke, and Matadora. Her work has been recognized by the Writers’ Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, The City of Toronto Book Award, The Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award, and One Book One Community. CBC has named her “One of the Ten Canadian Women Writers You Must Read.” Elizabeth is also the author of a novella for adult literacy learners entitled, Love You To Death, and the editor of Bent On Writing, contemporary queer tales, an anthology based on her llong-running reading series.
Carolyn Boll, a Montreal-based writer and author of Social Dance: A Book of Ballroom Poetry will give a reading via video.
A trained dancer, and recipient of several Canada Council and Quebec choreography grants, author Carolyn Boll draws upon her background in a variety of classical, popular and contemporary dance forms in her writing. A graduate of The Humber School for Writers, her poems have appeared in Lavender Review and The Gay & Lesbian Review. Her first book Social Dance A Book of Ballroom Poetry is a reflection of this creative partnership between movement and words.
The full video interview series with all four authors, hosted by Keren Brown, will air online beginning in June.
SCOTIABANK CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL SITE: https://www.facebook.com/events/761044090909697/?event_time_id=761044114243028
TICKETS: www.thecontinentaldanceclub.com/store
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