Sounding Out: Exploring, Creating & Performing Text Scores

A text score is, “a collection of verbally notated meditations that may be enjoyed by anyone in a variety of ways: read as poetry, performed alone or performed for an audience.” Pauline Oliveros, Sonic Meditations I – XXV (1971)

Join us on Friday, November 21 at 6pm for a mini-intensive workshop with Vancouver Poet Laureate, Elee Kraljii Gardiner.

In this playful two-hour workshop for anyone curious about words, performance, and sound, we will experiment, create some attempts, and expand our artistic practice as we step out of the familiar into a space of curiosity. Our form is the text score, a piece of writing that can be an instruction, concept, list, poem, diagram (or something else!). We’ll look at text scores from artists ranging from Fluxus to Futurist, Yoko Ono and other composers and sound artists. Then we will create our own. After the workshop we will have a short break and then reconvene to perform the pieces in a gently supportive “world premiere” for friends, family, and the public.

We aim to support equittable engagement and welcome explorations of vibration, movement, and other ideas that expand our ideas of access while challenging audism and other barriers for the Deaf or hard of hearing.

To ensure event attendance and to help us cover costs, this workshop is $10. RSVP here. If you are experiencing barriers to attend, please reach out over email. We’re happy to provide you with one of our scholarship spots.

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is an author, editor, and creative mentor living in Vancouver, Canada. She is the author of the poetry books, Trauma Head, serpentine loop, and sometimes, forest (forthcoming in April 2026). She is also editor of the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists, Elee directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, an online program pairing authors with mentors, and codirects the Whole Cloth reading series with Bronwen Tate for which an author reads their entire book in one go. She is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver and is learning in community via the sound-based legacy project Here, Hearing. Versevancouver.ca eleekg.com

About Upstart & Crow: Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building … all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Find us on Granville Island, Gibsons and online at upstartandcrow.com.

Accessibility: The main studio of our shop is accessible for folks with mobility aids. There is a washroom on the main floor available for attendees.

Questions: hello[at]upstartandcrow.com.

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