LAC/MF SPECIAL INSERT · VOL. 14 NO. 3 & 4

...“the tone of a culture cannot depend only on the occasional genius, or the illusion of one; the prevailing temper of a society and a time is situated in its minor voices, in their variegated chorus.” Cynthia Ozick, "Alfred Chester's Wig," The New Yorker, March 30, 1992. “Literacy is elitist. It's a form of imaginative elitism that is useless if we as adult literacy educators do not recognize and promote it.” Francis E. Kazemek, "Mary's story: Reflections on literacy, "Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy 42:8 literacy and the literary

There is only one letter's difference between the words "literacy" and "literary," but in the settings where most of us work, there is a chasm between the worlds of "adult literacy" and the "literary." So when the organizers of Blue Metropolis, the first International Literary Festival ever to be held in Montreal, contacted The Centre for Literacy last February to ask if the literacy community would like to be involved, it opened a door between what have usually been perceived in the literary world as the first class and steerage class of writing.

Linda Leith, Montreal novelist and co-editor of the literary magazine Matrix, had dreamed for years of organizing a local literary festival. Finally, last year, with cooperation from the English and French writing communities, she and a managing board won government and corporate support to create Blue Metropolis to bring 63 authors and translators together for five days of readings, discussions, launches, and others events for lovers of literature.

When the organizers requested some support from the National Literacy Secretariat, (NLS) the project officer asked how the literacy community was involved, which lead to the call to The Centre. The first conversation was exploratory --the festival offered free admission for adult literacy students to hear well-known writers. The Centre's board requested something more substantial. What about including a strand for community writers, to give a public voice to people who write at the margins of our society -- the community-based groups, literacy programs, support services, where writing is both expression and therapy or release? When Blue Metropolis said yes, "Grassroots: Writing in the Community" was born.

In six weeks, we gathered groups from Montreal, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Alberta, and one group from Chicago. Finances were cobbled together with NLS grant money and matching dollars in each of the four locales. At noon on April 24, we all met for the first time face to face. We had requested the smallest room available. Would anyone want to hear writers from far-flung neighbourhood centres? Perhaps we would be reading to ourselves. Surprisingly, more than seventy people showed up forcing us into a larger space.