Speak Up: Inspire Change:
A Collection of Poems from Saskatchewan’s Global Citizens The poetry in this book is an outcome of several evolving projects. Included in this collection are entries by Saskatchewan people from the 2015 Speak Up, Inspire Change poetry competition. The competition was a part of LookDeeper, an education and awareness campaign by SCIC where four winning poems were recorded and aired across Saskatchewan radio. You can explore all of the poetry entries from across the province, and you can even listen along to the winning poems on the LookDeeper website or SoundCloud. Also included in this book are poems written by high school students in the Mindful Creative Writing Class at Sheldon Collegiate in Regina, Saskatchewan, through an inspiring spin-off project that was made possible by a collaboration between Kyla Wendell McIntyre – a teacher at Sheldon Collegiate – and Cat Abenstein – spoken word artist, and one of the winning poets from the Speak Up Inspire Change competition. Contact us to get your copy! See below for pickup locations in Regina and Saskatoon. First copy is free of charge, and additional copies are available by donation ($15 suggested) made payable to SCIC.
Pickup Locations:
REGINA
SCIC Office 2138 McIntyre Street Regina, SK Treaty 4 Territory S4P 2R7Ph: 306.757.4669
SASKATOON
Turning the Tide Bookstore 615 Main Street Saskatoon, SK Treaty 6 Territory S7H 0J8Ph: 306.955.3070
Listen Along to the Winning Poems:
About the Speak Up Inspire Change poetry Competition The Speak Up, Inspire Change poetry competition accepted poems, prose poems, and spoken word art exploring root causes of global issues such as hunger, health, education, and conflict, and inspiring others to look deeper at our roles as global citizens. Finalists’ poems were then recorded as poetic radio ads which aired across the province in 2016 and 2017. Visit LookDeeper.ca to listen to the winning poems, and hear to a two-part interview from CBC Radio with Cat Abenstein, one of the winning artists, and the creative team behind the creative radio spots. About the Sheldon Collegiate Mindful Creative Writing Class The Mindful Creative Writing class at Sheldon Collegiate in Regina brings students from different cultures, religions, languages, and literacy levels together. This class has grown out of the inspiration, connections, and collaborations that occurred through SCIC’s LookDeeper campaign. The course teacher, Kyla Wendell McIntyre, and the spoken word artist, Cat Abenstein, met during the LookDeeper poetry workshop for contest finalists. Through this meeting, Cat and Kyla realized their shared passion for helping youth express their voices and perspectives through poetry. In the Spring of 2016, Cat began working in Kyla’s classroom weekly at Sheldon, supporting students to both write and perform their poetry for an annual event at Sheldon called “Let’s Talk Culture.” Building upon these successes, Kyla was able to create a Mindful Creative Writing course incorporating students from last year’s group as well as some new students. Each day our classroom is a hubbub of creative sharing combined with compassionate listening. Every morning, the students in this class do a short mindfulness and gratitude practice. This helps create a unified and centered mindset, allowing students to explore their varying perspectives and stories of experience. Through this process, students discover their own voices while respecting the voices of their peers. The LookDeeper campaign encourages us to look deeper into the challenges of our world – together in class, we explore these issues as well as ourselves. Despite all the differences present in our class, we have certainly learned more about what connects us all rather than what divides us.