Lizzie Violet’s Cabaret Noir marked it’s second year as one of TO’s most eclectic evenings out with a diverse set of dynamic features playing to a packed house. The show started with a flurry of open stagers: Brenda Clews flashed us; Cate McKim let us feel her love; Shawn Nolan (new to Noir) shared his dirty business; TOpoet.ca swore up a storm.

blue sky

First feature was Komi Olaf (http://komiolaf.com/about/) – another Nigerian (Nnedi Okorafor at the Colloquium http://wp.me/p1RtxU-173  was also Nigerian) writer. His pieces popped with alliteration & rhyme: ‘busy buzzing beneath the hive,’ ‘masters masquerading,’ ‘countless dictators trying to dictate the vote count.’ Some pieces were rich in the colors of the jungle, others with sweet romanticism ‘our love rises before the dawn.’ Political without being didactic, romantic without being overly-sweet his set was nicely paced and by the end we knew ‘the language of…