Free Times Cafe 320 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1S3

Host : Francine Lewis

Bios:

Maia Kachan is a poet, student and activist living in Toronto, Ontario. She studies English at Victoria College, University of Toronto. Her poetry is centered around diverse concepts of home & place, sensuality and coming of age. On Growing Old(Grey Borders Books, 2017) was her first published chapbook. It's now in its second edtion.

Kent Bowman was born in Glendale, California in 1941. Since his teens, Kent has developed his musical skills as a trombonist, guitarist, singer and songwriter. For one year, he studied music at San Francisco State College, played folk music in North Beach, and string bass in a college jazz trio and in a trio at Yellowstone Park. He recorded several CDs, including Sequoya; Strings, Sticks & Bones; and New Orleans Will Rise Again and two tunes for Chick Robert’s CD Blue Turning Gray. In 1970, Ted Planto encouraged Kent to begin writing poetry. His first collection of poems was entitled Purple Cowboy. Subsequently, he contributed poems to the House Poets’ Anthology. In 1976, a second poetry collection, Glasseaters’ Banquet, was published. Asked by Steven Michael Berzensky to contribute a poem to the anthology Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era, published by Seraphim Editions in 2008, Kent wrote “Plate Spinning in America.” In 2009, his “Zen River Memories” poem was included in the anthology And Left a Place To Stand On, from Hidden Brook Press.

Georgia Wilder is the host of the Wild Writers Series at the Poetry Jazz Cafe. teaches literature and composition at the University of Toronto. She writes poetry, stories, academic essays, liner notes and lyrics, and language learning games. It was included in the Winter 2014 issue of Descant, a quarterly literary journal that showcases poetry, prose, essay, memoir and art.