The Vehicule Poets at Place des Arts

Tom Konyves, Endre Farkas, and Claudia Lapp, Montreal, April 2004

Tom Konyves and Carolyn Zonailo, Montreal, April 2004

In April, 2004, the Vehicule poets celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary. It was a quarter century since the days when Ken Norris, Artie Gold, Claudia Lapp, John McAuley, Tom Konyves, Endre Farkas, and I met every Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. for readings at Vehicule Art Gallery on Ste. Catherine Street West. Since then we’ve all gone our separate way: Ken to Maine, Tom to British Columbia, Claudia is in Oregon, Artie died in February 2007, and John McAuley, Endre Farkas and I are still here in Montreal. But we still have the occasional reunion or a project we work on together. The last reunion was a gala reading on April 8, 2004, "Cabaret Vehicule," at Le Septieme Salle de Place des Arts, with an overflow audience of 300 people. That evening, a dance troupe performed a selection of our poems and then there was a short reading by each of us, with Ruth Taylor reading for Artie who was not well enough to attend. As well, an anthology, The Vehicule Poets_Now, edited by Tom Konyves and I, was launched. Now, video excerpts of the readings are available online at the Vehicule Poets website.