Jay's List (What's Goin' On?) — January '25

What's happening in the Montreal lit scene this month?

wELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR!!! aRE YOU HUNGOVER??? I know I will be, but this is a scheduled post [and somehow still late —Ed.], so who’s to say? Maybe I’ll be dead and this will be re-dubbed the “Jay AND Jack’s List” by the other volunteers. Once again it’s time to remind you all that this is an act of community service: Discordia does not necessarily endorse every event which appears below, we merely catalogue them. Poetry Slams, on the other hand, are 100% verboten and will never appear on this list. Sorry, freaks! That shit surpasses even our cringe threshold.

As always, if we’re missing something, or you want your event included, please message @discordia.review on Instagram to propose an inclusion (and please do, January is BARREN so this list is looking a little anemic). The list will expand as items are added.

8 JANUARY (WEDS)

PAGE BREAK
What: They gonna take your phone!!!! Then you get to hang out and read. Actually kinda cute sounding. Happens weekly.
Where: De Stiil Books.
When: 7pm until 8pm.
Who: You, playa.
How Much: $5.

9 JANUARY (THURS)

JRG “ANYTHING BUT ACOUSTIC GUITARS” OPEN MIC
What: A new open mic series dedicated to the very namesake of this list, the late and great Jay Ryan Gobuty. You can do anything so long as it’s not stand-up or acoustic guitar music. It’s not a Discordia event but we’ll be there hawking zines and be looking to poach talent.
Where: L’hemisphere gauche.
When: 8pm.
Who: Whoever has the balls, with special guest Tara McGowan-Ross.
How Much: Free.

TWO READERS AND MUSIC IV
What: The fourth instalment of Yolk’s “Two Readers and Music” series. You get what it says on the box.
Where: RSVP to find out.
When: Didn’t say in the email, but likely evening.
Who: Ashley Mayne and Gloriah Amondi, with music from James Player.
How Much: Free, but RSVP here.

17 JANUARY (FRI)

THE PAGE #3 LAUNCH
What: Launch of the latest broadsheet from The Page, which you can find in spots around town such as Casa and Pizza Beaubien.
Where: Espace Maurice.
When: 6pm until 9pm.
Who: No readings to my knowledge, but I imagine the published authors will be milling about and fraternizing. Also there’s art.
How Much: Free.

19 JANUARY (SUN)

LEFT-WING BOOK SALE
What: Popular weekly bilingual open mic is BACK after a Holiday Hiatus. The theme this week is “judgement.”
Where: Articule.
When: 12pm until 5pm.
Who: Various leftist booksellers and such.
How Much: Free. Aside from the books. Those cost money.

ACCENT: VOL. 104 — JUDGEMENT
What: Popular weekly bilingual open mic is BACK after a Holiday Hiatus. The theme this week is “judgement.”
Where: La Marche a Cote.
When: 7pm until 10pm.
Who: Whoever has the balls, along with special guests Sherwin Tija and Chiara Laricchiuta.
How Much: Free.

21 JANUARY (TUES)

VIOLET HOUR: ERIC CHACOUR
What: Violet Hour Book Club founder Christopher DiRaddo interviews Eric Chacour to discuss his book “What I Know About You.”
Where: Librarie Pulp.
When: 7pm.
Who: Eric Chacour and Christopher DiRaddo.
How Much: Free, but you must RSVP here.

23 JANUARY (THURS)

AHOY, ISSUE #2 LAUNCH
What: A launch! For Ahoy issue 2!
Where: Osme x… Maru..sun? It was handwritten. It’s at 51 Sherbrooke Ouest.
When: Doors at 7:30pm, readings at 9pm, party at 10pm until late.
Who: Some readers I didn’t see named.
How Much: $9 on presale (click here to get them), $12 at the door.

MES PANTS DE QUEER OPENING
What: “Soft opening” of a new space for Mes pants de queer.
Where: Nouvel Espace.
When: 6pm until late.
Who: Mes pants de queer.
How Much: Free.

24 JANUARY (FRI)

THIS WILL SAVE YOU TWO
What: Launch party by the folks at Stimulant. There will be READINGS set to MUSIC.
Where: La Sotterenea.
When: 8pm.
Who: Amalia Mairet, Kat Mulligan, Pip Morrison, Max Shoham, and Charlie Sacks are reading, with music by Art Grey and Daniel Marmer.
How Much: $13, and you can buy them here.

BOOK LAUNCH: IAN CARR-HARRIS, TRACINGS: WRITING ART
What: Launch for Ian Carr-Harris’s collection of essays and reviews, Tracings: Writing Art, 1975-2020, which offers a tableau pf the development of conceptual and pomo art in Canada.
Where: Librarie De Stiil.
When: 8pm.
Who: Ian Carr-Harris, in conversation with art historian and critic Dan Adler.
How Much: Free.

