Chapter 2: Words
Poetry to heal the world
On June 27th, we hosted The Art of Change, Chapter 2: Words at Patagonia Vancouver. We built on the success of our first-ever event in February, Chapter One: Sounds, to explore how poetry, spoken word, and creative writing could help us connect to climate action and our communities.
The event started with a beautiful land acknowledgement from Elder Mary Point. The event featured four poets from Vancouver Poetry House—Johnny MacRae, Tawahum Bige, Lindi Nolte, and Johnny D Trinh, who spoke about climate, home, nature, and political resistance. ASL interpretation of the poetry was available at the event, provided by Still Interpreting.
Read the full event report PDF here.
photos courtesy Danielle Campani
Our community poems
We envisioned a community event to explore what it means to navigate complex times through poetry and words. Our goal was to create a space for people to come together in community, become inspired, and feel empowered to express themselves in community. We wanted audience members to participate in a collective poetry workshop, and we worked with Vancouver Poetry House to design a facilitated activity where participants, in small groups, were asked to respond to a line provided by a poet facilitator. Here they are:
the mythical glacier lives only on labels
The world that is there without you
They say it exists only after you’ve written it down, but a piece of paper is not alive.
It grows and expands through cracks in ice, cool to the touch in my imagination
But if you go to the streams now
they’re polluted with the greed of what the myths soldLong black veil flows to a place of the thinnest veil where we connect with spirit
The truths I knew contained in cultural memory
The extinct polar bear loved drinking coca cola while tigers shout “It’s great” within cagesinitial prompt courtesy Johnny MacRae
She whispered, do you see it?
How could you? Like breath on a frozen day? She smirks, I feel it
Do you see the water crowding up around my bare feet in spaces that were once ruled by green
do you see your face in the sky? I do.
My son, 16 months old, has taught himself to sign “more”
Stop fucking breaking huckleberry branches to get to the berries!!!
To see true beauty is to reset
initial prompt courtesy Tawahum Bige
and if I die with dreams unfulfilled at least I will know on some blessed mornings of my life small birds with full bellies sang at my window
There is magic in the way the ocean waves kiss the shore I stand with the trees and know I’m not alone anymore
I’ve been twisted alive by time, and only love’s nonsense will untangle me
the sea, the forest, holding what I can no longer carry on my human shoulders what can I provide in repayment?
if I die with dreams unfulfilled, at least I will know that the wave was woven with vibrant exuberance
at least I will have shared countless meals with friends that resemble family around a table with mismatched chairs that resemble being in our 20s at least my friends will know how deeply I love them
and if I die with dreams unfulfilled the beat of comparison’s drum will be silenced as I arrive in peace with the realization that the journey itself is my home
and if I die with dreams unfulfilled at least I will know on some random Thursday in a Patagonia I sat with strangers who poured themselves onto paper and gave me their words to voice what else in life is there to rejoice.
initial prompt courtesy Lindi Nolte
Our community engagement process
Our goal was to embed community building in every aspect of our event. Here’s how we tried to achieve this:
- ensure that event presenters and artists represent local diversity and experiences
- increase accessibility to event through no-cost attendance, an accessible venue, and ASL interpretation
- designed a participative writing workshop
- call-out to local leaders and community for volunteers
- provided artists and volunteers with shared community meal before the event
Final reflection
Our second event in the series brought new challenges as well as exciting opportunities to partner with more community organizations than before!
From our exit survey, we received valuable feedback from participants for better timekeeping and to prioritize more time for the workshop. And we learned from our past event too: this time we better supported our volunteers by onboarding before the event, and had a much better room layout.
We are so grateful to our participants, to our volunteers, to our sponsors, and to our friends and family for making this event possible.
With love,
Victor (on behalf of everyone at Sword Fern Collective)
Made possible with support from The Youth Harbour, Patagonia Kitsilano, and Vancouver Opera.
Special thanks to Vancouver Poetry House, Reusables, Still Interpreting, Danielle Campani Photography, Sayemin, Dasha, Noel, Mackenzie, Geo, Khushi, and Estelle.