Kagawong, ON, Release September 11, 2024. For Immediate Release.

Summary: NorthWords/Elemental Festival 2024 to be held September 20-21, 2023, in Kagawong.

A Passion for Pollinators is the theme for this year’s jointly offered NorthWords and Elemental Festival, to be held Friday September 20 and Saturday September 21 in Kagawong at the Park Centre. NorthWords Festival of Words, and Elemental Festival, a celebration of land-based arts, have come together to offer events suitable for diverse interests and audiences. All events, other than the ticketed Book & Brew at Split Rail Brewing in Gore Bay, are free to attend and open to all.

The festival is part of Ontario Culture Days, for which 4elements Living Arts is the hub organization on Manitoulin Island. Ontario Culture Days is a celebration of arts and culture in communities across Ontario.

Looking for an opportunity to mingle with authors and hear them present their own works? Join Book & Brew at Split Rail Brewing in Gore Bay on Friday September 20 at 8 pm, to hear readings from Coltrane Seesequasis, Mike Strobel and Vera Constantineau, along with live music by Elora Miller and Jon Best, and delicious autumn harvest snacks. Tickets are $15, available at the door or at northwordsfest@gmail.com.

On Friday afternoon, from 1-4 pm, artist Gwen MacGregor will lead participants in learning how to crochet a three-dimensional tree, drawing on the inspiration of the fertile ground along the Kagawong River trail. On Saturday morning, participants will photograph their trees in locations around the river. Gwen will guide participants to consider our relationship to the land and location. Come and explore using this simple but powerful mode of expression. No experience is necessary – instruction and materials will be provided. This workshop is suitable for adults. Pre-registration is requested, via northwordsfest@gmail.com.

The festival features lots of events suitable for kids and families. 

On Friday, after school from 4-5:30 pm, movers and makers of all ages are invited to join Jenn Mezei of Rainbow Farms North and Candice Irwin of Body Stories Dance in some dancing and art making inspired by flowers. Jenn will share knowledge about the symbiotic relationships between pollinators, plants and colour. Candice will invite us to reflect on the colours, shapes and textures of blooms and notice if any of these qualities impact our emotions. Through the mediums of dance, painting, flower arranging and seed planting participants will express these feelings in creative, community-centred ways.

On Saturday September 21 at 10:30, Sahar Golshan, author of the children’s picture book “So Loud!” will bring children into appreciation of the sounds around them in a workshop: “So Loud! Stories from the sounds from my trip outside”. So Loud! was just named by CBC Books as a children’s book to check out this spring. Sahar has facilitated arts-based programming for children and adults with the Regent Park Film Festival, the Toronto Public Library, and the University of Guelph. She is a winner of the Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing in Non-Fiction and a recipient of the Air Canada Short Film Award.  

On Saturday September 21, from 11:45am – 1pm, the all-ages fun continues with “Be Your Own Wild Robot”. Come join artist farmer Jenn Mezei to build your own wild robot! The story of The Wild Robot by Peter Brown is inspiring and helps us to ask questions around the juxtaposition of tech and nature. Each participant will be invited to create a robot head including upcycled cardboard and other found objects combined with nature bits we can collect in the woods together. We will also plant some seeds for growth and supporting the biodiversity that nature and humans need to thrive.

The festival’s focus on pollinators takes flight at 1 pm on Saturday, with opening remarks, a welcome song by the M’Chigeeng Lady Drummers, and the keynote talk “Drama in the Butterfly Garden – How discovering the creatures close to home will inspire you to save them”.

Through detailed macro photography and graphic videos, you’ll see insects hatching, eating each other, transforming, parasitizing, fighting for territory, courting, and even farming!   Butterfly expert and best-selling author Carol Pasternak will highlight the often unseen wildlife around you, emphasizing the importance and joy of your land stewardship. This event is suitable for all ages.

People with interests in writing, the creative process or insects can join one of three workshops on Saturday at 2:30 pm:

Coltrane Seesequasis, author of Secrets of Stone, hosts a writing workshop for aspiring writers on “Finding your recipe for success”. Coltrane Seesequasis is a young fantasy writer of Indigenous heritage who grew up in Gatineau, Quebec. His debut novel, Secrets of Stone, is the first book of a planned series that follows a young wolf called Silversong, in a fantasy world similar to our own. Inspired by a love of nature as well as myths and folklore that challenge the limits of creativity, Coltrane adds his voice to the immersive genre of fantasy.

Mike Strobel, well-known Kagawong-based author and journalist, will explore “Writing the Rhu: Turning a Manitoulin tragedy into a book”. “This is an incredible story of heartache, tragedy, struggle, sorrow, guilt, and redemption,” says Strobel, a former Toronto Sun columnist who discovered the story’s details and will engage participants in building the story of the wreck of the boat ‘Rhu’ in 1965.

Carol Pasternak, aka the “Monarch Crusader” will offer an interactive workshop: “Insects Up Close and Personal”. You can be among the select group that gets to participate in the tagging and release of a migrating monarch butterfly.  Feel its sharp feet, watch it extend its proboscis (feeding tube) to drink, and learn how and why to apply a tag.  We will likely cut open a cocoon with a live moth pupa inside, without harming it!  With a few other surprises, any insect lover will enjoy interaction they may never experience again.  Suitable for ages 8 and up.

On Saturday September 21 at 7 pm at the Kagawong Park Centre, Melody Johnson presents “Person of Interest”, a topical tale, about a good, law-abiding citizen who hoped to volunteer and so applied for a police background check. It was at that point when she discovered she was a ‘Person of Interest’…courtesy of some bad neighbours next door. It was their final act of retaliation.  Debuting in 2018, Person of Interest has been delighting audiences across the country.  Those who enjoy the wave of stand-alone storytelling like CBC’s Vinyl Café will love this edgy, comic tale.

All day on Saturday, there will be exhibits of artwork by Gwen MacGregor and “Treelines” workshop participants, and by Jacqueline St. Pierre and “Silk Painting” workshop participants. These workshops, supported by 4elements Living Arts and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, provide an opportunity for artists to engage in land-based work together with community participants.

On Saturday throughout the lunch hour, Chef Angel Martinez from Xoctli Latino Street Food will be offering delicious food for purchase. 

The full schedule for NorthWords/Elemental Festival 2024 programming can be found on Facebook under NorthWords.

Contact info: