'Letters from Poland'
CD, 45 min., Les Pages Noires

"Wow, I'm impressed! Listened to the album and I loved it. It made me think of the train album that Steve Reich did with regards to the trains taking inmates to Aushwitz....it touched me a lot. " - Dan Behrman, Radio-Canada

Norman's hauntingly beautiful, East European flavored new solo CD . The 45 minute album contains spoken word versions of 12 historical letters (6 English, 6 French) from 1937 - 1995, extracted from his last book ('The Anarchist & The Devil Do Cabaret, ' Black Rose Books 2003, translated now as ' L'anarchiste et le diable,' Lux Editeur , 2006).
The letters are from an eccentric Polish uncle to Norman's father, and are set to original music. Norman plays looped violin and viola, the accordion, piano and a 142 string Ukrainian/Polish hammered dulcimer known as the tsymbaly, and provides vocals for the letters. There's also one accordion instrumental and a traditional Polish song sung by Norman's elderly father.

Alternately poignant, humourous, bittersweet and declamatory, the series of letters, trace the love & longing of one brother for another, and document this man's growing resistance to the rise of Nazism before and during the second World War.

Norman's last solo release was the beat-rich, anti-war, anti-Empire ' Duck Work ' CD (2004), an album that was cited by The Montréal Gazette as one of the top 10 local English releases alongside The Arcade Fire, The Dears, Sixtoo, and others. 'Letters from Poland' is a more minimalist production where Norman's acoustic strings predominate. Available from good music shops, or on-line, here, from Les Pages Noires. *

Photos above: Sharon Stevens, staff at The Arusha Centre; Norman with some of Calgary's 'Disability Action Hall' crew, who participated in his Creative Resistance workshop, 'to make the disabled visible.'

 

Rhythm Activism, in Vienna, 1995: Luc Bonin, Norman Nawrocki, Wilf Plum, Sylvain Côté.

THE RETURN OF RHYTHM ACTIVISM

SPRING 2007 means inspired art, more art, music, poetry, books, more books, workshops, festivals, exhibits, presentations and why not more Dim Sum!

Norman continues to work with some of the most amazing kids in the Montréal school system.
He's helped the Verdun Riverview Elementary School Library Book Club create a collection of writings and illustrations, based on their original story - 'Friendship Island' - to be published by the students early in May.
He's now working with an equally talented group of high school ESL students in Lasalle, writing, arranging & performing a class spoken word piece to be recorded and video-taped for the Ministry of Education as an educational tool.........and they call it 'poetry'.....

His 'educational sex show' season aimed at bigger kids is now wrapping up after another successful tour from Lethbridge to Sudbury and New Brunswick. Anti-war sentiment is present and discernable outside Fredericton, as much as the yellow ribbons flying from local trees and bushes, but it's a tough sell on one of the biggest military bases in Canada 20 minutes away. Stories circulate about muzzled, on-base disenchantment with Canada's abominably misguided war effort......Farmers & residents north of Lethbridge now have to truck in drinking water: all ground source water is contaminated thanks to corporate hog farm poisons..... and Sudbury is fast becoming one of Canada's greenest cities, where post-secondary students get FREE bus passes, thanks to hardworking, activist students......

Montreal's uber-cool, political art crew, überculture, celebrates their fourth birthday party and launch of Art Threat Magazine April 29th at Montreal's Divan Orange. Norman and others contribute political music and spoken word. You dance, drink & win a door prize. http://www.artthreat.net/

Don't miss the first mega 'Art + Anarchy Montreal 2007' exhibit of socially and politically engaged visual art Norman is helping organize May 3 - 13. Over 5,000 square feet of some 300 pieces of fab rad art, and 2 weeks of art-related events at 6750 Esplanade. Cool catalogue, posters, books, prints and other artwork for sale. Support radical art or else..... http://www.myspace.com/artanarchymontreal

Then run to the biggest, the bestest, the hottest Anarchist Bookfair in North America - Montreal's 8th annual.....May 19....Buy all of Norman's books & CDs at special Les Pages Noires knock- down-only-for -you prices......http://www.salonanarchiste.ca/

With luck, his newest tome will be in print and available.......

