B. W. Powe
A hallucinatory poem on Apple founder Steve Jobs called “Technogenie” penned by York University English Professor B.W. Powe will be performed in the Cabaret of Wild Culture at the Pages Unbound Literary Festival on Saturday, May 9, at 9pm, at the Randolph Theatre (formerly the Bathurst Street Theatre) in Toronto.
“Technogenie” will be performed at Pages Unbound by the Decoding Dust Theatre Troupe, featuring the talent of four students from the Department of Theatre in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University.
“The troupe is made up of Jordan Laffrenier, Joel Edmiston, Lucy Powis and Terrah Nitkin, who were all students in my English 2600 Creative Writing Class,” says Powe. “Truly this is a story of gifted students coming together and creating presentations that will showcase new writings and their raw talent and impressive aspirations. It’s a gathering where inspiration prevails,” he says. “They’ve been teaching me a lot; which is part of the gift of learning I receive from my students.”
The troupe received funding from York University’s Marshall McLuhan Initiative to bring Powe’s poem to the stage.
The poem was Powe’s contribution to the The Medium is the Muse (Channeling Marshall McLuhan), a collection of reflections edited by Lance Strate and Adeena Karasick. The book was published in 2014 to great critical acclaim and presents the work of 29 leading poets, writers and artists who channel Marshall McLuhan as both medium and muse. McLuhan believed artists could wake us and offer new windows into the world.
The performance of “Technogenie” will be followed by Powe’s participation in the improv narrative “StorySlide”, both presentations are part of the Cabaret of Wild Culture, which the Pages Unbound Festival organizers describe as a 21st-century vaudeville series.
For more information and tickets, visit the Pages Unbound Festival website.