Roch Carrier and The Hockey Sweater

Well, my favourite event so far has to be Roch Carrier reading The Hockey Sweater to a roomful of the youngest festival attendees at the Millennium Library this afternoon.

He had the children cheering for the Habs as he read the story; Carrier didn’t so much read the story as he did perform it. He made that boy who believed he was Rocket Richard, shamefully forced to wear the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, come to life. We were with him as he helplessly pulled on the blue and white jersey, as he broke his hockey stick out of frustration and as he prayed for a 1,000 moths to come and eat the jersey.

There were many mouths agape this afternoon - mine included. Carrier has probably read this book hundreds of times, but he read it with such enthusiasm and authenticity I think we all felt like it was the first time. Even my ten-month old son – who never sits still – was enthralled.

After the reading Carrier took questions and regaled his audience with tales of his meetings with Maurice Richard.

Every time I pull out a five-dollar bill to get that latte at Starbucks I will think warmly of the afternoon I heard Roch Carrier perform The Hockey Sweater. I was so swept up in the whole thing I might have grabbed whatever hockey-related books I could find on the shelves and had them signed by Roch Carrier.

Photos: Writing Through Race

There are two things I know about THIN AIR. I may not enjoy every event I attend or even get in some good chat but Saturday's Poetry Bash and the panel discussion on the Friday afternoon at the U of Wpg are always always...well, memorable.

I'm not sure if it's the performing mojo of the Eckhardt-Grammate Hall at the U of Wpg, with its excellent accoustics (no competing with cash registers or espresso machines or even the scrape of chairs) or the careful curating of the event itself, but I always leave with a species of of heady inspiration.



This year's panel was entitled Writing Through Race and featured David Chariandy, Lawrence Hill, and Paul Yee as well as the facilitating powers of Winnipeg poet/mystery writer/prof Catherine Hunter.

David Chariandy and Lawrence Hill both spoke to the themes that underpin their most recent books and then gave brief readings from the texts. Both were eloquent on the subject of race and research and how forgetting/remembering work for immigrants but when it was Paul Yee's turn, he learned forward, flashed a smile, then started telling his story.



No text, no notes, just him and the story and us. The lot of us together, being told a story. It evoked childhood and so was familiar and intimate but it was also an adult experience. When he finished, both Hill and Chariandy joined the audience in applause, having somehow been made audience members too.

I've a video of Hill reading from his Book of Negroes and a special bookless version of Reading Copy that I did with Yee (almost making him late for his flight home, incidentally) but in the meantime, here's a photo or two from the event...