Then slip into some comfortable evening wear and check out the 2nd annual
Montreal Anarchist Theatre Festival, May 28 & 29, at the Sala Rossa, hosted by Norman and friends......10 plays....laugh and cry, but don't throw bagels.....
http://www.myspace.com/theatreanarchistemontreal

'UNE CHANSON POUR UN LOGEMENT: FRAPRU EN MUSIQUE'
(A song for a house: FRAPRU in music) with DaZoque! & the FRAPRU choir 23 artists on stage!
Thursday Oct 7, 2004 CAFE CAMPUS, 8pm.

Montreal's most innovative string-based ensemble, DaZoque! joins Québec's largest housing rights coalition, FRAPRU ( Front d'action populaire en réamenagement urbain) for a contemporary, traditional & rock music show called 'Une chanson pour un logement: FRAPRU en musique,' Thursday, Oct 7, 8pm, at Café Campus, 57 Prince Arthur est. Info: 844-1010. Tickets: $10 at Admission or Café Campus.

The one act musical show features a new choir of 13 FRAPRU housing rights activists and the DaZoque! orchestra expanded to 10 musicians (with FRAPRU members). The 23 member ensemble will perform songs that FRAPRU normally sings during street demonstrations to demand more social housing, re-written and re-arranged for choir and orchestra.

The songs, based principally on traditional, well-known Quebecois folk tunes, also borrow from pop classics. DaZoque! has added its own instrumental interpretations as well as some original pieces created for the show.

FRAPRU, active for 25 years in social housing, represents over 100 member groups across Quebec. They're recognized by all levels of government and the public as one of the most important advocacy groups for people directly affected by the lack of affordable social housing.

DaZoque!, known for it's cutting-edge, Eastern - European flavoured instrumental music, is Norman Nawrocki (Rhythm Activism, Bakunin's Bum, etc) & Minda Bernstein (The Bagg Street Klezmer Band) on violins, Hélène Boissinoit (Jérome Minière et Herri Kopter, Tomas Jensen, etc.) on cello, Alec McElcheran on bass, et Gregory Anderson Smith (The Montreal/Manhattan Project) on guitar, piano and electronica. The band has received critical acclaim for their self-titled debut album and their high-energy live shows at The Montreal International Jazz Festival & across the province. Le Devoir calls their music: 'Delicious, astonishing & audacious,' while The Globe & Mail says 'While they fiddle, sampled loops & electric guitars burn.'

With 'Un chanson pour une logement,' DaZoque! aims to bring FRAPRU's demands for more social housing in Quebec to a wider, music-loving audience. The show was made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. *

' Montreal Poets Against War!' Aug 30, 2006

Les Pages Noires Productions & Tadamon, packed about 150 people into the charming Casa del Popolo to listen to 23 poets, singers, and a few musicians denounce war, and in the process, raise over $1,000 for relief efforts in Lebanon. The poets read & sang in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, French & English.

For bios of all the poets and more info, visit:
tadamon.resist.ca

ANOTHER DAY IN WASHINGTON
by Norman Nawrocki

Some of the poets from the Aug 30/06 Montréal Poets Against War! event

It's an ordinary Monday morning in Washington
A sleepy beige, dripping dew kind of morning,
A flock of crows heads north
A garbage truck grinds its gears
Taxi cab drivers yawn

While across the ocean, thousands of miles away
in the war-torn Middle-East
where the extraordinary is to be expected,
a woodpecker, high in a mountain forest,
taps out a signal: o o o o o o o oooo o o o
and all the skeletons of the dead
from Fallujah to Baghdad,
Khandahar to Beirut,
the West Bank to the Galilee,
start crawling out of bombed
buildings, coffins and shallow graves, bones clattering, skulls creaking, clicking,
pulling and dragging themselves
upright by one arm or two, standing tall, hopping on one leg or none at all, helping each other
onto trails, streets and highways
these men, women, children, with
tiny babes cradled in the arms of mothers missing a head or a limb
or two and the odd pet dog
assembling into thousands of tributaries of the dead
converging in one interminable river of the dead
stretching across deserts, valleys, and fields of nodding flowers

These millions of bones naked snowy white in a blinding sun
Bones brittle, bones strong,
Bones marked with hardship, pain, tears & love
Bones broken, scarred, charred
by American, made in Canada bullets and bombs

