Greetings and Solicitations

October 26 2005

Councilors,

I have already been back in Canada for over six weeks but it feels like I just got home yesterday. This is because I haven't been able to stay in one
place for more than a week since returning. First I traveled around the province performing in smaller festivals and venues for a while, visiting
Revelstoke, Bowen Island, and Shawnigan Lake. Then I went to the Calgary, Banff, Edmonton, and Vancouver Writer's Festivals, which had me in events alongside great performance poets like Shane Koyczan, Sheri D Wilson, Malika Booker and bill bissett. I also had the chance to meet great writers like Thomas King and Graham Gibson, and I finally got to talk Chaucer with Margaret Atwood, which was a great honour.

The main reason I'm writing, however, is because my publishing deal for The Rap Canterbury Tales is going ahead with Talon Books. The end product will be a bilingual paperback edition, with Chaucer's original Middle English verses and my raps on facing pages. Chaucer's poetry is of course copyright expired, but the glossary and footnotes from any in-print edition are protected, so I am glossing the Middle English myself, and the pages will be illustrated and illuminated by my brother Erik.

Erik has already finished his sketches for The Miller's Tale and they are taking form brilliantly, capturing the characters and narrative with his
trademark graffiti-meets-graphic-novel style. The book has to be completed by the end of the year for release next September, and should be published in Canada, the US, and the UK if all goes well.

The real challenge is writing an introduction that synthesizes my rap/Chaucer research and all of the connections I have drawn between the two
conceptually so far. The first draft manuscript is due in about three weeks, so the clock is ticking, but I'm finding it a bit of a trick to sum
it all up. The problem is I have been so close to this material for so long that I lack perspective on it. I have explained the connection hundreds of
times in the form of lectures and workshops and random conversations, but I've never actually written it all down.

This brings me to the solicitations. If you are reading this email then you probably have some experience with The Rap Canterbury Tales, either in CD format or as a live show or presentation. What I'm soliciting is feedback, impressions, ideas, responses, anything that stuck with you or struck you as crucial to the point of the project. I'm looking for more than just "I think it's a great idea" or "I think it's a stupid idea", both of which I have heard many times, but I'm also not looking for anyone to write me a book-length response. However, if you have any gems for me that sit
somewhere between those two extremes then I'd be glad to have them. I'm not looking for ideas to steal, just new perspectives on my subject, and if I end up directly responding to or incorporating your input into the book then I will of course include you in the acknowledgements.

If you choose to remain silent than I will be content, and will still thank you in my heart for any support you have given me in getting here.

All success to you, and happy pondering,

baba