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A HISTORY

It all began in Ottawa in September 1980.....

.....that was when Jane Jordan, organizer of the Folk & Poetry-The Underground Up reading series, asked Juan O'Neill to run one of her programs for one year, which he did. Those readings took place in the Wildflower Café, which used to be on Laurier Avenue East near King Edward in Sandy Hill. After the year was up, Juan continued the series, changing the name to Sasquatch, a name suggested by Jane, who said, "Often, the artist is like a hairy beast hiding in the forest." After the Wildflower Café, Sasquatch convened at, among other places, the Rosie Lee Café (which used be next to Sasquatch's current venue), the Rideau Café, the Cock Robin Pub, the Dunvegan Pub, and at the Royal Oak II, where it has been since November 1998.

By setting up her Folk & Poetry series here in the early 1970s, Jane made an important contribution to the literary life of the nation's capital. She helped to enrich the culture of this government town at the grassroots level by providing venues where local developing and emerging writers could meet, share ideas, test their talents and listen to published writers read from their works. Handing off one of her programs to Juan O'Neill was a fortuitous decision as Juan kept it running for over two decades until he passed away on 15 March 2005. Now, under the direction of others, the literary legacy of Sasquatch continues.

Sasquatch is the second longest-running poetry reading series in Ottawa (beaten out for that honour by a few months by The Tree Reading Series). When Juan took it on, his vision for Sasquatch was that it should provide a friendly venue to writers and other artists to present their works in front of an audience in a European café-des-artistes setting. That tradition has continued throughout Sasquatch's existence and, in its informal atmosphere, the readings play host to poetry, prose, music and song. Many distinguished writers have appeared at Sasquatch and many "unknowns" have made their first appearance here, some of them no longer unknown. Under Juan's direction, Sasquatch offered a welcoming, nurturing environment to young and not so young poets where, as he so often said, "...more people had read for the first time..."

Over the years, quite a number of writers have helped out in running the series including: Chancey Grain, Stephanie Bolster, Kevin Hanes, Ginger Walls, allison comeau, Heather Ferguson, Laurie Fuhr and Maureen Glaude. The current members of the Sasquatch Board are Lynne Alsford, Chris Sorrenti, John and Susan Woodsworth, and Jacqueline Zena.

Rose Lee Years

Jane Jordan – Biography Page