NATIONAL MILTON ACORN FESTIVAL, CANADA
Valerie LaPointe
AUGUST 19 - 23
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA
The National Milton Acorn Festival offers a unique ‘Living and Learning’
Vacation of fun with poetry, stories and music taking place in the
Maritime province of Prince Edward Island, Canada. It has a great lineup
of poets, authors, storytellers and musicians for the eighth annual
Festival which will take place from Friday, August 19 to Tuesday,
August 23. Cedric Smith ( Alec King on CBCTV’s The Road To Avonlea )
and Terry Jones will emcee the Friday Festival Warm-up Concert at the
Charlottetown Yacht Club. You can join Island fiddler, Roy Johnstone;
The Rose Vaughan Trio and Laura Smith by reading your favorite Milton
Acorn poem during the Open Stage set. The Main twelve hour Festival
event will begin Saturday at 1:01 p.m. at Peake’s Quay, Charlottetown.
During the afternoon program the winners of the Students Against Racism
Poetry Competition will be awarded a prize and read their poem. The
1994 Milton Acorn Memorial People’s Poetry Award will be presented to
Paulette Dubé, winner and Betsy Struthers, runner-up during the evening
program. Twelve events will take place across the Island from the
fishing village of Souris at the east end of the Island to the West
Point Lighthouse. There is a new twist to the event at Orwell Corner
Historic Village on Monday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. There will be the
Milton A Corn Roast . . . there will be a family Corn Boil and hot dog
sale; or bring your own picnic. There will be a Speaker’s Corner for
anyone to air their pet peeve and there will be a Children’s Circle of
stories. The evening program begins at 8p.m.
WHO WAS MILTON ACORN?
MILTON ACORN ( March 30, 1923 to August 20, 1986 ), Canada’s People’s Poet
was born and raised on Prince Edward Island, Canada. From an early age,
he knew his vocation was to be a poet. In Milton’s own words, he traded
his carpenters tools for a pen. A prodigious writer, Milton wrote over
150 short stories, thousands of poems, and numerous essays. He also wrote
two plays, one - THE ROAD TO CHARLOTTETOWN - was produced at the
Confederation Centre of the Arts in 1977.
After the publication of I’VE TASTED MY BLOOD in 1970, Milton was honoured
by leading Canadian writers as ‘The People’s Poet of Canada’. He received
the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1975 for his book THE ISLAND
MEANS MINAGO. In 1977 he was awarded a Doctor of Laws Degree by UPEI.
He was elected to life membership in the League of Canadian Poets in 1985.
Milton Acorn is the Island’s major literary figure of the last half of the
century. He was an artist with a lifetiime love of his Island home and
pride in his Canadian heritage. The power of the people and of the
written word were essential to Milton’s profound view of the world.
FOR INFORMATION: Email - vlapoint.peinet.pe.ca \tel:902-368-8766
fax: 902-368-7485