Friday Special Blend
Friday December 1st, 2023 with Susan Johnston
Joy and Splendour and Disability and Desirability and LAL

In our first hour, we'll hear episode one of Joys and Splendours! Joys And Splendors is a three-episode audio drama set in the Ottawa of an uneasy near-future, following the cat-and-mouse political intrigue of a soldier and a spy attempting to survive in a Canada devastated by war and greed. Through the eyes of these two sides of one coin, the story asks: do some deserve a nice life, or do all deserve a good life? Joys And Splendors was written by Kate Werneburg and directed by Mary Ellis. It stars Maryse Fernandes as "Nina" and Ben Sanders as "Patrick". The sound designer is Michael Wanless, and the Associate Producer is JR Williams. Joys And Splendors is produced by Winterbird Arts and presented by TACTICS Theatre Group. In our second hour, we'll dive into the fall 2023 issue of ARC Poetry Magazine. ARC 102 Disability Desirability was guest edited by Therese Estacion. She joins us, along with writers Tanya Snow and Ash Hernandez O'Gorman, along with ARC's Chris Johnson. In issue 102, guest editor Therese Estacion asks: “What do we make of a disabled body or, to use disability justice group Sins Invalid’s term, bodymind that desires? A body that knows all too well how it feels to be told that it has no business wanting for love, wanting for more.” The poems and essays in this issue approach this question from all angles and “fill the space with their desirous voice.”