john curry, certainly a world class poet living in our community, is
presently facing almost certain eviction.
Stephen Brockwell alerted me of this precarious situation, by phone, and
asked if I would get the word out, most recently at the TREE Reading
Series on September 22, where we were able to scare up enough to cover one
of his 5 months owed rent & save his telephone service.
curry's been in constant production of his own and hundreds of others work
since 1979. hes mainly ineligible for grants. His bookstore is mainly an
unused resource. His archive documenting the growth of avant-garde writing
in Canada is one of the key collections in the country. Nicky Drumbolis
has said: curry and his work are the best-kept secret in Canada.
Since time is of the essence, if curry's to avoid eviction, there are a few
ways you can help:
Start to use his goddamn store!
Room 302 Books is the only bookstore in Canada ever to focus
specifically on the avant-garde and overlooked outsiders, specializing in
concrete/visual/sound poetries (mainly Canadian) with a stock of over
20,000 mainly rare titles, including elusive ephemera, and probably the
only source of most of jwcurry's various imprints and titles (which number
in the thousands). curry's current lists finally focus on his own work as
artist & publisher, virtually the first time everything thats (still)
available has been made commonly available. You can purchase bookstore
IOUs (or set up an account) today in any amount for those who'd like to do
that.
Subscribe to Curvd H&z, curry's serial imprint. donor subscriptions
(please indicate) of $100 or more get « the stash in a sampling of available
titles from various of his imprints immediately, the remaining « put on
account for forthcoming titles.
Donate outright.
I would like to encourage you to donate something so as to keep this
excellent bookstore, publisher, archive and artist alive, and at the same
time help prevent curry's eviction from his apartment. For those who'd like
to purchase bookstore IOUs, Id ask you to write (#302-880 Somerset Street
West, Ottawa Canada K1R 6R7) or call him at (613) 233 0417. Please
contribute as you can.
Roland Prevost (with collusions with curry)
