Urban Vancouver

World Poetry Her Story by Ariadne Sawyer

By worldpoetry on March 28, 2008 - 7:36pm

World Poetry Her Story

We began The World Poetry Café Reading Series; nine years ago at Miles of Beans Coffee shop in Burnaby, BC.
People often ask me “You do all this work for World Poetry-For Free?” in a voice that implied perhaps I have lost my mind.
Recently I have looked for the answers to this question. The two answers that I come up with are justice and vision.

1) Before we began the series, Alejandro had tried to find a venue to read in Vancouver where he would be allowed to read in Spanish and English. Everywhere he went, he had the door closed. One group, who charged per poem to read, would not even allow him to pay double so that the poem could be in two languages. Some venue hosts were really rude to him. They told him to go home and learn English. It is very hard for a survivor of torture to learn English since he experienced the loud background music of America Rock n Roll while he was tortured in Chile.

When we began the World Poetry Café Series, there were many ethnic communities but very little interaction and almost no exposure to the Canadian Public. Through the past nine years, we have encountered a lot of prejudice, both overt and invisible from many sources. We still experience prejudice but it is becoming less as we get better known. One person summed it up when he said in surprise: “I didn’t know that multicultural poets could be so professional.” “I replied we are the best!”

2) We had a vision of all the poets coming together, proud representatives of their culture and language in a place of honour, respect, support and peace. For Alejandro, his dream was to have the World Poetry Coffee Shop. I wanted to add a multicultural arts centre which would celebrate the differences and similarities. So far, despite business plans, and many meetings, this has not been able to happen due to funding problems. We still have the vision of creating a coffee shop and centre, and even of creating World Poetry centres all over the world.

If the entire planet followed the goals of honour, respect, support and peace-it would be a different world.

Through the years, I have seen the support and kindness that our World Poets have given each other and the world and I am very proud to have known each and every one of them.

One example of our World Poetry Family in action: William from Nigeria wrote an open letter of congratulation and thanks. He writes: Dear World Poet Family, A few months ago, I was ripped apart by a local critic in the newspaper. I sent an email to Ariadne’s program Creativity Rocks! She replied immediately and read my letter on the radio. Thank you for the suggestions. I use them everyday and they have become part of my life. To my great surprise I started getting emails from World Poets and writers from different countries including Canada. The World Poetry Lifetime Award Winner for 2004, David Campbell sent good advice and a beautiful signed poster which I have hung in a place of honour. This poster acts as a buffer for me and reminds me to not give my creativity away. Thank you, David, Ariadne and World Poets. I am now writing and painting again."

I would also like to thank you, World Poets,here in BC and around the world, participants, sponsors, supporters, Groups, friends, the stars of the nights-our cherished audience for making all this possible!
Together, we make a difference in the world.