Sixth Women’ s Festival

The sixth annual PEI Women’s Festival will open Friday evening April 28 with an informal talk and short readings by Newfoundland author Helen Porter. Now a grandmother, He- len has written al her life but did not begin to write professionally until 1963. “Helen is a mother figure in the Newfoundland writ- ers’ community around whom younger writers gather”, accord- ing to Betsy Epperley, an English professor at Memorial University in St. John’s.

Epperley describes He- len Porter as “an obviously kind, unassuming women whose keen intelligence, perceptiveness, and sharp wit can take you by sur- prise.” Of Porter’s first novel, published last summer, Epperley says, “If you want to understand

a f aPeKe

poetry, criticism, humour and non-fiction. Below the Bridges (Breakwater Press, 1980) is a memoir-history about the south side of St. John’s where He- len was born and grew up. She has also published stories and poetry in a number of antholo- gies, including Stories from At- lantic Canada (MacMillan, 1973), Atlantic Prose (Ragweed,1985), and Through the Open Window (Oxford University Press, 1985). Helen’s work has also appeared in Saturday Night, Atlantic In- sight, Chatelaine, Weekend, Star Weekly, Books in Canada, Quill and Quire, Journal of Fiction, Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, and many other publications. She has had ten plays produced on CBC radio and four on the stage.

Since

Sonia Johnson

working class St. John’s life, from the smell of the hair spray to the name of the dish detergent to the dialogue, you just need to read any ten pages of January, Febru- ary, June or July.”

Helen Porter writes fiction,

=Thieday 4 April 6, 1989 ==

1976 Helen has been teaching a creative writing class for Memo- rial University’s Extension Arts. During the same period she has visited schools all over Newfound- land and Labrador, reading to students from her work and dis- cussing it with them.

Helen is a founding member of St. John’s Status of Women Council nd is happy to call her- self a feminist.

Festival registrants and the general public are in for a treat when Montreal singer-songwriter Lucie Bleu Tremblay performs Friday night, after author Helen Porter. Lucie Bleu had been per- forming in Montreal and Quebec for a long time when — all in one

year, 1986 — she won several pres- tigious Granby Awards, a previ- ously unheard of feat. Not only did she receive both the perform- ing and songwriting awards, but also the press award, the result of voting by the members of the Quebec press.

Suddenly there was lots of me- dia attention on this talented mu- sician and gifted performer. This time was right for her to put out an album. It was important to Lucie Bleu that the consciousness she puts in her songs be in her album, but it was hard to find a recording company willing to in- clude “Voix d’ Enfant”, her song about incest. So she and her sis- ter decided to produce her first al- bum with the agreement of Oliver Records of California that Lucie Bleu would have artistic control.

Olivia Records is a completely woman-run company committed to the work of women singer- songwriters. Last November the recording company celebrated its 15th anniversary with a sold-out concert by its performers at New York’s Carnegie Halk

Lucie Bleu sings in both French and English on her al- bum and in her concerts. she is as a Quebecoise is very important to her. Because her record has only been released in the U.S., she has been perform- ing mainly there since 1986. Yet she never fails to get her pre- dominately English-speaking au- diences to join in with her in singing the traditional French- Canadian songs she sings in addi- tion to her own songs.

The boston Globe named her first album in the Top Ten of 1986, along with Paul Simon’s Graceland. She is now record- ing a concert in Boston. Of this concert the Boston Glove re- viewer stated, “Lucie Bleu is in- volved in a love affair with her

audience, and the feeling is mu- tual”. This was under a large picture of Lucie Bleu captioned “performer adored by both men and women”. With her combi- nation love songs, fun songs, and issue—oriented songs her perfor- mance has a transformational ef- fect on her audience.

She will perform in New Or- leans in January and Carnegie Hall in March. With the release of her first album in Canada this spring, she will perform again in her native Montreal just before she comes to PEI. She will then continue on a cross—Canada tour.

While the Friday evening opening of the Women’s Festival highlights a Newfoundland au- thor and a Quebecoise singer- songwriter, Saturday morning will feature’ an American free- lance feminist, speaker and au- thor.

Sonia Johnson is the woman who was excommunicated from the Mormon Church in 1979 for her support of the Equal Rights

len Port Continued on page 7 Helen Porter

Who.

Show us this card | and we'll show the world.

yo

canadian Hostelling

Peels ls

Travelling in Canada or inter- nationally this summer? There is a youth hostel system that covers over 75 countries all over the world. Buy your membership card today and see the world with us!

The Canadian Hostelling Association Association canadienne de I’ajisme /Me\ 1600 James Naismith Drive, Suite 608 Gloucester, Ontario (613) 748-5638