Ian Ferrier
{{Short description|Canadian poet, musician, and choreographer (1954–2023)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ian Ferrier
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| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1954}}
| birth_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and given age|df=y|2023|11|03|68}}
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| other_names =
| occupation = Poet
Musician
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Ian Ferrier (1954 – 3 November 2023) was a Canadian poet, musician, and cultural arts organizer. As co-founder of the Wired on Words record label, longtime organizer of The Words and Music Show, author of four chapbooks, and member of the voice/music fusion collective Pharmakon MTL, he was a central figure in the Montreal music, poetry, and spoken word scene from the 1990s until his death in 2023.
Biography
Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier{{Cite web |title=Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier (Ian): 1954-2023 |url=https://montrealgazette.remembering.ca/obituary/ilay-ian-ferrier-1089037240/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=The Gazette Obituaries |language=en}} was born in Montreal in 1954. He studied literature and creative writing at Concordia University,{{LinkedIn page|in/ian-ferrier-69b99513/}} where as an undergraduate he co-founded the literary journal Los in 1975.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/isbn_9781550652253 |title=Language acts: Anglo-Québec poetry, 1976 to the 21st century |publisher=Véhicule Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-55065-225-3 |editor-last=Camlot |editor-first=Jason |location=Montréal |pages=358 |editor-last2=Swift |editor-first2=Todd |via=Internet Archive}}
Montreal environments feature in his first book of poetry, From yr lover like an orchestra, published by Davinci press in 1974.{{Cite journal |last=Morrissey |first=Stephen |date=2021 |title=Starting Out from Véhicule Art |url=https://archive.org/details/mouse-eggs-7dozen/page/n31/mode/2up |journal=Mouse Eggs |volume=3 |issue=7 |pages=4–5 |via=Internet Archive}} David Lawson of The Gazette wrote, "most of his collection consists not of observable poems but of paragraphs, sometimes indented, and occasional spare lines, all of which add up to a frankly experimental effect."{{Cite news |last=Lawson |first=David |date=1975-02-15 |title=The poetry of Montreal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette/146599682/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |work=The Gazette |pages=41}} Louis Dudek, reviewing the book in Anthol, a Montreal literary magazine, acknowledged it as the work of a poet in a "preliminary" stage and called it "a documentary of chaos" whose "poetry ... is not aiming at a higher aesthetic but is drawn down to the messiness of the surrounding environment."{{Cite journal |last=Dudek |first=Louis |date=Winter 1975 |title=DA VINCI PRESS: Four Books - Montreal, 1974 |url=https://archive.org/details/anthol_n04/page/42/mode/2up |journal=Anthol |issue=4 |pages=42–43 |issn=0316-2583 |via=Internet Archive}}
Ferrier was the author of an early interactive online novel, The Heart of the Machine, started in 1986 with Fortner Anderson and illustrator Philip Mackenzie.{{Cite web |title=The Heart of the Machine |url=https://fortneranderson.com/?page_id=820 |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Fortner Anderson |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Heather |date=1987-08-01 |title=First electronic novel hits computer screens |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette/34924879/ |access-date= |work=The Gazette |pages=J9}} The novel was published serially on CompuServe, The WELL, and other early internet services, and the publishers invited readers to influence the story with their comments, suggestions, and character sketches.
