WomenArts Banner
Donate WomenArts Blog WomenArts Facebook Page
Search Artists | Create New Profile | My Account | Help  
 

Penn Kemp
Publisher, Pendas Productions
Email Send an email to this Artist >>
Website http://pennkemp.ca >> This web site features photos of the artist's work.This web site features video clips of the artist's work.This web site features audio clips of the artist's work.

Personal Statement: Penn Kemp performs in arts festivals and conferences around the world, giving readings and workshops, recently throughout Brazil.

A prolific artist, she has had six plays produced and eight CD’s. Penn created Canada's first poetry CD-ROM, On Our Own Spoke, which has been described as "a delight for the ear and to the eye".

She performs in collaboration with actors, poets and jazz musicians. Since her first sound/concrete book was published in 1972, Penn has been pushing text and aural boundaries, often in participatory performance. Among her publications are twenty books of poetry and drama as well as fiction.

Penn's video poem, "Re:Solution", won for best performance (The Voice Award), Vancouver Videopoem Festival, 2001. She uses speech to create a form with primal power and appeal. Her work points to an exciting new sonic form evolving between speech and music.

Current Work
This is an invitation to participate in "poem for peace in many voices" by translating this poem:

poem for peace in two voices
(The second voice is indicated with bold italics.)

Calm came clear
of cloud
early one morning Calm come clear
before things started of cloud

Calm came at noon Calm come
A cardinal perched clear
on black bough of cloud
in blazing sun.

Calm came at night Calm come clear
stretching as cats do, of cloud
constant stretch and change.

Spring flower brightened Calm come clear
as the house slept. of cloud

Now calm come Now calm come
in the face of clear of
brawl cloud

Translated into eighty languages, Penn Kemp's poem for peace in two voices is published as posters available from Pendas Productions. With these posters, Penn & her translators participate in the Dialogue Through Poetry & UNESCO World Poetry week: www.dialoguepoetry.org and National Poetry Month.

If you would like to contribute a translation for the new posters we are planning, please send it to Pendas@pennkemp.ca
or
Pendas Productions
525 Canterbury Road, London ON N6G2N5

We'll send each translator posters and a book of the translations as well as a CD of those languages we can record. We will also invite her/him to read and record for a cd.

(Please Note: Cardinal can be translated as red bird. Forsythia can be translated as yellow flower or spring flower.)

Blessings,
Penn Kemp
For more information about Poets Against the War, please see poetsagainstthewar.org/worldpoets.asp

To hear Poem for Peace in Two Voices in many translations on the London Music Archive click here or paste the address below in your browser: http://chrw.usc.uwo.ca/mp3/2002/Kemp,%20Penn%20-%20Poems%20For%20Peace/kemp.htm (Note: This needs to be pasted as one complete line of text, not two lines.)

To see and hear Poem for Peace in Two Voices and thirty translations click here or paste the address below in your browser as one line of text: http://www.mytown.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=4991&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1044749069.
Short Bio
"Penn Kemp got my vote as hit of the evening. She gave us several sound poems, a tributary of poetry that enjoys the phonic possibilities of words and noises as much as it does their meaning. You had to be there, but take my word that it is great fun to listen to. Candy for the ears." “The Ottawa Citizen”

Canadian poet, playwright, novelist and sound poet, Penn Kemp has been proclaimed a foremother of Canadian poetry by the League of Canadian Poets. Penn has an Honours English degree and M.Ed. from U. of Toronto. At present, she is giving workshops based on her forthcoming book on creativity, What Springs To Mind. She has just completed a novel, Bound By Water, based on Toronto Island.

Her Master’s thesis from the University of Toronto was on Creativity. She has performed and given workshops throughout North and South America, Europe, and India. Penn is currently completing a book on teaching creativity, What Springs To Mind. She enjoys collaborating with artists of other disciplines, such as actors and jazz musicians.

Please see her work ONLINE: http://PennKemp.ca
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/kemp; http://www.mothertonguepress.com/kemp.html, Poem for Peace in Two Voices http://chrwradio.com/lma/2002/Kemp,%20Penn%20-%20Poems%20For%20Peace/kemp.htmhttp://www.goddess-pages.com/writings/poetry/PennKemp/index.html
http://www.mytown.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=1&URL_DO=DO_SEARCHRESULTS&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1074446794
http://www.nthposition.com/tossthebouquetand.php
http://www.subtletea.com/pennpoetry.htm
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/english/canlit/bibliographies/penn_kemp.shtml
Honors
Canada Council travel grant, Brazil and India; Canada Council Spoken and Electronic Word; Canada Council grants (poetry, theatre, fiction); Toronto Arts Council (theatre); Ontario Arts Council; Toronto Arts Council Grant

Union Affiliations/Professional Organizations
Writers Union of Canada, League of Canadian Poets, Playwrights Guild Canada, SOCAN
View Resume
Contact
Pendas Productions 525 Canterbury Road London Ontario Canada
Artist Location
London, Ontario

Type of artist
Writer, Performer, Editor, Arts Educator, Other
General Themes
Art Forms/Art Criticism, Comedy/Humor/Satire, Religion/Spirituality, Education, Aging/Intergenerational
Keywords
Performance and sound poetry
Last updated on December 5th, 2006

WomenArts • 3739 Balboa Street #181, San Francisco, CA 94121 •  Contact Us>>

© WomenArts 2011 unless noted otherwise. All rights reserved.
Please be sure to credit WomenArts if you publish information from our website.
WomenArts is the new name of The Fund for Women Artists,
a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.