Have you ever walked the Vegas Strip? Toured the halls of Buckingham Palace? Run with the bulls in Pamplona? From the exciting to the inspiring, share your travel tales during the official kick-off party of Sarnia’s 2011-2012 Spoken Word season, Friday, September 30 from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts, 127 Christina Street South.

Held in conjunction with the national Cultural Days celebration weekend, this FREE informal evening of storytelling, humour, and poetry reading by professional and amateur writers, poets and storytellers will also include an open mic and the spotlight of several new books. The line-up includes Small Treasurers (a collection of illustrated haiku by Sarnia’s award-winning writer and artist Peggy Fletcher), When I Put Out to Sea (a collection of short stories by local award-winning storyteller/journalist Hope Morritt), and grace notes (the first poetry chapbook by local elementary teacher Rhonda Melanson).

“We’re excited and looking forward to our 12th season,” said Spoken Word co-hosts and local writers Debbie Okun Hill (president, The Ontario Poetry Society) and Ryan Gibbs (English professor, Lambton College). “Each year we try to build on the success of the previous years. Several of our readers have been inspired by theme nights, so new optional themes have been compiled and scheduled. As always, we invite members of the public to share their own works, read the works of a favorite writer, or just sit back and enjoy this open mic on the last Friday of every month, except July, August, and December. No pre-registration required.”

Optional themes for the 2011-2012 season include

*Friday, September 30, 2011: Travel Tales from Around the World

*Friday, October 28, 2011: Exploring Graveyards: Bats, Rats, and Cats (Halloween costumes optional.)

*Friday, November 25, 2011: Unwrapping Holiday Gifts: Festive Stories, Music, and Poetry

*Friday, January 27, 2012: The Elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Ice

*Friday, February 24, 2012: A Writer’s Buffet: Sampling Foods through Words

*Friday, March 30, 2012: Exploring Characters through Hats (Bring a favorite hat.)

*Friday, April 27, 2012: Earth Day: A Greener Shade of Grass

*Friday, May 25, 2012: It’s a Mystery: Tales of Secrets and Sleuths

*Friday, June 29, 2012: Fairy Tales and Happy Endings

Spoken Word was first introduced by veteran writers and WIT members Peggy Fletcher and Hope Morritt and later hosted by Susan Chamberlain (of The Book Keeper), Ena Forbes (a storyteller and past president of Sarnia Toastmasters) and Lois Nantais (a local poet and adjunct professor of social science at Lambton College). Okun Hill has co-hosted the event for the past six years while Gibbs starts his fifth season.

For further information about Sarnia’s Spoken Word, e-mail spoken-w@hotmail.com or call (519) 869-2749, or stop by the WIT table (organized by Nantais) where pamphlets can be picked up and books by local authors are displayed and sold on First Fridays at the Lawrence House.

Last year, thousands of individual artists, groups and organizations in every province and territory in Canada registered more than 3 500 free arts and culture activities for “Culture Days 2010” the nation’s largest free weekend-long arts and culture celebration. This year the event will return Friday, September 30 to Sunday, October 2.  For further information about Culture Days, check their website www.culturedays.ca .