GORE BAY—Gore Bay’s stunning addition to Manitoulin’s cultural scene was well and truly launched last weekend as the New Moon Festival’s music and poetry rose to the rafters of the new Harbour Centre.
A large crowd of appreciative music lovers filled the ground floor gallery on Saturday evening to toe-tap to the ‘gypsy jazz’ of Sudbury’s Hugh Jazz, an energetic ensemble of four musicians and a singer that rocked through high-octane Django Reinhardt-influenced swing tunes. Vocalist Jessica Crowe elegantly interpreted blues and jazz classics while acoustic guitarists Eric Plangger and Jamie Dupuis, who started Hugh Jazz together in 2010, mesmerized with their dizzyingly fast finger work; fiddler Jean-Paul Gignac smiled beatifically in fedora, crisp shirt, tie and suspenders as he, too, tirelessly and deftly worked his violin; stand-up bass player Brian Québec, filling in for usual bassist Ben Mulligan, brought on frequent bouts of enthusiastic clapping with his jazzy solos.
The audience overflowed the seating as the first set got underway and it was standing-room only for others who milled about the edges of the room; the evening was designed by Nicole Weppler, director of the Gore Bay Museum, to ensure that everyone, whether sitting or standing inside or outside the gallery, was fully engaged in the goings-on. While the steady downpour kept the capacity crowd from listening from the balconies until later, there were plenty of other spaces and chairs from which to enjoy the sounds. Tables were set up on the ground and second floors of the vast three-story building, laden with delicious food and lemonade and hosted by gracious volunteers.
All the artisans’ studios were open for browsing and meeting the artists, and the Marine Museum on the third floor provided a kind of ‘top deck’ that anchors the building in the storied nautical past of the area. While the new moon was obscured by the rising mist in the bay, the buzzing throng, moving toward the packed parking lot at midnight, was clearly lit up by the magic of the New Moon Festival.
Sunday afternoon was reserved for the Poetry Reading, organized by Margo Little of the Manitoulin Writers’ Circle and by the Gore Bay Museum, in the gallery, surrounded, as on the previous night, by the richly textured fibre works of Lynda Noe and the softly evocative acrylic paintings of Jack Whyte (hanging until September 22).
Emcee Perry Paterson introduced Roger Nash, Sudbury’s oft-published inaugural Poet Laureate, who read and sang in his lush baritone on topics both humourous and philosophical, entreating the audience to “live well, whatever life throws at us.” The current Poet Laureate of Sudbury, Tom Leduc, as yet unpublished but deserving of a wide readership, read affecting verses on three themes influenced by his earlier job in the mining industry, by lakes, and by life.
During a brief intermission, audience members were once again treated to scrumptious refreshments in the lobby, where authors’ books were on display. Ron Berti then spoke of the roles of improvisation and serendipity in exploring identity and group creation, concepts underlying the success of Debajehmujig theatre group, in which he has played a pivotal part since 1992. Fay Becks of Gore Bay likes to “compose rhythm and pictures in words” in her short poems that meditate on small moments gleaned from daily life, often ending with wry reflections that cause gasps of recognition. Margo Little read from several of her published books, with an especially moving piece about her son, and two historical poems, entitled ‘Beautiful Bess’ and ‘The Mountain Speaks,’ a trilogy that projects a hopeful vision of the future despite humankind’s despoliation of nature.
The New Moon Festival, the Harbour Centre with its many talented artists in residence, the Gore Bay Museum and the Summer Theatre Festival are jaunty feathers in the cap of Gore Bay, enriching artistic treasures that assure the town a prime position on Manitoulin’s cultural map.