Bones determined, defiant, walking in step,
United in death
Whole families, hand in bony hand,
marching over rock, sand & water
Limbs knocking limbs, in a gigantic, tumultuous
symphony of bone on bone
hundreds of thousands of the dead
heading west

Vultures circle overhead, unsure,
this procession of walking bones alive or dead?
Confused jackals bark and howl
Dragon flies pause in mid-flight, and stare

By nightfall, under the gaze of a sympathetic moon
this army of the dead crosses the ocean,
and reaches Washington
They clamber over anti-tank barriers,
iron fences & gates and through barbed wire
thousands of bony fists pounding against the locked doors
and walls of the White House
They smash through the wood
concrete, steel and glass,
then by the tens of thousands, they pour in
stepping on top of one another,
hauling each other up and through
to sit on plush red chairs, leather couches, carpeted staircases and
ornate tables and shelves, drawing bony hands over the polished mahogany and silver
oohing and awing at all the finery

They serve themselves tea and coffee
Pour shots of gin, bourbon and Yankee whiskey
Roust the hysterical First Lady and her husband
out of bed then lock them in a closet
They disarm guards, break their weapons in two
and slide down bannisters
hooting and hollering
They swing from the crystal chandeliers
bashing into one another, crashing to the floor
giddy and laughing,
They keep pouring into the White House,
bones piling on top of bones,
packing every cubic centimetre, every room & hallway,
floor to ceiling, a tangled, wedded mass of thigh bones, hip bones, cheekbones, wrist bones, jammed
in ever so tightly, wedged into every crevice & corner -
until there is no more room inside for one more
skull or anklebone, or even a baby's toe bone,
So the skeletons pile themselves onto the
roof, hundreds of thousands of deep,
spilling onto the grounds, until
the entire White House disappears
into silence, buried
under a bone solid mountain of the dead

Nobody can get in or out,
Every jaw, arm, leg & foot bone
now fused into one impenetrable mass
TV cameras report this on the
6 o-clock news,
and all around the world,
people gasp & cheer
America's Generals shake their heads, but agree:
'We can't bomb the White House,
to save it, can we?
We can't bomb the White House,
to neutralize it, can we?!
We can't bomb the White House,
to liberate it, can we??!!!
We can't bomb the White House,
can we?'

So ends another day in Washington
The sun sets, crows head south
A garbage truck turns into the city dump,
Taxi drivers go home to eat
And stray dogs sniff the bones.

Sex Shows!

Watch clips of Norman's four 'sex' comedy shows on-line, now!

Watch 2 minute clip of highlights of all 4 shows, or longer extracts from each show!

Check out the Sex Shows page for more details!

Norman's newest book:  L'Anarchiste et le diable Voyages, cabarets et autres récits  ( LUX Editeur , 2006) is a 300 page French translation of  his last book of short stories, 'The Anarchist & The Devil Do Cabaret'.  It's available in better bookstores everywhere, from the catalogue page, or from luxediteur.com

<< Fascinant! >> - Tony Tremblay, Bande à part, Radio Canada

<< C'est beau, c'est trés beau! >> - Marguerite Paulin   CINQ FM, Montréal

<< Une impeccable traduction. >> - Le Couac

The re-configured DaZoque! ensemble ( Minda & Norman, violins; Hélène on cello; Sylvain Côté, guitar; Sylvain Auclair bass; and Guy Levesque on drums) will perform again May 11th, in Longueil, south of Montréal, with the ever-fabulous, 20 member, Virevolte House Choir. This will be a benefit for a food bank/community kitchen called Le Repas du passant.

Virevolte is a family drop-in centre in one of the poorest neighbourhoods on the South Shore. For the VV's 20th anniversary, DaZoque! joined forces with their choir (and drummer)  to produce a memorable show in front of a 400 strong audience. The choir is basically single mom's on welfare, and some VV staff.  The choir re-wrote the lyrics to traditional and pop Québecois songs, while DZ provided the new musical arrangements.

