According to the Book and Periodical Council, which organizes Freedom To Read Week in Canada every year, more than 100 books in Canada have been censored or challenged in the last few years alone. And those books range from what you might expect to be challenged — queer literature, books dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict — there are also some you might not expect to ever be the victim of censorship: Of Mice and Men, Harry Potter, or Wallpaper magazine.

In recent days, a version of Huckleberry Finn that deletes the “n-word” and the censorship of the Dire Straits song “Money For Nothing” have been in the news.

So, since Ottawa Tonite believes that each person should get to choose what he or she consumes, we’re organizing a cabaret of censored and challenged works. Come to Censored Out Loud at the Raw Sugar Café and join a motley crew (no, not Mötley Crüe) of writers, actors, and musicians as they celebrate Freedom To Read week by bringing some scandalous — and not so scandalous — works to life. Everything you’ll hear will have one thing in common, whether it’s Donna Summer or Margaret Atwood: the work has been censored or challenged.

Some of the people reading and playing on stage will be: Lisa Poushinsky, Nichole McGill, Jesse Dangerously, Megan Jerome, Jessica Ruano, Mike Essoudry, and many more. It’s gonna be fast-paced, fun, and a great way to celebrate the power of creative expression and the freedom to offend.

The show takes place Wednesday, February 23, 2011, starting at 8:00 pm at the Raw Sugar Café, 692 Somerset Street West. There’s a cover charge of $10 or what you can afford to pay and proceeds are going to go to PEN Canada, an organization that fights for the right to create and read.

We guarantee at least ONE thing to offend EVERYBODY. Spread the word. Loudly.

I should have come earlier.

The salon-like Fourth Stage at the National Arts Centre was already packed with charming café tables, candle-lit, naturally. And all of the 30 or so tables had been claimed 15 minutes before “curtain rise”. It was sitting room at the back only. Even from there the view of the stage was clear and intimate.

Three women in shawls inscribed with Celtic patterns walked onto the stage. Musician Nathan Bishop played a Celtic drumbeat. The crowd was hushed.

Ottawa poet Kathryn Hunt, the central figure and the impetus for the evening’s vision, first invited us to re-imagine Bouddica, the Iceni queen who lived in 1st century England, the person who is said to have led the largest uprising against the Roman Empire and after some early victories, lost.

The tensions began around 61 AD when Boudicca’s husband Prasutagus attempted to leave half of his estate to his daughters, and the other half to Rome. Instead, upon Prasutagus’s death, the Roman procurator seized the entire estate, Boudicca was publicly flogged, and her two daughters raped.

The uprising that ensued could be read as revenge writ large with a scorned woman at its heart. Considering that all we know about her is from her Roman victors, one can only imagine what the real woman was like.

It’s rich fodder for storytelling and Hunt, author Marie Bilodeau and storyteller Ruthanne Edward took on the challenge while Bishop provided Celtic musical interludes during their performances, while Hunt, Bilodeau and Edward and shared the storyline over two acts.

Edward was the most seasoned storyteller of the three. To her were given the battle scenes, each word delivered like a polished stone, no audible exhale or inhale on either end, hand gestures measured and effective. She easily slipped into the persona of stalked Roman, washerwoman crone or infuriated daughter and her account of Boudicca’s first attack told from the perspective of a future Roman victim, invoked a creative use of narrative and conveyed the most tension and drama.

Hunt represented us: her poems were poignant and speak to how she, as a 13-year-old living in England, fell under the allure of the tawny-haired warrior queen. She talked of her continual search, internal and creatively, for the mythical queen’s persona, and for her source of strength and great her rage. Throughout the performance, Hunt remained the touch-stone. She pulled us into the everyday, reminding us of Boudicca’s and our own vulnerability.

In contrast, Bilodeau followed the path of Boudicca’s two daughters, named here as “Raven” and “Lark” although their true names were never recorded by historians. Raven and Lark represented the extreme poles of rage and reluctance, a perhaps predictable choice. Bilodeau’s delivery was uneven in the second half of the performance which also distracted.

In the end, Hunt poems brought us to an unexpected and inspiring place, with the warrior queen escaping from her suicide pact and ending up a grey-haired crone by a fireside telling her tale in peace, as we perhaps would wish her.

The mix of poetry, narrative and music created a strong tale that lent a different take on the Warrior Queen.

Next up:

Friday, January 28 at 7 p.m.: Once Upon a Slam, is a new monthly story slam series at Mercury Lounge Underground (aka Bar 56), the last Friday every month, and emceed by the talented Ruthanne Edward. The Ottawa Storytellers will also be featuring storytellers after the slam.

$7 cover charge for listeners (slam participants get in free)

Nichole McGill is an author who is enjoying her newfound love of attending storytelling events. She blogs at http://www.nicholemcgill.com

Photo by Colin Rowe

Last week, I moderated a session at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in the cabaret-style basement of Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, stayed for the Plan 99 reading series 10th anniversary bash and lingered at a table of writers trading tales of what motivates us as writers, namely attending events like these. Here is just a brief overview of some of our “aha” moments:

• David Small’s powerful tale of how presenting his memoir Stitches to his previously estranged brother mystifyingly transformed their relationship.
• Jane Christmas and Catherine Gildiner argeeing it’s better to base your memoir on memories, not the research you do afterward (which you’re probably doing to procrastinate, anyway).
• Elina Hirvonen explaining how her generation in Finland is better able to address the repercussions of civil and international conflict three generations post-Winter War. 
• Dave O’Meara and LM Rochefort handing out wax-paper cups of champagne to toast 10 years of Plan 99 and business owners who support the arts in meaningful ways (read: with their wallets).
• Struan Sinclair recounting the tragic consequences when you leave two bags of candy tied to a doorknob in Winnipeg and then get on a plane to Ottawa.
• Getting the backstage intel on David Byrne’s and Nick Cave’s recent appearances at the festival (all gracious, all good).
• rob mclennan and I trading stories of how so many international authors name Ottawa as their ideal city to read in because the audiences are informed and unpretentious. 

And finally, as an author, how it is so necessary to attend these types of readings and debates, how they feed you creatively far more than your average (often expensive) writing workshop. During Plan 99′s celebratory readings, when I wasn’t tweeting+ clever lines from the readers, I found myself compelled to sketch an entire a chapter for my next-next novel (the one in ethereal thought-to-first draft stage). Today, I’ll dive in and flesh out that sketch, that unexpected gift that you sometimes receive when you aren’t expecting it but are unintentionally feeding the muse.