1/How did this project come about? Why that word, stanza?
At a conference I met an architect, Mark Proosten, who is engaged with critical literary theory and community building. We saw connecting points within our disciplines and with Thursdays Writing Collective, the program I lead with writers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In the DTES issues around space, place, sites, perspective and proportion are frequently spoken of from the developers’ or planners’ points of view. Our project became one of critiquing and commenting on textual and physical spaces. The title? “Stanza” means both a section of verse in poetry and “room” in Italian.
2/In your introductory essay, you touch on many themes, including, of course, space, culture, language, identity, belonging, exclusion: any comments?
Access is the key word. All the words you list are linked in my mind to access. Access to health care, education, housing, clean drinking water. Also possibility, self-determination, creativity.
3/Who is involved in the Stanza Project and why?
Thursdays Writing Collective is a group of approximately 150 writers from varied backgrounds, identities and cultures; at each weekly meeting there are about 20 of us writing in the room at Carnegie Community Centre together. During the last year we held three public social writing events (one as part of the Heart of the City Festival (http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/) and two at UBC’s Liu Institute (http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/LobbyGallery.htm). We invited participants to contribute their writing to an archive of the event, so it became an open project.
We wrote on/in/about diverse texts, pictures, diagrams and blueprints from across disciplines and history – we call this “wordsquatting”. We move into a text, renovate it by shifting meaning, insert ourselves. We sent these texts to Mark Proosten, who lives in the Netherlands, and he responded by drafting new texts and designs based on our work. The cycle continued, looping back and forth.
4/What’s that lovely evocative title all about?
(I answer this in #1)
5/What was the hardest thing about working on this project?
The more we discovered, the more curious we became. Hindsight being 20-20, there are so many texts I have come across that would be interesting to work with.
6/what did you love most about it?
The limitlessness of creativity. Sparking off each other. We achieved so much in this year of investigation! It was beautiful when Mark met the writers at the launch. It was very moving for all of us to come face to face in conversation after being so deeply attentive to each other’s work on the page.
7/I’m using the past tense, but does the project continue?
I think it does, as long as people read and respond to The Stanza Project. I think we are all rocked by the implications of challenging space textually.
8/Some poet folks say, “poetry is not a project!” – your response?
Poetry is a tool, form, vehicle, message, lifeline. A political act. Anything can be a project. Not everything can be poetry.
9/What is your most urgent desire for this project and what do you want the world to know about it?
Of the six we have made I think it is our sharpest, finest publication. Doris Cheung, (http://www.dorischeungartmedia.com/ who designed it, really engaged in the process of representing the texts.
Because we published it ourselves we don’t have a distribution deal. The Stanza Project is for sale in three local Vancouver bookstores (People’s Coop, http://www.peoplescoopbookstore.com/ The Paper Hound http://paperhound.tumblr.com/ and Pulp Fiction http://pulpfictionbooksvancouver.com/). We hand-sell it, too, but the book needs to get out to the wider world. I would love someone to distribute the book. Until then, we rely on radical acts of community building – such as you making space for the project here online.
10/Your calling to community. Since arriving in B.C., you’ve aligned yourself with community. What does this word mean to you?
Alignment: allying with, representing, supporting, recognizing.
I don’t speak for the DTES community (or –ities) or pretend to know much, but the people I write and interact with are very precious to me. The energy and cleverness in DTES websites, pamphlets, arts initiatives, political meetings, social gatherings, etc., is electric. And hopeful. And this is contagious in all the best ways.
Community: help, support, resources, encouragement, a place to turn, a way to engage, representing, understanding; without you I am nothing.
thecanada?project 