The Western Front, Canada’s longest running artist-run centre, recently hosted a public screening of two dozen or so films from their archive of readings by poets from the 197s, 8s and 9s, including Anne Waldman, Roy Kiyooka, Warren Tallman, Peter Culley, Dorothy Livesay, Jeff Derksen, Lisa Robertson, Susan Musgrave, Jamie Reid—an amazing document of performances: some brilliant, some ridiculous. In one film bpNichol and Steve McCaffery performed wordless sound poetry: howling, humming, screeching, ululating, modified by covering their mouths and noses, beating each other on the back. The films were screened in the same room where the poets had performed and were taped all those years ago. On film, Fred Wah read from Pictographs from the Interior of BC, puffing on his cigarette; the memory of smoke lingered in the room that night (perhaps a memory trick, perhaps the carpeted floor). The readings were short, only a few minutes, and after each clip that night the audience would raise their hands to clap, and then, presumably remembering that we were watching poets on film, rather than live poets, would lower their hands; faint sounds of applause emanated from the recordings. Some of the readings can now be seen on the Western Front website: front.bc.ca.