Singing Our Story: Kris Demeanor as Calgary’s Poet Laureate

Multi-talented multi-disciplinary artist Kris Demeanor may be the newly minted Poet Laureate for Canada’s Cultural Capital, but Calgary’s music scene isn’t going to relinquish him to the spoken word crowd without a fight.  To be fair, Demeanor has always had a foot in both camps, being as celebrated for his spoken word  compositions as he is for his more rocking offerings.  Besides, a song-writer is essentially a poet who can carry a tune,  which some do much better than others.

Demeanor’s song I Have Seen the Future was the basis for an award-winning short film which had audiences and critics raving at both the Sundance and the Toronto Film Festivals.  He’s a prolific and award-winning writer, a regular at WordFest and on the spoken word circuit, and has several albums to his credit.  Those albums are populated by the characters who haunt the stories in songs like Labour Day Classic, Pelican Lake Conversion, Sell the Farm, and Dr. Meat.  Demeanor has a gift for finding the humanity in any situation, a knack for nailing the humour in it, and the wisdom to let his characters speak with honesty.

In 2012, more so than ever, Calgary has a plethora of stories to tell, and Kris Demeanor is just the person to sing them.

Congratulations to Kris Demeanor - Calgary’s inaugural Poet Laureate!

Tagged as: Calgary, calgary 2012, kris demeanor, music, poet laureate, spoken word