In the mid-1990s, live poetry was gaining popularity in Montreal due to the rise of poetry slams in the United States, the increasing impact of rap and hip-hop, and the crossover of poetry to pop music. Lollapalooza's first visit to Montreal, in 1994, included a spoken word stage featuring local performers.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/isbn_9781550652253 |title=Language acts: Anglo-Québec poetry, 1976 to the 21st century |publisher=Véhicule Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-55065-225-3 |editor-last=Camlot |editor-first=Jason |location=Montréal |pages=168–169 |editor-last2=Swift |editor-first2=Todd |via=Internet Archive}} Ferrier became an important figure in the scene. With Fortner Anderson, he co-founded the record label Wired on Words in 1993.{{Cite book |last1=Stanton |first1=Victoria |title=Impure: Reinventing the Word: The Theory, Practice, and Oral History of Spoken Word in Montreal |last2=Tinguely |first2=Vincent |publisher=Conundrum Press |year=2001 |isbn=9780968949610 |pages=161}} The label recorded performances by Montreal spoken word artists for broadcast on CKUT-FM, the campus radio station of McGill University. Several poets made the top ten on the station's charts, and the program won a Standard Broadcasting Award. Ferrier used the award money to record Millennium Cabaret, a 1998 CD release featuring poetry by Anderson, Heather O'Neill, Todd Swift and others.{{Cite web |last=Williamson |first=Mary |title=TDR Interview: Ian Ferrier |url=https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/danforth/2008/no24/features/interviews/ian_ferrier.htm |access-date=2024-05-04 |website= |publisher=The Danforth Review |via=Library and Archives Canada |issn=1494-6114}}
Ferrier grew interested in combining his poetry with music.{{Cite news |last=Kronick |first=Ilana |date=2000-02-17 |title=Exploding Head poetry |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette/146599709/ |work=The Gazette |location=Montreal |pages=D14 |id={{ProQuest|433571116}}}} In 2000, he released a book/CD titled Exploding Head Man on {{ill|Planète Rebelle|fr|Planète rebelle (éditeur)}}. The work features instrumentation from area musicians, and was a critical success. Ilana Kronick of The Gazette praised the "sonic power" of its "heady, impassioned, sometimes hallucinogenic" poetry and the "smart guitar, bass, percussion and tablas". Hal Niedzviecki reviewed the release for Broken Pencil and the National Post, writing that the "poems/songs merge into each other, become a musical score lament for an absent world" and calling it one of the year's best spoken word releases.{{Cite journal |last=Niedzviecki |first=Hal |date=Summer 2000 |title=Ian Ferrier: Exploding Head Man. CD/Book, $20, Wired on Words/Planete rebelle (3958 ave. Laval, Montreal, QC, H2W 2J2) |journal=Broken Pencil |issue=13 |pages=83 |id={{ProQuest|1430523918}}}}{{Cite news |last=Niedzviecki |first=Hal |date=2000-01-15 |title=Get on the road again, please |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/national-post-pg121/39291603/ |work=National Post |pages=15 |id={{ProQuest|329676680}}}}
On Ralph Alfonso's Bongo Beat label, Ferrier released two more projects combining music and spoken word: 2007's What Is This Place? and 2010's To Call Out in the Night. On What Is This Place?, Ferrier began a collaboration with Pharmakon MTL, a "voice music improv project"{{Cite web |title=PHARMAKON MTL. |url=https://www.pharmakonmtl.com/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=}} with Kris Mah on guitar and Dave Stein on drums.{{Cite news |last=Harrison |first=Tom |date=2011-03-11 |title=PHARMAKON MTL: To Call Out In The Night (Bongo Beat) |url=https://theprovince.com/entertainment/music/pharmakon-mtl-to-call-out-in-the-night-bongo-beat |journal=The Province}} What Is This Place? was reviewed positively by UK Vibe.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Steve |date=July 2009 |title=Ian Ferrier 'What Is This Place?' (Bongo Beat) 5/5 |url=http://ukvibe.org/index.php/sans_frontier/reviewarchive/July%202009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807063336/http://ukvibe.org/index.php/sans_frontier/reviewarchive/July%202009 |archive-date=2009-08-07 |website=UK Vibe}} In Arc Poetry Magazine, Kai Cheng Thom gave To Call Out in the Night a mostly positive review, calling it "[j]azzy and sensuous... a landmark in the fledgling tradition that is Canadian spoken word", though noting that Ferrier could widen his range of intonation.{{Cite journal |last=Thom |first=Kai Cheng |date=Fall 2015 |title=Pharmakon MTL. To Call Out in the Night. Montreal, QC: Wired on Words, 2010. |journal=Arc Poetry Magazine |pages=130–131}}
