Recording of memories and stories
James Reaney Memorial Lecture: Snapshots of Jamie with Jeff Culbert – 19 October 2024
Hosted by Words Artistic Director Josh Lambier.
In conversation with Jeff Culbert and Josh Lambier of Words Fest
This Lecture celebrates the legacy of London poet and playwright James Crerar (Jamie) Reaney (1926-2008) and his late wife, the poet Colleen Thibaudeau. Jamie Reaney was friends with Jeff Culbert, a connection that began in the 1980s.
With Josh as tour guide, Jeff recalls his roles in the Reaney creative process and will be performing selected readings and songs on this journey.
James Crerar (Jamie) Reaney Biography (1926-2008) – link
Jeff Culbert grew up just outside of London in Lucan Ontario, which had gained widespread infamy because of the Donnelly murders of 1880. He went to Medway High School, and after graduating from Western with a physics degree, taught for two years in Lesotho, in southern Africa and one more in Woodstock Ontario.
He then went back to Western for a graduate degree in philosophy, and got involved in the campus/community radio station, where he hosted a music program as a DJ and produced an environmental radio show called Greenwaves. That led to another graduate degree, this one in Environmental Studies at York University, and then back to London to run as the first Green Party candidate in southwestern Ontario in the 1993 federal election.
Around 1995, he started to take theatre seriously, and he has worked as a professional actor, director, playwright and producer ever since. He has worked all across Canada, and also in the US and in Ireland. His next project will be acting in The Sound of Music at the Grand.
Shared by Mary Simpson, Jan 2, 2025