Discover two more events for you, your friends and family to enjoy at the Northumberland Festival of the Arts, September 16 – October 2, 2022, taking place in Northumberland County’s picturesque towns and beautiful countryside.

“It’s only poetry that does it for me. Words have a knack for being elastic. They also love to tell the truth, or they’ll have you lying through your teeth. If you find the right ones to place in the right order, words can put into the world something that was never there before.”

Antony Di Nardo, poet and one of the organizers of Words on a Wire

Words on a Wire will take place 2 – 4 PM, Saturday, September 17, 2022 at Victoria Hall in Cobourg. Followed by the Parade of Poetriots at 4:30 PM.

Words on a Wire! … Poets on a Stage! … a multi-media poetry performance featuring our national, provincial and Northumberland poet laureates, along with other award-winning and local poets coming together to embrace the lyric, massage the metaphor, and suffuse the surreal with jaw-dropping virtuosity. Whether you’re a lover of language or a fan of the broken line, come find out for yourself how words are worth a thousand pics.

Louise Halfe Sky Dancer, Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate, will share some of her brilliant and moving poems, along with Randell Adjei, Ontario Poet Laureate, Jessica Outram, Cobourg’s Poet Laureate, Kingston poet, Armand Garnet Ruffo, and Cobourg poet Stuart Ross. Joining them will be a host of wonderful local and visiting poets, and Marie-Lynn Hammond will sing a song written especially for the occasion.

Poets will be available after the performance to sign their books.

Then everyone is invited to join the Parade of Poetriots–a Picnic Table Anthology, with poems embedded in the table top, will be displayed in front of Victoria Hall during Words on a Wire, then loaded onto a flatbed truck and paraded through the downtown, accompanied by Poet Laureates riding in Convertibles. The parade will deliver the picnic table to Let’s Talk Books, where the Cobourg Town Crier will make a cry to celebrate the gift.

Help us spread the word! Download and post this poster and share it on your social media or send to your contact list.

Words on a Wire is grateful to all of our generous sponsors–the League of Canadian Poets, Canada Council for the Arts, Horizon Plastics and A Poetry Lover.

and A Poetry Lover

View the entire event schedule and purchase tickets here :

Northumberland Festival of the Arts is a volunteer-run not-for-profit arts organization. To volunteer for NFOTA, please contact info@festivalofthearts.ca