La Virevolte fête ses 20 ans et vous présente :
« La Virevolte en Musique et en Chansons »
La Maison La Virevolte est un organisme d'aide et de support à la famille qui ¦uvre au sein des HLM de Longueuil. Cette année, nous fêtons notre 20e anniversaire et on fait les choses en grand. C'est ainsi que dans 2 semaines, vous serez témoin d'une toute première dans l'expression de l'action communautaire autonome, un événement unique à ne pas manquer. Le décompte est lancé.
Le jeudi le 3 novembre, 2005 à la salle de spectacle du Collège Champlain de Longueuil, « La chorale de la Maison La Virevolte » vous fera vibrer au son de chansons militantes ainsi que sur des airs populaires et des compositions originales. Ce spectacle, qui se veut une célébration de solidarité et de joie, vous sera présenté énergiquement par ces 16 femmes et 2 hommes dynamiques et courageux qui constituent la chorale.
Nous pouvons également compter sur la participation musicale exceptionnelle de Norman Nawrocki et de Minda Bernstein de l'ensemble « DaZoque! » et de leurs musicienNEs.  Ils ont concocté des arrangements musicaux en concordance avec leur style folk électrique soutenus d'un trio à cordes qui nous plonge dans un voyage musical propre aux faubourgs  d'Europe de l'Est,  mélange subtil et des plus délicieux à l'oreille.
D'ici la tenue du spectacle, les choristes, constitués des mamans participantes aux activités de l'organisme, de membres et de salariées, travaillent d'arrache pied pour organiser cette production de haute qualité. Nous vous reviendrons plus tard avec d'autres nouvelles de la chorale et de son évolution.

DaZoque!

Le 31 mai sera la dernière journée lors de laquelle les fumeurs s'épanouiront pleinement de nicotine dans les bars, restaurants et lieux publiques!.

Le passage dans cette nouvelle ère est un évènement marquant de notre époque et ne doit pas rester sous silence.

C'est pourquoi vous êtes convié à une soirée musicale hors de l'ordinaire avec nul autre que

Dazoque!, "rock harmonieux Europe de l'est" Crazydent (SS), "new grunge rock" & Maginot "ambiant surprenant"

Mercredi le 31 mai 2006 à 21h00
Missy Bar 250 Mont-royal Est

Entrée gratuite!

DaZoque!
By Eric Hill, Exclaim!
March 26, 2003
Norman Nawrocki and Minda Bernstein are two Montreal violinists that
have been working in a variety of bands and styles for quite some
time now. Fans of Winnipeg's G-7 label may know Nawrocki from Rhythm
Activism or Bakunin's Bum (also featuring Aidan from 1-Speed Bike
and Godspeed). Bernstein's alliances stray more to the traditional,
including the Bagg Street Klezmer Band. In DaZoque!, they tap into a
vein of Eastern European folk music both traditional and
transformed. If the themes seem strangely familiar, it may be that
many of the epic rock ensembles from Montreal (i.e., Godspeed and
its many offshoots) have been incorporating plaintive passages from
traditional work for some time now. However, DaZoque! brings a
fuller view of the range of emotion the music describes. Filled out
to a sextet at times (with cello, bass, drums and samplers), the
band reaches peaks of sublimity and depths of darkness over the
course of the album's 11 tracks.

Norman's newest one-act play, 'Overdale' at the first-ever 'Montréal Anarchist Theatre Festival,'
May 9, La Sala Rossa

Norman Nawrocki's newest, one-act play, Overdale, will premier at the first-ever, Montréal Anarchist Theatre Festival, Tuesday, May 9, at the Sala Rossa, 4848 boul St-Laurent, 7:30pm. Tickets: $5/$10.

Overdale is a short, expanded extract from Rhythm Activism's 1989 two-man musical, EDDY, the guy over there. The play will star two talented young local actors, Gabriel Joseph and Saro Saroyan in the roles of Judge and tenant. The piece takes a critical, comedic look at one of the trials during the infamous battle to save the historic Overdale neighbourhood in the late 1980's.

The Montréal Anarchist Theatre Festival - a North American first - runs May 8 -9, 2006, at the Sala Rossa, 4848 boul St-Laurent, 7:30pm, and May 24-25, 7:30pm, at UQAM ( J-M400, Foyer studio théâtre Alfred-Laliberté, Judith-Jasmin 405, rue Sainte-Catherine Est).

