Great Things Come in Threes: A Look at SPAF’s Artists
Much like many arts fests around the world, Kingston’s Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF) is jam-packed with different events and activities. Of course, SPAF brings its own unique flair, and this year’s feature on the festival showcases how. Our summer theatre critics have collaborated to bring you three mini-features on an artist from each day of SPAF, highlighting some of the talented individuals who can be seen around Skeleton Park this weekend.
These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Open Mics, Open Hearts, & Open Doors
By: Malobi Elueme
The Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF) is a free multidisciplinary art experience that happens in Kingston on the summer solstice weekend and at pop-up events all year round. Past festivals have spotlighted yoga in the park, music performances, mural making, dance workshops, and more. The 2025 edition begins this Friday, the 20th of June, with an open mic session hosted by Josh Lyon and Abbie Louise. Louise usually hosts the Walks of Life open mic at Next Church on the second Friday of each month. It is centered around creating a non-judgemental space for people of all ages and walks of life to listen to and/or share music, poetry, short stories, and stand-up comedy. I caught up with Louise, the 19-year old musician, poet, and now open mic host, who has been leading one of Kingston’s most communal art experiences.
When asked about how the open mics came to be, she says, “It felt very natural. It’s hard to put into words why I feel drawn to something.” Having previously worked with a youth activism group, Louise is familiar with the art of community-building by gathering people together. In our conversation, she talks about the distinction between ‘sharing’ and ‘performing’, and why she insists on ‘sharing’ at the Walks of Life open mics. She touches on the importance of embracing the imperfections in our art and gives some advice for those who are new to the open mic scene (spoiler alert: Fake it till you make it!).
What makes or doesn’t make a good open mic to you?
I love when there is a variety of content at an open mic. So even if it is a poetry open mic, I think it’s cool when there are lots of different kinds of poets there. I’ve been going to the Elm Cafe Poetry Open Mic for about three years now and I love that there’s people from all different ages and backgrounds with different styles of poetry. I always leave that open mic feeling inspired. So I think a sense of community and an effect of inspiration is really the key to a good open mic.
What made you start hosting open mics? Why was it important to create that space?
I’ve been going to open mics around Kingston for the last three years and I found myself being attracted to the role of host. I thought it’d be really cool to be the one to create a space like that and make it as comfortable and non-judgmental as possible. I’m very fond of the open mics I’ve attended in Kingston but I find that there is more anxiety than there needs to be. So I wanted to make a unique open mic that people can go [to] feeling like they can just share whatever and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It is just about having fun.
What do you have to say to those trying to move from the audience to the stage? Any advice for people who are nervous about being onstage?
I don’t remember who, but someone once told me that being nervous can be good because it means that you care. So any time I notice myself being nervous about public speaking, whether it is hosting or sharing music and singing, I try to ground myself in the gratitude of: “I am grateful that I even have this opportunity to share and to be seen and that these people are listening to me right now.”
A calendar for open mic events around Kingston can be found on the Kingston Live Events page.
Abbie Louise is a Kingston-based musician, artist, writer, and community organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. A strong believer in the power of the arts to connect hearts and open minds, Abbie uses music as a medium of community building and change making.
Proclaim Your Poems: Sadiqa de Meijer on Festival Workshop
By: Aiden Robert Bruce
On Saturday, June 21 at 2PM, SPAF is hosting ‘Page to Stage: Voicing Your Verses’ which will be moderated by Jermaine Marshal, and features Sadiqa de Meijer and Cadence Weapon. I had the chance to chat with de Meijer earlier this week about what to expect from the workshop, which is a first for the festival, but does not come at a particularly surprising time to de Meijer: “I think that spoken word poetry is a flourishing art form right now. Over the past 10 or 15 years it’s become more and more popular, and so I think this is a session that pays particular attention to that and asks, how can you move from the more traditional ways of page-based poetry to putting it on the stage in an interesting way? How do you read in a way that does justice to your particular work?”
Being the current Poet Laureate of Kingston, de Meijer’s experience with poetry is clear; however, as a theatre critic, I was particularly interested in her background putting the ‘page to stage’ as the title so aptly describes. “I read. I do have the work in front of me. Some poets choose to deliver that differently and memorize… For me it’s a little bit reminiscent of the feeling of reading to my child, except it’s in an adult context. There’s something kind of intimate and soothing about that experience, so I tend to see it as a chance for the words to really kind of work on people in their sonic qualities.”