25 JANUARY (SAT)

QPIRG ZINE DRIVE
What: You can show up and help fulfill zine requests for incarcerated queer people.¹
Where: 2100 rue Guy, ste 205.
When: 2pm until 6pm.
Who: You?
How Much: It’s you volunteering.

BURNS AT THE BRASS
What: idk how comfortable I am reporting on this one because it looks to be just some promo event for a yuppie gentrification microbrewery in the historically working class neighbourhood of Pointe-St-Charles (which I once helped contribute to an oral history archive project on, making me an Extra Despicable), but it technically hits all the qualifications to be on this list: it is technically a poetry reading that isn’t a slam event. It’s a celebration of Burnsday, the favourite holiday of lit student frat bros the world over, people will be reading Robbie Burns and eating haggis.
Where: Microbrasserie 4 Origines. Have I sinned?
When: 4:30pm until 11:30pm. Will Saint Peter know my name when I meet him at the gates after having promoted a DRINKING EVENT that begins at FOUR THIRTY and ends BEFORE MIDNIGHT??? What is WRONG with these people???
Who: The tortured spirit of Robert Burns, who once lamented that Scotland was “bought and sold for English gold,” and here I am selling out for nothing.
How Much: $110.49????? LMFAOOOOO FUCK THESE PEOPLE

26 JANUARY (SUN)

POETRY PALS
What: Poems being read. I just got off a long inter-provincial bus, my brain’s not working—it’s poems, okay! People are going to read you poems! You love that! That’s why you’re here!
Where: Agenda Co-op.
When: 2pm.
Who: Mona Gendron (a Discordia alumnus), D.M. Bradford, Mo Bolduc, and Benjamin C. Dugdale.
How Much: Free.

BRING YOUR OWN BOOK
What: Another community reading event series like the one at De Stiil, sounds cute.
Where: Location delivered to their newsletter a day earlier, which you can subscribe to here.
When: 1pm until 5pm.
Who: The New Room people.
How Much: Free.

29 JANUARY (WEDS)

MICHELLE SYBA & DANIEL ALLEN COX
What: The aforementioned authors “will talk about the ways that reading and writing have disrupted fundamentalism and its patterns for us.”
Where: Biblioteque Westmount Library.
When: 7pm.
Who: Michelle Syba and Daniel Allen Cox, hosted by Daniel Miguez.
How Much: Free, but you should RSVP here.

30 JANUARY (THURS)

CARTE BLANCHE, #50 (AND 20TH BIRTHDAY!!!)
What: Can’t you read? It’s Carte Blanche’s 20th birthday (and 50th issue). That means that next year it gets to stop having to go to frat parties to get drunk when it goes to the states to visit its brother at college.
Where: Address to be sent to ticket holders.
When: Doors at 6:30pm, readings at 7pm.
Who: Tara McGowan-Ross, H.R. Link, Mary Thaler, Deborah Ostrovsky, and Lena Palacios.
How Much: Free, but you have to RSVP here (and I think they’re at-capacity).

LAUNCH: H. NIGEL THOMAS, A DIFFERENT HURRICANE
What: The aforementioned Thomas launching his aforementioned book.
Where: Argo Bookshop.
When: 7pm.
Who: H. Nigel Thomas, in conversation with Nalini Mohabir.
How Much: Free, but RSVP here.

LAUNCH: NATHAN BROWN’S TRANSLATION OF LES FLEURS DU MAL
What: The aforementioned Brown launching his translation of Baudelaire’s aforementioned Symbolist classic.
Where: Bar NDQ.
When: 8pm.
Who: Nathan Brown.
How Much: Free.

31 JANUARY (FRI)

SOLILOQUIES 29.1 (& WRITERS READ)
What: Launch of the latest issue of Soliloquies. There will also be a raffle. Writers Read has been doing a lot of collabs lately, is this the brand crossover era of the MFA degrees? Is this our Swedish Fish Oreos?
Where: Librarie De Stiil.
When: 7pm until 9pm.
Who: Sarah Gilbert and Sean Michaels.
How Much: Free.

MORE TO COME, LIST UPDATES REGULARLY

In memory of Jay Gobuty, who was Outrageous.

1. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how I feel about this one, guys. One of the kinds of zines they’re sending is for “jailhouse law” and I sort of think that that kind of thing is maybe something which would be nice for, you know… all prisoners? I understand the objective of a specifically queer correspondence project, because other such projects exist and it’s probably helpful to have one that focuses in on this shared identity, but idk how I feel about sending zines to some prisoners and not others, especially when it’s specifically zines by-request. Are there similar more general zine drives for prisoners? Let me know.