The bilingual festival will feature ten plays from Canada and the USA involving about 50 actors, including the internationally renowned Bread and Puppet Theatre from Vermont. (See Schedule below)

The four nights of readings and productions range in length, theme, and style, but all are either written by anarchist writers, or with anarchist content. Each will present either anti-State, anti-capitalist, anti-sexist, anti-Empire, or anti-authoritarian positions.

The theatre festival is part of Montreal's annual 'Festival of Anarchy' that leads up to the city's 7th annual Anarchist Bookfair, May 20 and 21, 2006 - the largest anarchist event on the continent.
Info: 514-859-9090
Email: anarchistfestival(at)yahoo.ca
http://salonanarchiste.taktic.org/

MONTREAL ANARCHIST THEATRE FESTIVAL 2006 SCHEDULE / LE «FESTIVAL DE THÉÂTRE ANARCHISTE DE MONTRÉAL 2006» HORAIRE
LUNDI 8 MAI / MON MAY 8
La Sala Rossa, 4848 boul St-Laurent 19H30 / 7:30pm
Lacrymos : Avez-vous déjà pleuré pour des raisons politique? par Francis Dupuis-Déri
The Human Juicer by Ross Peterson
In Conversation with Crows by Audrey Finkelstein
Sinking Neptune by the Optative Theatrical Laboratories
Cantastoria by Bread & Puppet Theatre
MARDI 9 MAI / TUES MAY 9
La Sala Rossa, 19H30 / 7:30pm
Overdale by Norman Nawrocki
Ya rien là par WeNous
The Works by Joseph Shragge
Haymarket by L.M. Bogad
MERCREDI ET JEUDI. 24 ET 25 MAI / WED & THURS, MAY 24 & 25
UQAM, 19H30 / 7:30pm
(J-M400, Foyer studio théâtre Alfred-Laliberté, Judith-Jasmin 405 Sainte-Catherine Est)
The Red-Emma Project/ LE PROJET RED EMMA par WeNous, based on a play by Howard Zinn


LE «FESTIVAL DE THÉÂTRE ANARCHISTE DE MONTRÉAL» 8-9 ET 24-25 MAI
UNE PREMIÈRE EN AMÉRIQUE DU NORD

Le premier festival de théâtre anarchiste en Amérique du Nord, le «Festival de théâtre anarchiste de Montréal», se déroulera les 8-9 mai 2006 à la Sala Rossa, au 4848 boul. Saint-Laurent, à 19h30, et les 24-25 mai, à 19h30, à l’UQAM (J-M400, Foyer studio théâtre Alfred-Laliberté, Judith-Jasmin 405, rue Sainte-Catherine Est). Les billets sont 10$ pour les salarié-e-s, 5$ pour les étudiant-e-s et les sans-emploi.

Ce festival bilingue présentera dix pièces du Canada et des États-Unis, impliquant une cinquantaine d'acteurs et d'actrices. Les pièces comptent «Street Theatre», du Bread & Puppet Theatre; «The Red Emma Project/Le projet Emma la rouge», une adaptation bilingue d’une pièce de l’historien américain Howard Zinn; «The Haymarket Affair», de l'auteur californien L.M. Bogad, et «Lacrymos : Avez-vous déjà pleuré pour des raisons politiques?», par l'auteur montréalais Francis Dupuis-Déri, et ÐÐ Overdale ðð par Norman Nawrocki.

Les quatre soirs de jeux et de lectures comprendront des pièces de formes, de thèmes et de styles divers, toutes étant écrites par des auteurs anarchistes, ou proposant un contenu anarchiste. Chaque pièce présentera des positions anti-étatiques, anti-capitalistes, anti-sexistes, anti-impérialistes et/ou anti-autoritaires.

Ce premier festival de théâtre anarchiste en Amérique du Nord s’inscrit dans le cadre annuel du «Festival de l’anarchie» de Montréal, qui inclut le 7ième Salon du livre anarchiste, le 20 et 21 mai (le plus important événement anarchiste du continent). *

Pour toute information:
Tél: 514-859-9090
Courriel: anarchistfestival@yahoo.ca
http://salonanarchiste.taktic.org/

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