OK, it's p-CHAW, k-CHAW.

I'm glad it didn't occur to me at the time, but the crowd last night at Pecha Kucha was probably the biggest one I've read to. The Park was packed -- all seats filled and lots of people standing at the back. Pin-drop quiet, too.

It felt good reading; haven't done one in a while. I read five poems from Vs., which I chose from different parts of the manuscript to work as a narrative of the overall story. Then I spent the last minute and a half talking about boxing and the book. It was that last part that made me most nervous but I neither ran out of time nor had a gaping silence after I'd finished, so I consider that a success.

The slides Jeope made were great; I kept wishing I could watch them as I spoke. He used the interior illustrations he did for the book, some photos from my fight, a few quotes that I sourced about writing and boxing, etc.

I had some nice comments afterward, which was heartening since it's mainly a visual arts crowd and I wasn't sure how sympathetic they'd be to a writer. Makes me hopeful that people will like the book.

Not that it was all about me. The bill also included photographer Ian McCausland talking about his Facebook Friends Foto events (he graciously let me use mine for my book jacket, btw), the architect of The Cube, a local playwright and actress narrating some real or imagined context for vintage photos, a guy who makes iphone apps, twin business owners and all manner of other artsy folks. The next one is on November 19th. Check it out.

Don't ask me how to pronounce it...

... but Thursday is the third installment of Pecha Kucha, a snazzed up slideshow thingamabob put on by the Graphic Designers of Canada Winnipeg branch, to which I’m related by marriage.

It’s at the Park Theatre August 26th, starting at 8:20 (Yes, you read that right. Designers are very particular.) And it’s free. I’ve been to the other two events and they’ve been awesome – I’ve learned about the history of the Aero bar wrapper, seen pictures of some crazy public art projects and heard about a bunch of other techy stuff that I didn’t really understand in the first place, but found entertaining nonetheless.

You should come. And not just because I’ll be on stage.

I’m twisting the 20 slides for 20 seconds format for my own purposes and treating it as a poetry reading with pictures. I’ll be shamelessly promoting my new collection and it’ll be the first time I’ve read most of these poems to an audience.

Just to keep it in the family, Jeope will MC. He also made my slides. (And book cover, and interior illustrations, for that matter.) He’s good that way.