The Enough Said Collection
Enough Said was a spoken word performance poetry series held weekly in Montreal, Quebec, Canada between 1994 and 1996. It provided a platform for diverse forms of literary performance and experimentation. It featured over 100 performers who improvised, read poetry from the page, or spoke it from memory; integrated technology like live radio feedback and synthesizers into their delivery; performed as "poetry collectives" in groups; were sometimes accompanied by live or recorded music; and did lots of other strange and provocative things under the banner of poetry and performance art. Enough Said is one of Canada's first spoken word series, and an exceptionally eclectic one.
Concordia University Special Collections now holds the Enough Said collection and works in collaboration with the SpokenWeb team in Montreal to develop it. The collection, as presented here, consists of twenty-two recordings from twenty Enough Said events and three compilations made by organizer Lee Gotham, as well as one oral history interview. SpokenWeb team members have created four compilations for use in communal watch/annotation parties. In these parties, Enough Said performers gather online to watch and comment on the performances communally. The watch party events are interactive, informative, and often emotionally moving as they unfold.
The original collections are presented below with the AV descriptions written by SpokenWeb RAs, while the watch party compilations are accompanied by the AV description and the transcript from the watch parties, providing historical, interpretive, and novel ways of understanding the collection and the literary scene in 1990s Montreal.
Watch Party Compilations
Watch Party Compilation 1 1995-03-25 Performance Poetry Party
An abridged version of the Performance Poetry Party event held at Bistro 4 (4040 St. Laurent, Montreal, QC, H2W 1Y8, Canada) featuring performances by Endre Farkas, Lee Gotham, Swifty Lazar (Todd Swift and Tom Walsh), ga press (Colin Christie and Corey Frost), Groupe de Poesie Moderne, Fluffy Pagan Echoes (Ran Elfassy, Victoria Stanton, Scott Duncan, Vince Tinguely, and Justin McGrail), Fortner Anderson, Ian Ferrier, Dee Smith, Norman Nawrocki, and Ian Stephens.
Compilation curated by Jade Palmer, processed by TJ Macpherson, and supervised by Jason Camlot.
Commentary generated in a Zoom watch party held on May 8th 2025 from the Concordia University AMPLab (1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., 6th floor, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada) attended by Colin Christie, Corey Frost, Dee Smith, Justin McGrail, Lee Gotham, Scott Duncan, and Vincent Tinguely. Hosted by Jason Camlot and Jade Palmer.
Watch Party Compilation 3 Adeena Karasick and bill bissett
A compilation of performances from Enough Said spoken word events held at Bistro 4 (4040 St. Laurent, Montreal, QC, H2W 1Y8, Canada) and the Fetish Cafe (1426 Rue Beaudry, Montreal, QC, H2L3E5, Canada) featuring Adeena Karasick on 1995-03-13 and 1996-02-14, and bill bissett on 1995-01-16.
Compilation curated by Jade Palmer, processed by TJ Macpherson, and supervised by Jason Camlot.
Commentary generated in a Zoom watch party held on August 15th 2025 from the Concordia University AMPLab (1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., 6th floor, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada) attended by Adeena Karasick, bill bissett, Lee Gotham, and Brandon Hocura. Hosted by Jason Camlot and Jade Palmer.
Watch Party Compilation 2 1994-12-19 to 1995-02-13
A compilation of performances from Enough Said spoken word events held at Bistro 4 (4040 St. Laurent, Montreal, QC, H2W 1Y8, Canada) from 1994-12-19 to 1995-05-01 featuring Lee Gotham, Ann Diamond, Joelle Ciona, Neil Wiernick, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, Thoth Harris, Anne Stone, Raymond Filip, Steve Luxton, Sonja Skarstedt, and Ian Ferrier.
Compilation curated by Jade Palmer, processed by TJ Macpherson, and supervised by Jason Camlot.
Commentary generated in a Zoom watch party held on June 26th 2025 from the Concordia University AMPLab (1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., 6th floor, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada) attended by Dee Smith, Justin McGrail, Endre Farkas, Raymond Filip, and Joelle Ciona. Hosted by Jason Camlot and Jade Palmer.
Watch Party Compilation 4 1995-02-20 to 1995-06-26
A compilation of performances from Enough Said spoken word events held at Bistro 4 (4040 St. Laurent, Montreal, QC, H2W 1Y8, Canada) from 1995-02-20 to 1995-06-26 featuring Trevor Ferrier, Njacko Backo, Stephen Edgar, Steve Godin, Mitsiko Miller, David Jager, Suzanne Nuttall, Sandra Jeppesen, Clifton Joseph, Steve "Liquid" Hawley, Jill Battson, Nancy Dembowski, and Stan Rogal.
Compilation curated by Jade Palmer, processed by TJ Macpherson, and supervised by Jason Camlot.
Commentary generated in a Zoom watch party held on August 25th 2025 from the Concordia University AMPLab (1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., 6th floor, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada) attended by Endre Farkas, Jill Battson, Lee Gotham, Stan Rogal, Steve "Liquid" Hawley, and Suzanne Nuttall. Hosted by Jason Camlot and Jade Palmer.
