VOICE, SOUND AND SONG II

Spoken Word Performances by:

Brendan McLeod
Danielle Arsenault
Mark Hopkins
and hosted by: Mat Mailandt

Friday, December 23rd 2005, starting at 8:00 pm
@ The Soda, 211 12 Ave SW
$5 at the door, 15% of profits going to the Kids Cancer Foundation

Fresh off his last European tour, Canadian poetry SLAM champion Brendan McLeod returns to Calgary with more of the stunning wordplay that wowed crowds this past October. He will be joined by local performers Danielle Arsenault, Mark Hopkins, and Mat Mailandt in a pre-Christmas word blitz. For those of you who missed the October show, come and check it out, you will not be disappointed!


BRENDAN MCLEOD is a spoken word artist and musician based out of Vancouver, and has been called "Canada's top SLAM spieler" by CBC. He is the winner of the National Individual Final at the 2004 Canadian SpokenWordlympics, awarded to the top SLAM poet in Canada. In 2005, he was Vancouver's Grand SLAM Champion. He finished second in the world at Holland's World Slampionship in June 2005. Recent readings include the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival, Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, the German SLAM nationals, and the Dylan Thomas Festival, UK. He recently completed a five country European tour with the poetry supergroup The Fugitives. He received his MA in Philosophy in 2001.

"I felt purely personal inspiration from Brendan McLeod... the next big thing... an extremely talented writer and performer... I feel no sense of impending ego ready to jut from his words. He was truly impressive." - Buddy Wakefield, back to back 2004 and 2005 Individual World Poetry SLAM Champion

Danielle Arsenault
Art is passion. Dramatics speaks louder than eyes of emotion. Surroundings breathe new ideas to think about. Through everyday sights and sounds imagination pours through the orifice called voice or the wonders of a fully functioning hand holding a pen. Several hundred chapbooks of Grooving through the Lime Light, Dreaming of National Pickle Day, and Black Market Dissonance are out there somewhere and Boogie Dogs and Amateur Plastic was the most anticipated spoken word CD release of the year, we are not disappointed. With a BFA and almost done an education degree, Danielle Arsenault will continue to think and thrive as best she can in Guadalajara, Mexico for a while.

Mark Hopkins
Mark Hopkins just graduated with a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Calgary, and he's startled to be already working in the arts. He's the Administrative Assistant of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, Volunteer Coordinator for the Mutton Busting Performance and Visual Art Festival, Events Coordinator for filling Station magazine, a freelance writer for Swerve magazine, and Vice-President of the Board of Directors for Calgary Young People's Theatre. His writing has appeared in several chapbooks, and he most recently performed at the 2005 Calgary Blow-Out Festival and a fundraiser for a theatre company called Urban Curvz.