Gilles Duceppe's defence of arts and culture has gained him a new fan — CanLit Queen Margaret Atwood.
Atwood said she went to hear the Bloc Québécois leader speak at a Bay Street business luncheon Friday because of his strong endorsement for the arts.
"I'm here because Mr. Duceppe understands the contribution that culture makes to our economy," she told CBC News at Toronto's Economic Club.
Asked whether she would vote for the Bloc if she lived in Quebec, Atwood gave a resounding: "Yes, absolutely. What is the alternative?"
May 21st is UNESCO World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
Wednesday night Tonight! in the Viger Atrium of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec - one of the nicest lecture rooms I've seen so far in the city - I'll be giving a short lecture on the use of technology in the context of culture, knowledge and dialog.
I'll demo three videos as well, two of which are mine and another from the participants of Convergentes.
My talk runs from about 7:15pm until 8:00pm, though I'm also participating in a round table about "Issues of Identity" and "Cultural diversity and building bridges between cultures" from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.
Then from 8:00pm until 8:45pm we'll be treated to a sure-to-be-awesome multilingual spoken word performance hosted by my good friend Elizabeth Robert featuring Endre Farkas, Pauline Michel, Judith Munira Avinger, Alejandro Saravia and Dwayne Morgan.
BAnQ Auditorium
Centre d’Archives de Montréal
535 Viger Street East, Montréal
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