Enough Said Recordings
1994-12-09 Lee Gotham and Ann Diamond
Supporting/open mic performances by Beau Williamson, Jen Frankel, Vincent Tinguely, Graham Olds, Ran Elfassy, Thoth Harris, Halina Berger, R. M. Vaughan, Scott Duncan, Justin McGrail, and more.
1995-01-16 bill bissett and Sharon H. Nelson
Supporting/open mic performances by Scott Duncan, Halina Berger, Justin McGrail, and more.
1995-01-30 Victoria Stanton and Ian Stephens
Supporting/open mic performances by Matthew Legault, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall, Thoth Harris, Steve Godin, Justin McGrail, and more.
Supporting/open mic performances by Robert Allen, Douglas Isaac, Anne Stone, and more.
1995-02-20 Njacko Backo and Groupe de Poesie Moderne
Supporting performance by Trevor John Ferrier.
1995-03-06 Phineas Flower Trio and Steve Godin Part 1
Supporting/open mic performance by Ran Elfassy.
Supporting/open mic performances by Vincent Tinguely, Mitsiko Miller, David Jager, D. Holmes, Justin McGrail, and more.
1995-03-25 Performance Poetry Party
Supporting/open mic performances by Hieronymus Borscht Nonet (Sam Shalabi and Unknown_Musician1), Fortner Anderson, Ian Ferrier, Endre Farkas, Swifty Lazarus (Todd Swift and Tom Walsh), ga press (Colin Christie and Corey Frost), Groupe de Poésie Moderne, Fluffy Pagan Echoes (Ran Elfassy, Victoria Stanton, Scott Duncan, Vince Tinguely, and Justin McGrail), Dee Smith, Norman Nawrocki, Ian Stephens, and more.
Supporting/open mic performance by Joe De Paul.
Supporting/open mic performances by Norman Nawrocki, Justin McGrail, Steve "Liquid" Hawley, David Jager, Steve Godin, and more.
1995-06-26 It came from the 401
Performances by Jill Battson, Nancy Dembowski, Stan Rogal, and Mike O'Connor.
A compilation of performances by Swifty Lazarus (Todd Swift and Tom Walsh), bill bissett, Sharon H. Nelson, Ian Stephens, Fortner Anderson, Robert Allen, Douglas Isaac, ga press (Colin Christie and Corey Frost), Ian Ferrier, Steve Luxton, and Raymond Filip.
2022-09-23 Oral History Interview with Lee Gotham
Conducted by Faith Paré and Carlos A. Pittella, supervised by Jason Camlot.
Takedown Policy
While SpokenWeb made every effort to contact all individuals featured in the above recordings to request the rights to publish this material, we were not able to contact everyone. If you are a performer in this collection who wishes to request the removal of your performance from the online exhibition and Concordia Library Special Collections, please email spokenweb.archives@gmail.com and/or jason.camlot@concordia.ca with the name of the recording in question and your name. Sections of audio and video will be removed and replaced with a black screen with white text that reads "# minutes of video have been removed". SpokenWeb asserts no copyright of the works featured in the above recordings and all rights belong to their authors.
Supporting/open mic performances by Halina Berger and Susan Flemming.
1995-01-23 Neil Wiernik and Fortner Anderson
Supporting/open mic performances by Joelle Ciona, Fluffy Pagan Echoes (Victoria Stanton, Scott Duncan, Vincent Tinguely), Ian Stephens, Justin McGrail, and more.
Open mic performance by Steve "Liquid" Hawley.
Supporting/open mic performances by Raymond Filip, Colin Christie, Corey Frost, Endre Farkas, Sharon H. Nelson, Steve Luxton, Ian Ferrier, Sonja Skarstedt, and more.
1995-02-27 Sonja A. Skarstedt and Lynn Suderman
Supporting/open mic performances by Justin McGrail, Stephen Edgar, Sandra Jeppesen, Mitsiko Miller, Jacob Landesman, and more.
1995-03-06 Phineas Flower Trio and Steve Godin Part 2
Supporting/open mic performances by Mitsiko Miller and Justin McGrail.
1995-03-20 Fluffy Pagan Echoes
Supporting/open mic performances by Edith's Mission (Ibolya "Ibi" Kaslik and Amy Millan), Kate Alsterlund, Tom Chamberlain, and more.
1995-03-27 Endre Farkas and Suzanne Nuttall
No supporting or open mic performances.
Performances by Golda Fried, Sandra Jeppesen, and Chris Bell.
1995-05-01 Ian Stephens, Lynn Suderman, Ann Diamond, and Justin McGrail
No supporting or open mic performers.
1996-02-14 Lollapalooza Book Launch
Performances by Lee Gotham, Adeena Karasick and Jill Battson.
A compilation of performances by Trevor John Ferrier, Njacko Backo, Groupe de Poésie Moderne, Sonja A. Skarstedt, Lynn Suderman, Phineas Flower Trio, Steve Godin, and Adeena Karasick.
A compilation of performances by Adeena Karasick, Sam Shalabi, Lee Gotham, Groupe de Poesie Moderne, Trevor Ferrier, Lynn Suderman, Swifty Lazarus (Todd Swift and Tom Walsh), Njacko Backo, Ann Diamond, Ian Stephens, Dee Smith, bill bissett, and David Jager.