
PODCASTS AND LITERARY WALKING TOURS
Universes, voices, atmospheres, discoveries, walks, knowledge: the Blue Metropolis podcasts are an invitation to dream and knowledge. Here the time obeys others laws. It slows down, and is ready to branch out wherever he wants.
Click on the sections of your choice. Discover worlds.
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WORKING FICTIONS
Working Fictions is a new bilingual podcast series produced by Blue Metropolis in collaboration with À voix haute / Reading Aloud that brings big challenges of the moment to bear in original short stories by leading literary voices.
This first time around, Working Fictions tackles the stakes of sustainability, social justice, and age with stories written and performed by emerging and established Canadian voices.

LIFE… AS A SONG
The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s literally revolutionized the musical landscapes of Canada and Quebec.
Now at the beginning of the 2020s, the Blue Metropolis Foundation, with the support of Canadian Heritage, has decided to pay tribute to them. The La vie… comme dans les chansons – Life… as a Song project will celebrate them in three ways: a one-off poetry and song performance, podcasts, and video shorts
DISCOVER OUR LITERARY WALKING TOURS

DISCOVER OUR GREEN LITERARY WALKING TOUR
Many projects around town prove it: a greener Montreal is emerging. What is green Montreal today? What will it be tomorrow?
This walking tour in podcast form proposes the perspectives of three Montreal writers on various places emblematic of the current state of green Montreal, including the Échappée belle green alley, the Saint-Lawrence River, and the channels of the Boucherville Islands.
Each writer presented in this series has combined documentary research with a creative touch to explore one of these places in an original literary essay both informative and personal.

TIO’TIA:KE/MONTREAL LITERARY WALKING TOUR
Tio’tia:ke, meaning “where the rivers meet” in Mohawk, has had many names, been a gathering place for many First Nations, and is now a point of confluence for Indigenous people and many other peoples alike. And yet, the history of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal most of us know is a white settler story—an often selective, sometimes doctored, at best incomplete account. In Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, Indigenous and settler of colour authors, members of communities underrepresented by the telling of that story, begin to contribute necessary perspectives, personal records, and missing chapters to the history of the place they’ve called home.

MONTREAL SHOPPING & LIVRES
Montréal Shopping & Livres propose un regard unique sur la métropole à travers les textes inédits d’auteurs en balados, des chroniques de blogueuses, des rendez-vous choisis, des livres, de jolies robes et des créateurs en tout genre, en ligne et un parcours dans les rues de la métropole.
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YIDDISH CIRCUIT: KORN, MAZE, ZIPPER, ROSENFARB…
While Mordecai Richler and Leonard Cohen are household names in Montreal and beyond, there’s an earlier generation of acclaimed Jewish writers who lived in this city: Rochl Korn, Ida Maze, J.I. Segal, Yaacov Zipper, Chava Rosenfarb and others. They wrote in Yiddish, a language that once flourished here. Join translator-editor Goldie Morgentaler and writers Norman Ravvin and Sherry Simon, with host Shelley Pomerance, as they take you on a virtual visit of Montreal’s Yiddish literary past.

TENSIONS + INTERSECTIONS : CIRCUIT LITTÉRAIRE DU VILLAGE GAI
“It’s because the people in this neighbourhood have a certain dignity that I’m inviting you to celebrate the tensions and intersections of the Village,” writes Nicholas Dawson. “It’s because we are dignified that everything starts here, smack dab in the middle of a noisy and inhospitable street.”
With poetic, documentarian texts in podcast form, Nicholas Dawson and authors Marie-Claude Garneau, Jean-Paul Daoust, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch and Kama La Mackerel present a literary walking tour that illuminates the different tensions intersecting one another in Montreal’s Gay Village.

LES ROUTES LITTÉRAIRES DES ALCOOLS DU TERROIR
Pour le plaisir de découvrir, à travers des balados enregistrés par Louise Portal et Sylvain Massé, les textes inédits de cinq auteurs du Québec inspirés par des artisans distilleurs et leurs produits uniques au Saguenay, en Estrie, à Montréal, sur la Côte-Nord et au Centre du Québec!
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DISCOVER OUR PODCASTS FOR CHILDREN

QUEBEC ROOTS
The Quebec Roots program indirectly addresses important issues linked to the development of young adults. Over the years, as we examined the texts submitted by students, we noticed that they were using this free space for creative self-expression to talk about their problems and the reality they deal with. By allowing youngsters to sound off about difficult and complex issues, such as bullying or sexual orientation, Quebec Roots endeavours to turn the creative process of writing and thinking into a positive experience. Listen to the podcasts.

NUMBERS SPELLED OUT
Our new platform Numbers Spelled Out offers free podcasts. The podcasts deal with math, money, saving, spending, and the value of things. Content is tailored to different age groups. There are original texts, podcasts, reading suggestions, and a quiz, all designed to promote play with numbers.

PUMPKINS, WITCHES AND GOOSEBUMPS
Ah! Fear… Not the real, paralyzing kind, of course. Literary fear, or the movie-watching kind. The kind that gives a delicious chill, once our parents have reassured us there are no monsters under the bed. The kind that gets our blood pressure up, and keeps our breath bated until the very last page of the story. The kind that inspires us to think of ourselves as the brave heroes facing off with zombies, ghosts, witches, malevolent spirits, criminals, and spies doing the Devil’s work. Here, Blue Metropolis proposes videos, podcasts, new texts and readings recommendations for hours of… diabolical fun!
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MY PERFECT PROM
Five writers have imagined the perfect prom. Their characters, have been dreaming about the event since the beginning of the senior year — much like the current graduates. Some of the writers have set their stories in the midst of the pandemic, others not. They all focus on the swirl of emotions that engulf young people, today as in the past.

READING TO HEAL AND SPREAD YOUR WINGS
In the spring of 2017, the TD-Blue Metropolis Children’s Festival tried something new. We asked children’s authors to visit hospitals and special needs centres throughout the Greater Montreal area. The kids were thrilled to meet their favourite writers, and the feeling was mutual. Some authors told us that “sending them to the hospital” had been the best gift ever.
THANKS TO THE BLUE METROPOLIS FOUNDATION’S MAJOR PARTNERS WHO SUPPORT THE 2023 FESTIVAL AND OUR 2022-2023 EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS
MERCI AUX PARTENAIRES MAJEURS DE LA FONDATION METROPOLIS BLEU QUI SOUTIENNENT LE FESTIVAL 2023 ET NOS PROGRAMMES ÉDUCATIFS ET SOCIAUX 2022-2023