Her fellow panellist also is certainly no stranger to the workshop’s theme: Weapon is a recipient of the Polaris Music Prize and served as Poet Laureate of Edmonton from 2009 to 2011. De Meijer expressed her excitement about his attendance: “I’m very interested in seeing how he goes about his work… especially because he brings a real expertise to that stage element, whereas for me that’s a little bit secondary. It’s how I put writing out into the world finally once it’s been published but it’s not where the focus of my practice is, so I am very excited to hear what [Weapon’s] process is and how he negotiates that.” In addition to his presence on the panel, audiences will also have the opportunity to catch Weapon demonstrating his expertise in translating poetry to the stage through his performance on the festival’s main stage later that same night.
I also asked de Meijer to elaborate on what audiences can expect to take away from the workshop. “I’m really interested in people being able to translate the inner voice to an outer voice. Like how do you stay faithful to that and bring it out without worrying [about] ‘what is it supposed to sound like?’ Every genre of poetry has a little bit of a standard delivery… You don’t have to do that. You don’t have to emulate. It’s more important to go within and ask yourself: ‘How do I do my own work justice?’” Her perspective on the outcome of spoken word poetry in general is that: “If you can give the audience a sense of, ‘this is what I was channeling. This is the rhythm, this is the pitch, and the cadence that I heard when I wrote this,’ you almost want to become a medium for that. Then you’re giving them, I think, the closest thing to a direct experience of this poem’s power.”
Closing out the conversation, de Meijer noted: “It’s not really a traditional workshop format… it is actually more of a panel discussion or an interview. So [Marshal] is interviewing [Weapon] and I about the subject, and there will be, as far as audience participation, room for questions.” Even if you are not personally interested in translating poems to the stage, this workshop does not require that of its audiences. Instead, this is a fantastic opportunity to learn about the processes used by some of Canada’s finest poets without it costing you a dime.
Sadiqa de Meijer is an award-winning writer of poetry and personal essays and is the current Poet Laureate of Katarokwi/Kingston. More information about her work can be found here.
Spectral Theory, Statistics, and Soprano Saxophones: An Interview with Professor and Musician Francesco Cellarosi
By: Mariam Tirani
For many, our first experiences with music began with the recorder in grade school. This was also true for Francesco Cellarosi, a mathematics professor at Queen’s University and member of the high-energy brass band, Brass Over Tea Kettle. “I remember playing together was really fun, and I got into [music] because of my inspiring music teacher,” he recalls. In high school, his passion for mathematics and physics followed. “I had really good math teachers and physics teachers… I got into the problem-solving subjects.”
Was there a moment in your life when you felt you had to choose between math and music?
In university, I definitely chose math. The intensity and time commitment that getting a math degree requires definitely left less time for me to play music. I kept going back to music though, in small informal ensembles or with friends… Even doing my PhD, during a time of emotional distress, let’s say, I remember I went and purchased this 1926 saxophone that I still play today, in Brass Over Tea Kettle.
When teaching math lectures and performing music, there is a kind of stage presence required for each. How are they similar?
I think there are a lot of similarities. Sometimes you think that the math should speak for itself in the lecture, but really, giving your interpretation or your own point of view in the lecture is very important; otherwise, people could just read a book. Why would you go to the lecture? What’s in a lecture that’s not in a book? … There is a lot to do with the way you present the material and the way you perform on stage. You want to be engaging and [interactive] in a way that is conducive to whatever you’re doing.
I like to think of it like a performance sometimes. I’ve definitely cited ABBA or Bette Davis during my math lectures. There is this quote by Yip Harburg, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics to ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. He said, “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.” I definitely feel the latter about math. A good math theorem makes you feel your thoughts, and in that way, I think of it as a connection to performing.
Do you ever think of musical elements mathematically?
Yes, I think about acoustics. When you play the saxophone and the harmonics of the saxophone, and when you play the clarinet, the harmonics of the clarinet are different. Why is that? Well, there is a mathematical reason why. I think about that in terms of acoustics, but also harmony, especially when I put together music for the band. But it’s never pure theory, just because something is supposed to sound good [in theory, it] doesn’t always sound good in practice.
Do you find that your musical background influences the way you teach or think about math?
Definitely how I teach. I often teach pure math lectures, a good lecture with a theorem has a beautiful punchline at the end… Another way to think about it is, when you play a song, before you play the complicated solo, you have to earn it. First, you play the melody and outline the harmony before you get to some crazy solo. In the same way, in a math problem, you start with a simple problem. Once you understand [that], you can then start attacking the messier, more realistic problems.
Born and raised in Italy, Francesco earned his PhD in Mathematics from Princeton in 2011. He is an Associate Professor in Queen’s University’s department of Mathematics and Statistics. In Kingston, Francesco plays soprano saxophone in Brass Over Tea Kettle and alto saxophone in the LaSalle Causeway Swing Band. Brass Over Tea Kettle comes to Skeleton Park Arts Festival on June 22, 2025.
You can find out more about the Skeleton Park Arts Festival here.
