Cheers, Creative Enthusiasts,
Happy Friday! A new globally-minded friend of mine recently brought this video to my attention. It is an amazing spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan. (<—— link to his page here, or also there will be some information below on Shane for those who would like to know more about this award winning, Canadian poet, author and performer). This video blew my mind when I first saw it, and I hope to watch it many more times to help keep me inspired, remembering all of the beauty that surrounds us everyday, and how we need to protect it. It is splendidly executed in my opinion and I love the artful way it tells an important and epic story. Very impressed. I love the illustration style as well.
“There will be no other thing as worth saving as this. Nothing more important, nothing as precious. This is home.”
Watch, share, and consider learning more about the #bluedot movement – supporting the right for Canadians to live in a healthy environment.
Everything he said was so true: we are Atlas, together we can make a difference. We have to be like the seed, not knowing the end result but doing it anyway. Many of us may not live to see the change, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get started right now. We NEED to start implementing better systems, cleaner ways of doing things.
Like Shane said, “Don’t f*ck with the bees.”
Even our oceans are in trouble.
Now for the information on Shane Koyczan:
I don’t know how many of you know about Shane Koyczan. For those who don’t know, Shane is a brilliant and profound spoken word poet. He became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the National Poetry Slam in 2005. Shane has published three books – poetry collection Visiting Hours, Stickboy, a novel in verse, and Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty most recently in 2012. Visiting Hours was selected by both the Guardian and Globe and Mail for their 2005 Best Books of the Year lists. Shane’s “We Are More” and Ivan Bielinski’s “La première foie”, commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission, were unveiled at Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 1, 2007. He performed a variation on his piece at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In 2012, Shane Koyczan released a full-length digital album entitled “Remembrance Year”, which “tackles abuse with courage and displacement with inspiration.” In February 2013, Koyczan released an animated video of his spoken word poem “To This Day” on YouTube and at the TED Conference. The poem focused on the subject of bullying that he and others had received during their life and its lasting effects. “To This Day” went viral shortly after its release, with the video receiving over 13.9 million views as of August 2014. If you haven’t seen it, consider taking a look.
To your creative endeavors!
Onward and upward.
Cathy Broadwell
Giant Leaps Creative LLC