OTTAWA - This month’s selection for the exciting series Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club is Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter. Join Ottawa Public Library and our series partner, the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre, on April 28 at 7 pm EDT for a live, online discussion with author Michelle Porter (Red River Métis) to discuss her enthralling book.
In Approaching Fire, Porter embarks on a quest to find her great-grandfather, the Métis fiddler and performer Léon Robert Goulet. Through musicology, jigs and reels, poetry, photographs, and the ecology of fire, the author infuses biography with the power of reflective ingenuity, creating a portrait which expands beyond documentation into a private realm where truth meets metaphor.
Weaving through multiple genres and traditions, Approaching Fire fashions a textual documentary of rescue and insight, and a glowing contemplation of the ways in which loss can generate unbridled renewal.
Michelle Porter is a Red River Métis poet, journalist, editor and cultural geographer based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. She holds a BA in journalism, a MA in folklore, and a PhD in geography. Her academic research and creative work have been focused on home, Métis mobility, and the changing nature of our relationship to land. She’s won awards for her work in poetry and journalism, and has been published in literary journals, newspapers, and magazines across the country.
Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club series is a partnership between the National Arts Centre’s Indigenous Theatre and Ottawa Public Library (OPL). Reflection questions will be shared on NAC's Facebook Event page. You can borrow the book from the OPL and then join the discussion and share your thoughts about the book throughout the month!
With thanks to sponsors:
Indigenous Programming (NAC): The Slaight Family Foundation, TD Ready Commitment
Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (OPL)