For immediate release

NOT JUST ANOTHER POETRY READING:  NINE CANADIAN POETS UNITE IN SUPPORT OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

FREEDOM

Selected by Endre Farkas, Elias Letelier & Carolyn Marie Souaid

poetas.com publisher

Saturday, October 14, 2006

8 PM

O’Hara’s Pub

1197 University (between Ste- Catherine & René Levesque)

Admission $10.00 includes a free copy of the anthology

(Montreal—September 4, 2006) Nine Canadian poets will come together in defense of Sükriye Akar Özordulu, Musa Asoglu and Kaya Saz who are currently in jails, in isolation, for having a conscience and acting upon it. Their crime—the translation and dissemination of information about abuses in Turkish “F” type isolation cells. These jailed activists are only a few of the many around the world whom governments wish to silence.

FREEDOM includes  Canada’s poet laureate Pauline Michel, former laureate George Bowering, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Endre Farkas, Elias Letelier, Geoffrey Cook, Jorge Etcheverry, Katherine Beeman, and Caesar Castellio.

This special evening will feature readings by Pauline Michel, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Endre Farkas, Geoffrey Cook, Elias Letelier, Katherine Beeman, Caesar Castillio and musical guest Swift Years.

None of the poets appearing in the anthology is Turkish; they have taken up the cause because the jailed activists are human beings fighting for the rights and freedoms of their people. And these Canadian poets believe that this is reason enough.

Endre Farkas, a contributor and co-editor of the anthology, explains that the poems in the book, on a broad spectrum of topics and themes, are not polemics or propaganda but banners of protest against these illegal “legal” arrests. According to Farkas, they “bring ‘the news’ to those who share our views, to those who oppose our ideals, to those who would shut us up, to those who don’t care. Through these poems, we celebrate our humanity, our potential. To not do so is to abandon our responsibilities and our freedom.”

For more information or to arrange an interview: 

Elias Letelier: (514) 312-4431      

Endre Farkas:  (514) 488-3185   

www.freedom-anthology.com

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