
Spore to love at Free Press book club with virtual meeting, forest walk
The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are pleased to welcome back Winnipeg author (and Free Press copy editor) Ariel Gordon for the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, May 27 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss her essay collection Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest.
Gordon is a poet and author whose latest collection of essays, published in 2024 by Wolsak and Wynn, follows 2019's Treed: Walking in Canada's Urban Forests.
Her most recent poetry collection is 2023's Siteseeing, a collaborative work with Saskatchewan's Brenda Schmidt.
For those with a curiosity about which mushrooms can be found in Manitoba and where, Fungal will lead you down the right path, as it were.
But Gordon also explores broader, more complex ideas of ecosystems in nature and life, and how mushrooms can act as metaphors for — and be catalysts to — building community and testing boundaries, among other things.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Ariel Gordon
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Ariel Gordon
Gordon also offers readers a personal glimpse into her life as a woman and mom of one teen (now adult) daughter; in Fungal mushrooms act as a through line, seamlessly tying the stories together like clusters of fungi that pop up on boulevards and trees throughout the city (mushrooms are an omnipresent being tying all the stories together seamlessly).
From the sloppy back roads of a rain-slogged rural Manitoba and the familiar territory of Assiniboine Forest, to working at a mushroom farm and 'mudlarking' along the banks of the Red River, Fungal is an example of what treasures can be found if you just take the time to look for them.
In his review of Fungal for the Free Press, Jarett Myskiw called the book 'a satisfying, invigorating read,' adding 'This is a work thoroughly located in both time and place… Gordon's enthusiasm is infectious.'
Gordon will join Free Press Arts & Life editor Jill Wilson, McNally Robinson Booksellers event coordinator John Toews and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar to read from Fungal, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers.
Fungal
Fungal
Copies of Fungal are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there's no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion. Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event.
In addition to the virtual meeting, this month the Free Press Book Club is offering a free in-person event for members on Thursday, May 29.
Gordon will lead an urban forest walk with some forest bathing components, talk about foraging for mushrooms and provide information on best practices.
The event is currently full; those interested in joining a waiting list or receiving more information can sign up for free at bookclub.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
The Bard's tragic tale delivered with passion, bit of levity
As every true-crime fan knows, there's something deeply fascinating about outwardly respectable people who dare to plan and carry out murder. Shakespeare's Macbeth still has the power to enthral audiences with its tale of a too-ambitious general who kills the Scottish king, usurps the throne and descends into increasingly depraved murders as his tormented mind fills up with 'scorpions' of guilt. Essential to the story are the three witches' prophecies about Macbeth and his honourable friend Banquo, and the eternal question of whether we control our own destinies. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth and Darren Martens in the title role of Shakespeare in the Ruins's promenade production of Macbeth. In great productions, 'the Scottish play' is a horrifying tragedy. Its relevance to the current reign of the amoral, arrogant King Trump is striking. Shakespeare in the Ruins' Macbeth opened at the Trappist Monastery ruins in St. Norbert on Friday night, after its planned Thursday opening was cancelled because of wildfire smoke. Helmed by Emma Welham in her professional directing debut, the production doesn't attain the dark intimacy or intensity to truly shock or chill. This Macbeth, which runs 2 1/2 hours including intermission, also doesn't equal the overall polished professionalism of some past SiR shows. Macbeth The only music is the ominous pounding of a drum. Anika Binding's costumes and Lovissa Wiens' minimal sets have the scrounged-up look usually seen at the fringe festival. Men wear what look like polyester pants along with vaguely medieval-styled sashes, cloaks and hoods of synthetic fabric. The props include a plastic plant pot for the weird sisters' cauldron. Still, it's compelling to watch the plucky cast of just seven actors throw everything they've got into a fiercely physical outdoor performance. The action includes scaling and jumping over walls, violent killings via stabbing, slashing and neck-cracking, and expertly choreographed sword fighting. The ruins' weathered brick and stone walls make a wonderfully evocative backdrop for an era of candlelit castles. The audience, which is issued lawn chairs, is led to five locations — perhaps one chair schlep too many — in and around the picturesque ruins and grounds. Bits of levity arise from characters running in at full tilt to report the latest news, and from the witches popping up to tell the audience in rhyme that it's time to change locations. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) deal with the aftermath of their deadly ambition. The actors refrain from spewing rapid torrents of text, carefully pacing their delivery so most of the lines can be understood. Darren Martens as Macbeth and Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth make a picture-perfect couple, but lack dramatic ferocity as they proceed from entitled self-assurance to anguish and madness. Each has some strong moments, as well as too-guarded moments that don't get at the guts of their roles. Ideally, Macbeth should be so riveting that the audience can't look away. Martens could make his voice and presence much bigger. He isn't helped when the director places him too far from the audience. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Nance's Lady Macbeth tends to be contained when we expect her to be furiously worked up, especially when she calls on the spirits to masculinize her, then taunts her husband into murder. It's unfortunate that Nance also has to play soldiers and other minor roles, which aren't well differentiated. Three actors display the mature technique to command the outdoor spaces. Ray Strachan is thrillingly passionate as Macduff. Tracy Penner superbly embodies both the female Banquo (as well as her ghost) and Lady Macduff, holding nothing back emotionally. The latter's screams of agony upon seeing her innocent son murdered are wrenching. Tom Keenan creates multiple distinct characters, including King Duncan, a witch and the porter (gatekeeper) who likens the castle doors to the gates of Hell. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens (left) as Macbeth and Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth make a picture-perfect couple in SiR's promenade production. In a funny respite from the play's 'bloody business,' Keenan's porter is a Scottish standup comic who teasingly interacts with audience members. More crowd participation ensues when folks are recruited to fill seats at the ghost-plagued banquet, but it distracts from — here's that word again — the intensity of the scene. The three witches, played by the male actors Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik, are effectively conceived as shrieking, cawing, birdlike creatures in cloaks of white rags that suggest feathers. When they exploit Macbeth's ego by delivering their second set of riddle-like prophecies, they become grotesquely clownlike. The famous 'By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes' is broadly played for laughs. While many productions of this masterwork bring out the hags' comic dimensions, there's something to be said for a more classical approach of letting the supernatural scenes be darkly frightening. This show may be a summer outing, but it could use more creepy chill. arts@


Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Diversified roles in society shape Winnipeg painter Brian Hunter's work and process
Brian Hunter's multiple roles within society inform the works in his current exhibition, On Shaky Ground, at 226 Gallery, located at 226 Main St. It's his first solo show in seven years. The 22 oils, created in response to 'the current shifting and uncertain atmosphere,' are a departure from the artist's previous work. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS As a parent, painter and police officer — Brian Hunter juggles a demanding career and his passions. Nine years ago Hunter snagged top spot at the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. He spent a year in an art residency at the Gwangju Museum of Art in South Korea, and has shown in South Korea, Spain, Montreal and Toronto. Pursuing art full-time seemed a natural progression but his longing to start a family placed him in a quandary — would he be able to juggle his artistic and parental desires? 'For the longest time I wanted to be a professional artist; that was always my goal. I reached a point where I was starting to have some success with my career but at the same time I wanted to be a father, to have kids and go through those experiences,' Hunter says. As a young man Hunter was willing to make the sacrifices required to become a successful artist — but his perspective has since shifted. 'As you get older life kind of takes over. Having a stable job is important to me. At the end of the day, what does an artist want? Commercial success, money and popularity, or to just be able to paint every day?' he asks. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter says when he paints he's inspired by the immediacy expressed by his young sons when they create art. He is now making art that excites him. Art he wants to make, rather than work he thinks he is supposed to be making. 'I'm trying to go back to what it felt like being a teenager in my basement, staying up late, playing around with paint, just seeing what can happen. It doesn't necessarily need to fit into any other context other than this is who I am,' he explains. Grids — Hunter's signature motif, some would say — remain, but are obscured, oils are smeared over lines, colour deliberately and disobediently refuses to stay in its lane. Painting on wood or sometimes MDF, he works instinctively, inspired by the immediacy expressed by his young sons when they create art. 'It's not like they look at the page and go 'what am I going to make?' The pencil goes down on the paper and they just don't stop… that's the feeling I want to have,' he says. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter's paint is daubed on generously, mixed straight from the tube without aid of solvents – resulting in thick and textured layers smeared on with brushes' worn-down bristles. Paint is daubed on generously, mixed straight from the tube without aid of solvents — he has eliminated them from his practice — resulting in thick and textured layers smeared on with brushes' worn-down bristles. 'Now that I have small children (ages three and five) I've been very cautious of the harm some artists' materials can cause. The result is my brushes are always dirty because I can't clean them,' he says. 'I don't invest in the most expensive materials because I know I'm going to destroy them pretty quickly. They dry out and they're like a rock but then they create all these interesting textures. You can really see the teeth of the brushes cut through the paint. I would never be able to accomplish that with an expensive clean brush.' Parenting has also left its mark on his creative process; painting is sandwiched between school runs, bedtimes and the hours he logs as a detective with the Winnipeg Police Service. Balancing his roles can be tricky, he admits, but Hunter is first and foremost an artist; policing is what he does for a living, painting is who he is. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Painter Brian Hunter shows the wooden canvases he uses to paint on in his basement studio. 'I was talking to my son, he knew I worked as a detective, he had some concept of what that means, and my wife said 'Oh, you know, Daddy's also an artist'. And his face just lit up. Everyone has an idea of what it means to be an artist; it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from or what your experience is. And I think that is inspiring and it inspires something in people. 'My role in society is different when I'm an artist. I find it very freeing. I feel I am more in my own shoes when I am doing it,' he says. (On Shaky Ground runs until June 8 at 226 Gallery, located at 226 Main St.) MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Hunter's art reflects his desire to create instinctively. AV KitchingReporter AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV. Every piece of reporting AV produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.


Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Book club to survey Sinclair's essays
The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are pleased to welcome Winnipeg author (and Free Press columnist) Niigaan Sinclair for the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his award-winning essay collection Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre. Published in May 2024 by McClelland & Stewart, Wînipêk compiles a year's worth of Sinclair's Free Press columns as well as other writing about how our perception of Winnipeg, and the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens co-exist and survive, is a window into larger questions about colonialism and reconciliation nationwide. Wînipêk was a national bestseller, landing on a number of year-end lists of best books. Sinclair's debut collection also netted him the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction, news he was able to share with his father, Murray Sinclair, before he passed in November 2024. Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files Niigaan Sinclair In his review of Wînipêk for the Free Press, Matt Henderson says Sinclair 'takes the reader on a journey through the land, water and seasons, the underbelly and magnificence that is Winnipeg,' adding 'Sinclair identifies the overt racism as well as the legislative, calculated mindsets that have intentionally set out to destroy Indigenous Peoples and culture.' Yet Sinclair retains hope for the future of the city; 'Wînipêk is a portal into our violent past, our precarious present and the promise of tomorrow. It should be mandatory reading for all Canadians,' Henderson writes. Sinclair will join fellow Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti, McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar to read from Wînipêk, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers. Copies of Wînipêk are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there's no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion. Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event. For more information and to register, visit Wînipêk