Pivot – the new dance craze sweeping Toronto’s lit scene

Hello and welcome to the digital home of Toronto’s newest poetry and fiction reading series. Born from the still-smoking ashes of the I.V. Lounge Reading Series, Pivot will maintain the same twice-monthly format with a few important changes.

When the I.V. Lounge closed its doors at the end of August (*sniff*), the series was left without a home. We have moved west down Dundas to the Press Club, located in an East Berlin-style, up-and-coming strip at 850 Dundas Street West, just three short blocks west of Bathurst on the north side of the street. We are very excited about the new location with its warm, art-filled space and great drink menu served with style by owners Mikael and Andrew Hickey. The bar also features a back patio for outdoor readings on warm summer nights.

The series was also left without a name, now that the I.V. is no longer. After Scrabbling through the dictionary for a name that incorporated the letters “iv”, we landed on Pivot at the Press Club. It’s active, it’s alliterative, it’s a little bit strange. We hope you like its dance-craze connotations, but we won’t be offended if you refer to the new series as “the new I.V.” or some such. The Skydome will always be the Skydome.

There’s also a new host for the series. After five years of donating his time to booking guests, handling publicity and hosting the events, Alex Boyd has decided to pass the torch to a new, virtually unknown aspiring poet, one Carey Toane. What was he thinking? You’ll have to come out to the launch to find out. More on that soon.

For now, all that’s left to do is give thanks to Alex Boyd, who has been sharing all his magic tricks and supporting the transition to the new series, and to series founder Paul Vermeersch, without whom there would have been no I.V. Lounge Reading Series to reincarnate. The new series will stick to the format they established: three readers a night reading poetry or fiction, with a mix of established and emerging talents. I sincerely hope the new series will also inherit some of what Alex referred to as the “oasis” atmosphere of its predecessor – a place for people to share and listen to great writing and support the writers, poets, publishers and, oh yes, book-buying audience that make up our community. Looking forward to it.