2023 Vertigo Open Stage at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival

Cathedral Village Arts Festival events taking place at the Artesian on Monday, May 22nd:

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Vertigo Open Stage

It’s time for the 2023 Vertigo Open Stage event at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival!

Our feature poet this year is the Saskatchewan Poet Laureate, Carol Rose Goldeneagle, and we have music from The Last Birds too. Come along to listen and enjoy, or bring your words and join us on stage! Please email [email protected] to register to perform.

The Artesian is wheelchair accessible, all-ages, and a proud supporter of positive spaces initiatives with a zero-tolerance policy towards hate, harassment, and/or discrimination. We reserve the right to remove any patron creating an unsafe environment. The accessible entrance is available via a lift, Please ask staff for help if necessary.

Our Guests:

Carol Rose GoldenEagle (previously Carol Daniels) is Cree/Dene with roots in Sandy Bay, northern Saskatchewan. She is a published novelist, poet, playwright, visual artist, and musician.  She is the author of the award-winning novel Bearskin Diary (2015), Hiraeth, a book of poetry (2018), Bone Black (2019), and Narrows of Fear (2020). Her two most recent books of poetry are Essential Ingredients (2021) and Stations of the Crossed (2022). Carol has also written poems including “Qu’Appelle” (2021), “DNA” (2019) and essays including “Joy & heartbreak: Life as an Indigenous mother” (2021), “Sanctuary” (2020) and a “Personal Essay” (2016).  Her children’s storytelling include “The Ugly Little Christmas Tree” (2020), “The 7 spotted Lady Bug” (2021), and a children’s play, “Mr. Brown” (not yet published).  In June of 2021, Carol was named as the 2021 – 2023 Saskatchewan Poet Laureate!

With haunting harmonies and intricate guitar work, Last Birds’ music is steeped in early country folk yet reflective of modern life.   Using their small Canadian prairie town as a backdrop, Mike Davis and Lindsay Arnold weave together rural legends and current day experiences to form a modern prairie gothic.  Their songs veer away from overly romanticized views of small town life to peer into in the dark corners of the local bar, peek in the windows of the abandoned house down the street and pine for something or someone beyond the veil.  Their “two voices, two guitars” approach to live performances creates a storytelling experience sure to silence the room. 

The duo was nominated for multiple awards in 2021 and 2022, including a Saskatchewan Music Award for Roots/Folk Artist of the year as well as Saskatchewan Country Music Association’s Group and Alternative Country Album of the Year.  Their debut EP, released in April 2021, was well received and reached #1 on Kansas Public Radio while spending several weeks on the Roots Music Report charts for Top Folk Album and Top Canadian Folk Album. 

More information about the Cathedral Village Arts Festival: https://cvaf.ca/