Some of my friends and I with in the Art of Hosting community create poems from our work as a kind of harvest, a way of listening to the voices shared in a circle and reflecting back to the group, it’s wholeness using the words of those in the room. The poems are written on the spot and read into the room, slam style. Such poems evoke energy, and honour the whole. We call these “dialogue poems.” Here is the one from yesterday’s check in in Montreal with our core hosting team… Hosting team Check in poem Where did you …
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Over the past 15 years First Nations artists in Canada have taken to hip hop as a powerful storytelling method. First Nations hip hop is an incredible blend of traditional art forms, evocative imagery and raw and real exerpience relayed with a beat. It’s as if hip hop was built for indigenous expression – being story based, status informed, poetic and underscored with a heartbeat. I have a bunch of friends in this field including Skeena Reece, Jerrilynn Webster, Manik1derful, Rachel Oki, Wasaskwun Wuttunee and others. Beat Nation was an exhibition of indigenous hip hop artists that closed in …
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A poem by Mario Benedetti read in the check in our second day of learning here in Baltimore. Tactic and Strategy My tactic is Looking at you, Learning how you are, Loving you as you are, My tactic is Talking to you And listening to you To build with words An indestructible bridge My tactic is Remaining in your memories I don’t know how Nor with which pretext But remaining with you. My tactic is Being frank, And knowing that you are frank, And not selling each other Simulations So that between us There is no curtain Nor abyss. My …
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An incredible trip to Ireland and England with my dad, and yesterday I have returned home. We were in The Burren in Co. Clare for an Art of Hosting and then my dad and I drove to Armagh to see the house his great grandfather was born in. Along the way we met some distant cousins, found the graves of our ancestors and drove through the landscape of our history. Afterwards we went to Engalnd and stayed with friends in Hertfordshire where we lived 30 years ago. Met up with some old school mates, saw Spurs play a dreadful draw …
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A poem from my travels this week in Calgary What we were trying not to see Behind us a cloud rimmed By the electric light of a prairie spring’s Sharp sunset casts a glow On the towers downtown. In that moment of reflection A small truck carrying a small boat Bolts over the Louise Bridge Takes a hard right on Memorial Drive And stops by the new sculpture Full of quotes about war and loss. “they’ve been pulling bodies from the Bow” My companion says and I peer into What little I can see of the churning Waters below, wondering …