Blue MET Literary Festival celebrates 20th Anniversary
by Deborah Rankin
This year the Blue MET Metropolis Bleu Literary Festival is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. As always the multilingual festival will be bringing together people from different cultures to experience the pleasures of reading and writing while encouraging creativity and intercultural understanding. While the annual festival is very much about literary topics it is also a forum for social discussion and community engagement. There are 97 events including readings, workshops, panel discussions, walking tours, performances, and award ceremonies in the adult program.
Several prizes will be awarded in various classifications reflecting literary diversity including Canada's first LGBTQ Violet Literary Prize. Nicole Brossard, a novelist, essayist, and poet is the recipient of the newly-minted Prix Violet. Blue Metropolis established the First Peoples Literary Prize to increase the national and international exposure of Indigenous writers and to highlight their stories. Blue MET will honor acclaimed author Lee Maracle of the STÓ:LŌ Nation in this category. Other awards include the Premio Metropolis Azul Prize for writing in Spanish. Argentinian journalist Leila Guerriero will receive this prize. The Blue Metropolis Words to Change Prize will be given to Lebanese novelist Charif Majdalani whose writing reflects intercultural values. Alina Dumitrescu who was born in Rumania will receive the Blue Metropolis/Conseil des arts de Montréal Literary Diversity Prize for a Quebec writer from an immigrant background.
There is also a children's program with a wealth of fun and educational activities for kids of all ages. Of special note is MY Roots/Mes Racines, a mixed-media project incorporating writing, drawings, and photos. It taps into the stories of refugees and migrants to create a mural, itself a symbol of dialogue. The TD-Canadian Children's Literature Award in English goes to Jan Thornhill author of The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk.
Michel Desautels of Radio-Canada will be interviewing Charles Taylor who is the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix recipient for 2018. Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University and a renowned Canadian author. He has published a number of authoritative works in the field of ethics and moral philosophy most notably Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity (1989), The Malaise of Modernity (1991), and A Secular Age (2007).
Taylor is probably best-known to Quebecers for his role as co-chair, along with sociologist Gérard Bouchard, of Quebec's Commission on Reasonable Accommodation which examined the role of cultural minorities and religious communities in the province. In 2007 the Bouchard-Taylor Commission heard from experts, individuals, and organizations on identity, integration, and religion. In 2008 it presented a landmark report with 37 recommendations. However, Taylor later backed off one of its central recommendations that persons in positions of coercive authority be prohibited from wearing religious garb while exercising their official functions. There is likely to be plenty of animated discussion at the award ceremony which will be taking place at the Grande Bibliothèque on Saturday, April 28 at 4 p.m.
Another big draw at Blue MET is the Montreal Press Club's inaugural "Freedom Award" honoring Raif Badawi, the imprisoned Saudi Arabian blogger and author of 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think. Badawi garnered worldwide attention after his arrest on trumped up charges for setting up a website to discuss religion and politics. In 2012 Amnesty International designated Badawi a prisoner of conscience "detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression." Ensaf Haidar, Raif's wife, and advocate will accept the award on his behalf. Haidar and her three children were granted political asylum by the Government of Canada in 2013 and now reside in Quebec.
The Montreal Press Club is commemorating its 70th Anniversary at the St. James Club with the keynote address, "Freedom of Speech, the Sovereign Right", by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. The clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto is an avowed opponent of political correctness. Peterson found himself in the eye of a media storm last year for refusing to use nonwords signifying non-binary gender identity and gender expression. His critique unfolds at the intersection of freedom of speech and the meaning of language highlighting the fault-lines between objective facts and subjective truth and the implications for public policy. Peterson is the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
Blue Metropolis is also showcasing a number of theatre events in Montreal. A staged reading of Rooftop Eden took place at La P'Tite Grenouille, a Boîte à chanson on Boulevard St. Laurent. The sequel to Marianne Ackerman's hit comedy Triplex Nervosa at the Centaur Theatre in 2015 it featured cast members from the original production. The reading was followed by the launch of the new arts-platform Blue Sky. Ackerman was abuzz with ideas about how to expand Montreal's theatrical horizons at the 5@7 cocktail mixer. Rooftop Eden will be part of a trilogy tentatively titled Mile End Days and NIghts. It's a pilot project but one with potential. She is working with a top music producer to make a polished podcast of the sequel soon with a view to doing the entire trilogy as a podcast. Reasoning that Netflix is driving demand for long quality series on television she sees the same potential for theatre. ''People want to follow the same and new characters over time,'' she says. ''There are limited opportunities for Montreal stories on the stage these days.'' www.bluesky-ma.com.
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