Editor's Notes

Greetings Dear Readers,

The poems in this month’s issue offer beauty in the face of absurdity, moments of stillness, the comfort of the continuous hum, and elegies. I hope you enjoy the issue.

Arts organizations wishing to run a reading series should plan long term in order to ensure that their events take place at accessible venues. In the City of Ottawa, most accessible venues are institutional, run by governments and religious organizations. There are also a handful of accessible venues scattered around Ottawa in the form of bars, bookstores, and cafes, but most require a booking fee or a bar tab minimum. The cost to hold events can be prohibitive. Charging high admission fees is a way to offset these expenses but then the events are not affordable for many Ottawa residents and visitors.

The best way to ensure that events are held at accessible spaces is to apply to the City of Ottawa’s cultural funding programs, either through the project-based or three-year-operating program. The latter requires an organization to be incorporated. In your application to the city, you can add the cost of event space as a budget item in your proposal. I advise you to get in touch with owners and managers of accessible venues to discuss your programing for the next year. The next deadline for applications is in January 2025. City of Ottawa staff is available to help you with the application process through information sessions or one-on-one consultations. I will add information sessions to the Bywords.ca calendar when they occur and spread the world through our social media accounts.

I am currently working on the fourth edition of Access Word Ottawa, a Guide to Accessible Venues for Literary, Spoken Word, Storytelling and Nonfiction Events. This will be available in December. In the meantime, I am also posting updates when I learn that a venue is accessible on the Facebook page, Access Word Ottawa. The 2019 edition of the guide is still available at Bywords.ca beneath the City of Ottawa logo. Access Word Ottawa provides information and a glossary on accessibility terms and language, along with articles by disabled writers and activists. This guide will help you choose a venue for your 2025 programming.

If you know of space in Ottawa that is accessible and being used for literary events, please get in touch. No one should be unable to attend or perform at an event because of accessibility. This must be the first consideration of any arts organization wishing to hold events in any city.

Thanks to our selection committee this month:

Jesse Aubin
Dan Boland
Chris Johnson
Sarah Kabamba
Andrew Lafleche
Margo Lapierre
Stephanie Mason
Kemisha Newman
Jade Riordan
Carol A. Stephen
JC Sulzenko

If you have questions, comments, suggestions or a calming cup of tea to offer, please e-mail me at amanda@bywords.ca.

Amanda Earl
Managing Editor

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