Last year for Volunteer Appreciation Week, the City of Yorkton invited citizens to express their thoughts on a special web page.
This year the City commissioned Regina poet Shayna Stock to turn the comments into a “found poem.”
Stock was in Yorkton Sunday and Monday to present the poem to Council and conduct some creative writing workshops. On Sunday she facilitated a diverse group of registrants at the Yorkton Public Library.
On Monday, she visited English classes at both High Schools before performing the commissioned poem entitled “Thank You for Your Enthusiasm” at the regular meeting of Council.
“It was wonderful,” said Councillor Randy Goulden, adding she felt it really captured the essence of volunteerism in Yorkton.
Stock, who bills herself as a “performance poet, facilitator and community builder,” came to Saskatchewan in 2007 for a job at Briarpatch Magazine where she stayed for four-and-a-half years.
She said she has always been a wordsmith, but it was performance poetry that put her on the path to where she is now.
“Poetry has always been how I best express myself,” she explained. “Since I was a kid I’ve always been a writer, usually just in my journals for myself, but I guess about eight years ago I was living in Toronto and discovered spoken word and poetry slams.
“I think I had never experienced something that could be so simple and so powerful at the same time. It was one person with a microphone and a story and that was it, the creative combinations of words that can evoke some really powerful emotions and realizations.
After moving, she missed the Toronto scene, so she started one in Regina. She believes poetry and spoken word is a growing concern.
“People are coming out to poetry slams more and more and there’s continuously new scenes popping up that have great attendances so that seems to me to be proof that people find poetry extremely relevant if it is presented in a way that’s exciting to them and talking about issues that are relevant to their own lives
After Briarpatch, Stock spent six months as an “Animateur” with Sask Culture. These cultural ambassadors from various artistic disciplines travel the province bringing their art to life. That is where Stock developed her skill for facilitating and has carried it forward under her own banner.
“I have the perspective that poetry is around us all the time,” she said. “I think in our culture we often think of poetry as something that’s in hardcover books that sit on the top shelf or if it is performed live it’s in small intimate settings and what spoken word has taught me is it can be, and is more exciting if it is a dialogue between audience and performers so a lot of my work is inspired by people around me and what kind of conversation can I create with the people who have been listening to it?”
Her hope is that people come away from her workshops “realizing that poetry can be fun and that everyone can be a poet if they want to be.
“It’s an accessible art form and an exciting way explore you own identity and to share your stories with other people.
