The poets of the Worst Case Ontario tour are a family.
“There’s dad, drunk mom, big sister, toddler who drives, and the cat,” explained Toronto-based writer Jessica Bebenek, herself being the big sister.
The five poets are closer than ever after doing poetry readings in eight different cities across North America. They finished on Aug. 29 with a rousing show at Black Squirrel Books, but they say their family dynamic began before the tour.
The five writers communicated with each other in a lengthy Facebook thread for months before they went on the road together. Through those online interactions bonds were created and titles were born, said poet J.M Francheteau. The family designations were Montreal writer Julie Mannell’s idea, he added.
“It came from the fucking garbage pail of my imagination,” Mannell laughed.
Of the many cities they visited the poets picked out readings at Cyberpunk Apocalypse in Pittsburgh, which poet J.C. Bouchard described as “beautiful . . . dirty and edgy,” and at a private loft in Montreal as highlights.
Mannell said performing in her hometown of Welland and then performing to a loving audience at the Montreal loft was an emotional experience.
“I got to feel that small town rejection again, really raw and really intensely and then go back and realize no, I am home somewhere,” she explained.
Mannell is now moving from Montreal to Toronto and her passionate goodbye poem to the city was one of the stand-out moments of the night.
After performing in so many places Francheteau had a great deal to say about Ottawa, a city that he said “punches its weight in poetry.” Before his own performance he delivered an impromptu speech about the significance of poetry and art in Canada’s capital.
As MC for the final performance, Francheteau, who has the designation of “dad” within the group, also spoke admiringly of his fellow poets on the tour.
He praised Bebenek for her innate kindness and sweetness, describing “dorking out,” over lines of J.C Bouchard’s poetry, and learning about performance from Julie Mannell. He also encouraged the audience to chant “he’s hardcore,” before Toronto poet dalton derkson took to the stage to close the night.
derkson more than lived up to the chant. During his final poem “Juice,” he shocked the audience by cutting himself across the forehead and performing the reading with blood running down his face.
“‘Juice’ . . . is about when wrestlers cut themselves open for show,” he explained after. “When I wrote it and when I knew that we were going on tour and I knew we were coming to Ottawa to close I knew I wanted to do something that was incredibly memorable.”
The other poets, who knew what he’d planned, were quick to rush onstage after the reading and patch up the cut.
Bebenek said this kind of support and teamwork has been there throughout the tour.
It began with derkson and Bouchard, who brought the other poets on board and booked the venues, she said. Mannell created a Kickstarter to fund the journey and Francheteau did the promotion for it. Bebenek herself laid out the Worst Case Ontario chapbook, which contains contributions from all five poets, and handled merchandise and money on the road.
The name “Worst Case Ontario,” is a Rickyism—a reference to The Trailer Park Boys, derkson said.
“I like it because it’s like an homage to great Canadian art, and personally that’s what I think Trailer Park Boys is—that kind of grittiness comes along with it,” he explained. “We’re on the tour to promote Canadian art and literature so it felt very appropriate to have something like a Trailer Park Boys Ricky-ism in there.”
