By Micheline Shoebridge
This past spring, the staff at York Street Public School contacted MASC, a local arts charity, as they noticed that the children were struggling to deal with the news about police brutality and racism both in the United States and here at home. Not having the normal in-person school and community support programs and structures due to COVID, the staff wanted to offer an opportunity for the youth to discuss the issues and express their emotions. An online collective spoken word poetry program was developed and a group of Lowerton youth, ranging in age from 8 to 12, worked with former Ottawa English Poet Laureate Jamaal Jackson Rogers to learn the art of spoken word poetry as a means of powerful expression.
When Jamaal first met the participants online, many of whom he had worked with before, he noticed that “they were feeling hurt, they were feeling forgotten, they were feeling that their community wasn’t being cared for or listened to. I was surprised that these young people had so much introspection for their age and how they were in tune with what is going on.” The participants met with Jamaal and representatives from the school online every week to discuss, learn about poetry and to write.
“My writing style is often; how do we look at something that is considered tragedy and turn it into triumph?” The workshops allowed for the youth to release their emotions and share their concerns and then the students were encouraged to look for solutions using writing prompts such as: “What can you give back?”, “What does hope look like?” and “What do I see outside and what do I feel inside”.
The result is a moving poem, collectively written by 21 York St. PS students, called Give Hope and included powerful prose such as:
“When you wake up
to embrace a new day as if the world was a challenge
you were preparing for infinite nights before
don’t forget
to give hope
Like oxygen is to air
hope is all around you and wants nothing more than to be shared
so Give hope
like the friendship that flows freely like water in a valley
hope is a kind of peace that can be seen…”
Randy Kelly, a local director and editor, volunteered to create a cinepoem (spoken word poetry video) to help amplify the participants’ voices. While the MASC Awesome Arts program has created almost a hundred videos over the past 10 years of programming in Lowertown, this is the first video that doesn’t feature the participants. Due to COVID restrictions last spring, it wasn’t possible to gather the youth together and so, Jamaal recorded the poem and video with Randy. Edited together with images of Lowertown the video represents the Lowertown youth who put pen to paper and participated in the program.
The cinepoem Give Hope caught the attention of many, including CBC Radio. Jamaal was interviewed on the program Ottawa Morning by Robyn Bresnahan and it was featured as the Video of the Week on Apt613. The cinepoem has over 700 views on MASC’s Youtube channel.
“We believe strongly in the power of the arts to engage a community and are proud of our multi-year relationship with the Lowertown community. We believe our many projects have helped build a strong community and foster positive change in this richly diverse community.” said Micheline Shoebridge, Co-Executive Director of MASC. “MASC will be offering numerous programs for seniors and youth in Lowertown in the 2020-21 school year with our key partners at Lowertown Community Resource Centre, York Street Public School, Ottawa Community Housing, Ottawa West Community Resource Centre and Centre de services Guigues. The Give Hope project was funded in part by the French Family Foundation.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, MASC is a charitable organization that provides schools and communities with experiences of artistic excellence that awaken the creative process, deepen awareness,encourage understanding and give vivid demonstration of Canada’s diversity. Over the past 10 years, MASC has offered more than 1250 workshops to over 2300 Lowertown residents, creating murals, songs, dance choreographies, poems and more. Participants have created many legacy projects including 90 videos, 11 murals and four art installations.
For more information, please contact: Micheline Shoebridge
michelineshoebridge@masconline.ca 613-725-9119; 819 210 9766