CFN – The 2013-2014 season for the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage started with something a little bit different, Poetry. The widely acclaimed spoken word performer, Shane Koyczan, was the headliner for this first session with the choir Tone Cluster opening the show for him.
Tone Cluster was billed as a mixed choir of gay and straight performers who have devoted time and concerts to anti-bullying. If you put the social activism aside, they are one damn fine choir. I wish they would have performed a few more numbers.
If you are not familiar with Shane Koyczan he gained great acclaim over his performance at the opening ceremonies at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. He is a spoken word performer, a novelist and a musician. He is also known for his highly viewed TED talk on bullying and subsequent collaboration with TED Education to create a classroom tool for teachers to discuss anti-bullying.
His performance at the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage last night was highly entertaining and emotionally moving. To quote a very appropriate quote from the program “Shane Koyczan is electrifying. It’s a rare poet who can make his audience laugh and cry; this is a writer who will break your heart then heal it.”
Unfortunately Shane did not want anyone recording his performance last night. It seems obvious to me that if a performer wanted to expand his audience he would take every opportunity for media exposure, but that was his decision. The fortunate part of his decision was that I could sit back and just enjoy his performance without having to monitor my camera.
However there are several YouTube videos that are available to the public and I have embedded one of the more popular .
The next show at the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage is scheduled for the 5th of October and will feature Ian Sherwood & Coco Love Alcorn. More details about the new schedule can be found on the Stage’s website:
http://www.st-lawrencestage.com/
Thanks for the nice review, although I’m not sure what “If you put the social activism aside,” means – we try do a lot of good for the community!
PS – Shane was AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING and it was such an honour to perform with him!
Janel, what I was trying to say (and obviously not successfully) that under any circumstances the choir would be great, not just in a gay-straight collaborative anti-bullying environment.