Spoken Word Café dazzles with diverse readings and dance
by Janet Creery
Readers from all eight Ottawa-based WCC workshops celebrated their work in a virtual Spoken Word Café on September 21, which included 50 attendees and a dance performance.
Westwind Evening, who is a facilitator from the Odawa Native Friendship Centre group, kicked off the evening with a powerful childhood story. A playful piece with a surprise ending, written by Dolly R of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour group at the Centretown Community Health Centre, concluded it.
“Above all, I enjoyed the variety of organizations involved,” said Vincent, whose French-language piece inspired a dance performance by Jasmine van Schouwen.
MCs Basil Chiu and Kegan Chang kept the event flowing smoothly, reading the many positive comments received during the live event.
“I was grateful for the opportunity to share my written work with a wider audience,” said Maria Habanikova, a WCC facilitator who read a beautiful piece about time spent in the woods with her grandmother.
“Thank you for the opportunity to take part in the first WCC Ottawa Spoken Word Cafe event! It delivered as promised: a celebration of words and writing that gave guests a wonderful sense of the diverse, passionate, brave, exploratory writing and listening that the WCC is known for,” said Maria Ford, also a WCC facilitator. “The quality of the production was exceptional — the event was a wonderful way to spend an evening. Thank you!”
Pride for Peel
by Steve Elliot
Our Peel Chapter continues to be very active. Our partnership with Friends and Advocates is one of the longest partnerships. After a successful summer session, the group has returned for another 10-week set of workshops. We look forward to continuing the partnership. Thanks to Nadine, who is running the workshops.
We are looking forward to resuming our sessions with the Visual Arts Mississauga (VAM). It is looking like early 2022 will be the timing that will work for both groups. Recognition to Kaitlyn and Vibha who did a wonderful job facilitating the sessions and are excited to resume. This workshop is unique as it features local artists’ work as the prompts for the writing.
Special recognition to Nancy, who has completed the workshops with Mind Forward, and has now joined the Thursday afternoon write sessions. Thanks, Nancy, for stepping in and keeping this open workshop running. I would like to thank Areeba and Chadia who are facilitating Monday evenings. Both are open workshops, and they welcome any and all of our community to attend.
Upcoming we have plans under way to offer an exciting workshop for the South Asian population. Ranak and others are busy preparing. Once details are finalized, we will announce this wonderful bilingual workshop.
We would like to thank the wonderful facilitators that make the Peel sessions possible. Without their creative prompts, their ability to listen and recognize the deep transformative writing, our workshops would not be as dynamic!