about us:

RIVERBED READING SERIES

is driven by the belief that the artistic spheres are connected. Inspired by the spirit of Café le Hibou Ottawa (1965-70) and Cabaret Voltaire Zurich (1916), we are an inclusive, experimental gathering space at the very intersection of literature, music and performance. We are currently streaming from the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).

​co-curated by:

Co-Founder

Ellen Chang-Richardson
is an award-winning poet, writer and editor. The author of three poetry chapbooks including snap, pop, performance (Gap Riot Press), her work has appeared in Watch Your Head: Artists & Writers Respond to the Climate Crisis, Room Magazine, The Fiddlehead​, and more. The founder of Little Birds Poetry, and a member of multiple editorial collectives, Ellen brings a decade's worth of events management and contemporary art curation to her curatorial practice for Riverbed.
​https://ehjchang.com/
​

Rachel Weldon
is the founder and director of music presenter organization Debaser, and a music programmer for artist-run centre SAW. Rachel has produced and/or programmed over 300 events, working in festival management, curation, production, and marketing, with organizations such as POP Montreal, Ottawa International Animation Festival, the City of Ottawa, Digital Arts Resource Centre, MEGAPHONO, and more.
https://rachelweldon.com/

Co-Founder

nina jane drystek
is a poet, writer and performer. she is author of knewro suite (Simulacrum Press, 2019) and her poems have been published online and in print, as well as in self-published chapbooks and broadsides. her sound poetry can be heard on bandcamp. she was shortlisted for the 2020 Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry, writes collaboratively with VII and performs sound poetry with the ensemble quatuour gualuour. she can be seen riding a red or blue bicycle.
https://textcurious.ca/
​

Joseph Mathieu
is a Franco-Ontarian freelance writer and editor in Ottawa. He’s a generalist and has written for associations, community newspapers, city magazines, trade publications, and university comms. His bilingual newsletter T'es Capab' covers family, libraries, motivation, grief, and all kinds of things. He teaches writing and editing at Algonquin College's Journalism program. 
http://www.jrmwords.ca/

PROGRAMMING FOR 2021/22

Riverbed Reading Series is excited to bring you carefully curated iterations on a quarterly basis. We begin with poetry, a practice at the intersection of music, art and literature. We follow with literature, propelling the solitary nature of writing into a collective space. We then invite you to join us in the realm of performance as we present sensory experiences for you to explore and delight in. We wrap up our year with an invited curation, encouraging our communities to make their mark in the Riverbed that is Ottawa-Gatineau.

S2: iteration two

S2: iteration one

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Season One