Month: December 2021

Dear Strollers,

It’s a great honour to be part of an organization that marks thirty years of bringing poetry to the greater Edmonton Community and beyond. An abundance of initiatives have been rolled out to start this milestone celebration at the Stroll of Poets and we’ve only just begun!

This fall we had a bountiful batch of poetry readings at our online “Haven at Home” series and hosted an average of 30 people each night.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each of you for your participation and enthusiastic support that fuels this rich community of poets, writers and volunteers.

On behalf of the Stroll of Poets Board Members and Associates, we’d like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a winter wonderland filled with joyful words during the holiday season!

With warmest regards,
Janis Dow

Monday, January 3, 7:00 pm, “Doors” 6:30 pm 

Featured Readers: Sharmila Pokharel, Janet Smith, David Fraser, & Dorothy Lowrie

Mic Host: Lynn Gale

Open Mic:  Sign-up (2-min. poem) New and first-time readers are always welcome and given priority during the Open Mic.

Zoom invite If you know anyone who would like to join our online reading nights and is not a Stroll member please direct them to strollquestions@gmail.com.

Please note all requests for Zoom links to “Haven at Home” evenings need to be done before 5pm.

Did You Know? 

What’s in the name:  The Stroll of Poets 

By Leslie Dawson

Thirty years ago, at its organizational meeting, Doug Elves suggested the Stroll of Poets name because it actually was a stroll.  It began as an annual event where scores of poets and listeners strolled down Whyte Avenue, from bistro to bar, from bar to bookstore, poets speaking and listeners listening to the poets read their works.  Ivan Sundal recalls one meeting when someone pointed out that the word “stroll” was also used to describe “johns” looking for prostitutes.  Others said, not to worry, we’ll reclaim the word for our own.

The Stroll was an annual event for nearly two decades, taking place on the first Sunday of October. The venues included car dealerships, where one dealer even claimed to have sold a car at the event.  Many poets cut their teeth reading to an audience during the Stroll, including Anne Gerard Marshall, who read aloud for the first time there.  Sixty-five poets read the first year, with at least two hundred in the audience, says Alice Major. Afterwards, the multitudes retired? to the No Bards Barred Bar (at the Canadian Legion).  Today’s Stroll activities are “relatively sedate,” says Major, admitting, “we were a lot younger then.”

Because the annual event was a lot of work for just a few people, The Stroll evolved into a weekly event, with many volunteers, at the Upper Crust Restaurant.  Now, during Covid times, it has transformed into a Zoom meeting called “Haven at Home”.  But The Stroll of Poets is not just a literary trick. It really was a Stroll.

Monday, December 13, 7:00 pm, “Doors” 6:30 pm 

Featured Readers: Neil Meili, Corinne Jackson, Vivian Zenari, & Anne Stewart

Mic Host: Alice Major

Open Mic:  Sign-up (2-min. poem) New and first-time readers are always welcome and given priority during the Open Mic.

Zoom invite If you know anyone who would like to join our online reading nights and is not a Stroll member please direct them to strollquestions@gmail.com.

Please note all requests for Zoom links to “Haven at Home” evenings need to be done before 5pm.