2 N.B. authors make art from art at Frye Festival
Jon Claytor, Thandiwe McCarthy acting as Frye correspondents
Two New Brunswick artists have been tasked with making art based on the local literary scene.
Thandiwe McCarthy is one of the "Frye correspondents" for this year's Frye Festival in Moncton.
"I learned about it at the Atlantic symposium last October when they were talking about writing and how the Frye used their budget, instead of going into marketing, to actually empower local writers to just write about the festival and put out what they love," said McCarthy, a spoken word poet, published author and public speaker.
Founded in 1999, the Frye Festival is Atlantic Canada's largest literary festival. It bills itself as an "English-French bilingual celebration of books, ideas and the imagination."
The 26th edition of the festival, which runs until May 4, features more than 40 events.
McCarthy said the role has allowed him to go to different events and gain inspiration. And before the festival even started, the correspondents were tasked with checking in with the authors and writing about them.
One event that McCarthy attended had three individuals all performing the work of poet Nizar Qabbani, each in a different language — Arabic, English and French.
"As an anglophone myself … I don't understand any French, but that was not a barrier for me hearing and understanding the beauty of the stories that were portrayed through different languages " he said, adding that he wrote a poem inspired by the event.
"Every event inspires a poem," he said.
"You can hear the story even if you don't understand the language."
Artist and writer Jon Claytor, another Frye correspondent, said he's been doing a small diary entry every day with cartoon-style drawings.
His favourite event of Frye so far was called "Frye Fever." Four writers were given 36 hours to write two original pieces, with the last line of every piece being the title of a dance-worthy song.
"When they get to that last line, the DJ drops the beat and everybody gets up and dances," said Claytor.
"The poems were so powerful … and then the dancing was so cathartic."
With files from Information Morning Moncton