The Blue Metropolis Foundation attends to many areas: society, education, reading. All leading, directly or windingly, to literature, and each to our great delight. The Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival (in person or live) is the Foundation’s flagship. It interests itself in all forms of literature, alert to all of its voices, both at home and abroad. It’s a multitude much in need of an echo chamber. Here it is. With its various entry points and its updated content, “Blue Metropolis : the blog and interview corner” is an invitation to discovery. Curiosity. Intelligence. Fervor. And with all paths leading to books. Which will you choose?
OUR BLOGGERS
G L O W Z I
G L O W Z I is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tiohtià:ke (“Montreal”). From painting to digital drawing and music production, the artist always lets her curiosity guide her through the vast and majestic art world. Through her artistic pieces and performances, G L O W Z I explores various themes such as Blackness, power and nostalgia. By representing her ways of thinking, struggles, successes and failures through her pieces, the multidisciplinary artist conveys anyone whose eyes meet her creations to her funky artistic world.
Discover
- Bonjou, kouman ou ye?
- This Song Sounds Green
- Rete, bay volum non!
- Kiyes ki le? An introduction to the world of Manuel Mathieu
- li bon! – a brief historic overview of a Haitian culinary delight
- What’s that beep beep music? – the (Black) origins of techno music
- “Beyond 28” – spotlight on local Black writers
- Unearthing the challenges of our time, one literary piece at the time: the 2021 edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
- Lights, camera, action! Spotlight on the province’s film scene
- Up NEXT! – the unveiling of Blue Metropolis’s NEXT program
MONIQUE POLAK
Monique Polak is the author of 26 books for young people. Her spring 2019 titles are I Am a Feminist: Claiming the F-Word in Turbulent Times, and Princess Angelica, Part-Time Lion Trainer. Monique is a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Monique has been teaching at Marianopolis College for 32 years. She is also a freelance journalist whose stories have appeared in the Montreal Gazette and in Postmedia publications across the country. Monique is a columnist on ICI-Radio Canada’s Plus on est de fous, plus on lit!
SHELLEY POMERANCE
Shelley has delivered talks and conducted interviews in libraries throughout the city of Montreal, as well as for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and a number of festivals. She writes the English Books column as well as profiles for Montréal Centre_ville magazine. From 1982 to 2003, she was a presence on CBC Radio and CBC Stereo as an arts journalist and host of the programmes ArtTalks and All in a Weekend. She has also contributed reports and features to National Public Radio and Vermont Public Radio in the U.S. and, as a translator and copyeditor, has worked for a number of museums, galleries, festivals, and other cultural and civil society organizations.
INGRID BEJERMAN
Ingrid Bejerman is a journalist, scholar and cultural promoter specializing in cultural reportage, Latin American matters, and journalism training. She served as reporter and columnist for the leading São Paulo daily O Estado de S. Paulo in Brazil, as programme coordinator for the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for Journalism in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, and as director of the Cátedra Latinoamericana Julio Cortázar at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. She is a programming consultant for prestigious literary events in the Americas, and programming associate for Blue Metropolis, the Montreal International Literary Festival. Bejerman holds a doctorate degree from McGill University, where her work focuses on the institutionalization and professionalization of journalism. She teaches courses in journalism theory at Concordia University, and currently coordinates the Canada in the Americas initiative at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
CHRISTOPHER DIRADDO
Christopher DiRaddo is a writer and editor living in Montreal, Canada. He is the author of The Family Way (Véhicule Press) andThe Geography of Pluto (Cormorant Books), as well as several short stories that have been published in anthologies by Arsenal Pulp Press. Christopher is also the producer and host of the Violet Hour, a bimonthly queer reading series that takes place during the off-hours of a strip club in Montreal’s gay village. Since 2014, he has produced more than 50 events that have featured more than 150 queer writers and performers. Christopher is also the LGBTQ programming associate for the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, where he curates, produces and hosts panel discussions and readings every year. In 2017, he helped to create the Blue Metropolis Violet Literary Prize, an annual award presented to an established Canadian LGBTQ writer for their body of work.
CONCORDIA BLOG
Blue Metropolis Festival Seen by Concordia University’s students!