Ian Ferrier (1954 – 3 November 2023) was a Canadian poet, musician, and cultural arts organizer. As co-founder of the Wired on Words record label, longtime organizer of The Words and Music Show, author of four chapbooks, and member of the voice/music fusion collective Pharmakon MTL, he was a central figure in the Montreal music, poetry, and spoken word scene from the 1990s until his death in 2023.

Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier^[2] was born in Montreal in 1954. He studied literature and creative writing at Concordia University,^[3] where as an undergraduate he co-founded the literary journal Los in 1975.^[4]

Montreal environments feature in his first book of poetry, From yr lover like an orchestra, published by Davinci press in 1974.^[5] David Lawson of The Gazette wrote, "most of his collection consists not of observable poems but of paragraphs, sometimes indented, and occasional spare lines, all of which add up to a frankly experimental effect."^[6] Louis Dudek, reviewing the book in Anthol, a Montreal literary magazine, acknowledged it as the work of a poet in a "preliminary" stage and called it "a documentary of chaos" whose "poetry ... is not aiming at a higher aesthetic but is drawn down to the messiness of the surrounding environment."^[7]

Ferrier was the author of an early interactive online novel, The Heart of the Machine, started in 1986 with Fortner Anderson and illustrator Philip Mackenzie.^[8][9] The novel was published serially on CompuServe, The WELL, and other early internet services, and the publishers invited readers to influence the story with their comments, suggestions, and character sketches.^[9]

In the mid-1990s, live poetry was gaining popularity in Montreal due to the rise of poetry slams in the United States, the increasing impact of rap and hip-hop, and the crossover of poetry to pop music. Lollapalooza's first visit to Montreal, in 1994, included a spoken word stage featuring local performers.^[10] Ferrier became an important figure in the scene. With Fortner Anderson, he co-founded the record label Wired on Words in 1993.^[11] The label recorded performances by Montreal spoken word artists for broadcast on CKUT-FM, the campus radio station of McGill University.^[10] Several poets made the top ten on the station's charts,^[10] and the program won a Standard Broadcasting Award.^[11] Ferrier used the award money to record Millennium Cabaret, a 1998 CD release featuring poetry by Anderson, Heather O'Neill, Todd Swift and others.^[12][13]

Ferrier grew interested in combining his poetry with music.^[14] In 2000, he released a book/CD titled Exploding Head Man on Planète Rebelle [fr]. The work features instrumentation from area musicians, and was a critical success. Ilana Kronick of The Gazette praised the "sonic power" of its "heady, impassioned, sometimes hallucinogenic" poetry and the "smart guitar, bass, percussion and tablas".^[14] Hal Niedzviecki reviewed the release for Broken Pencil and the National Post, writing that the "poems/songs merge into each other, become a musical score lament for an absent world" and calling it one of the year's best spoken word releases.^[13][15]

On Ralph Alfonso's Bongo Beat label, Ferrier released two more projects combining music and spoken word: 2007's What Is This Place? and 2010's To Call Out in the Night.^[1] On What Is This Place?, Ferrier began a collaboration with Pharmakon MTL, a "voice music improv project"^[16] with Kris Mah on guitar and Dave Stein on drums.^[17] What Is This Place? was reviewed positively by UK Vibe.^[18] In Arc Poetry Magazine, Kai Cheng Thom gave To Call Out in the Night a mostly positive review, calling it "[j]azzy and sensuous... a landmark in the fledgling tradition that is Canadian spoken word", though noting that Ferrier could widen his range of intonation.^[19]

Ferrier continued to be an active organizer in the Montreal cultural arts scene throughout the 2000s. He helped launch the inaugural Festival Voix d'Amériques in February 2002,^[10] and organized The Words and Music Show, which presented live music, literature, and art at Casa del Popolo, a venue on Montreal's Saint Laurent Boulevard.^[1][20] The series was founded in the early 2000s and produced monthly shows until 2021; Ferrier's organizing included grant writing, artist invitations, and advertising.^[21] The show's performances were recorded, and eventually digitally archived as part of Concordia University's SpokenWeb project.^[22]

From 2002 to 2005 Ferrier was president of the Quebec Writers' Federation.^[23] In 2010, he became the editor of LitLive.ca – The Canadian Review of Literature in Performance, an online journal of literature performance, and started the Mile End Poets' Festival.^[23] In 2011, Ferrier won the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival's Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret for his work in the spoken word community.^[24][25] In 2017, a translation of his poems was published by Éditions du Noroît under the title Quel est ce lieu.^[26] For his contributions to Montreal literary arts, he was awarded the 2022 Judy Mappin Community Award by the Quebec Writers' Federation.^[23]

Ian Ferrier died on 3 November 2023 of brain cancer.^[1] Following his death, the Quebec Writers' Federation renamed their prize for spoken word to the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize in his honor.^[27]

• From yr lover like an orchestra (1974)
• Exploding Head Man (2000)
• Coming & Going (2015)
• Bear Dreams (2016)

• A Child Sees Winter Coming and a Bear Dreams (2018)

• What Is This Place? (2007)
• To Call Out In The Night (2010)

• Official website
• Ian Ferrier discography at Discogs