Ferrier continued to be an active organizer in the Montreal cultural arts scene throughout the 2000s. He helped launch the inaugural Festival Voix d'Amériques in February 2002, and organized The Words and Music Show, which presented live music, literature, and art at Casa del Popolo, a venue on Montreal's Saint Laurent Boulevard.{{Cite news |last=Kankesan |first=Koom |date=2001-01-20 |title=Out loud and proud: With more events, Montreal's spoken-word scene has come of age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette-gazette010120outloudandprou/39027951/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |work=The Gazette |pages=I4}} The series was founded in the early 2000s and produced monthly shows until 2021; Ferrier's organizing included grant writing, artist invitations, and advertising.{{Cite book |last=du Plessis |first=Klara |url=https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/992075/1/duPlessisKlara_PhD_S2023.pdf |title=The Relational Poetry Reading Series: In Live Performance and Audio Archives, Montreal from the 1960s to the Present: Positing Framed, Open, Self, and Deep Curatorial Modes of Literary Event Organization |date=April 2023 |pages=91–92}} The show's performances were recorded, and eventually digitally archived as part of Concordia University's SpokenWeb project.{{Cite web |title=The Words and Music Show Becomes a Digital Archive |url=https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/the-words-and-music-show-becomes-a-digital-archive |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=The Link |language=en}}
From 2002 to 2005 Ferrier was president of the Quebec Writers' Federation.{{Cite web |date=2023-11-06 |title=Remembering Ian Ferrier, Winner of the 2022 Judy Mappin Community Award |url=https://qwf.org/remembering-ian-ferrier-winner-of-the-2022-judy-mappin-community-award/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Quebec Writers' Federation}} In 2010, he became the editor of LitLive.ca – The Canadian Review of Literature in Performance, an online journal of literature performance, and started the Mile End Poets' Festival. In 2011, Ferrier won the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival's Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret for his work in the spoken word community.{{cite web |last=Tinguely |first=Vincent |title=Ian Ferrier |url=http://www.litlive.ca/story/300 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206071515/http://www.litlive.ca/story/300 |archivedate=6 December 2022 |work=LitLive.ca}}{{Cite web |date=2021-10-27 |title=Golden Beret Award |url=https://sheridwilson.com/about/golden-beret-award/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Sheri-D Wilson |language=en-CA}} In 2017, a translation of his poems was published by Éditions du Noroît under the title Quel est ce lieu.{{cite web|url=https://www.festivaldelapoesiedemontreal.com/fr/poesiego__details/ian-ferrier|title=Ian Ferrier|work=PoésieGo!|language=French}} For his contributions to Montreal literary arts, he was awarded the 2022 Judy Mappin Community Award by the Quebec Writers' Federation.
Ian Ferrier died on 3 November 2023 of brain cancer.{{Cite web |date=2023-11-09 |title=Obituaries |url=https://ca.billboard.com/fyi/obituaries-nov-9-2023 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Billboard Canada |language=en}} Following his death, the Quebec Writers' Federation renamed their prize for spoken word to the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize in his honor.{{Cite web |title=The Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize |url=https://qwf.org/prize/spoken-word-prize/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Quebec Writers' Federation}}
Works
=Poetry=
- From yr lover like an orchestra (1974)
- Exploding Head Man (2000)
- Coming & Going (2015)
- Bear Dreams (2016)
=Youth=
- A Child Sees Winter Coming and a Bear Dreams (2018)
=CDs=
- What Is This Place? (2007)
- To Call Out In The Night (2010)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.ianferrier.com/}}
- {{discogs artist|Ian Ferrier}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrier, Ian}}
Category:21st-century Canadian poets