Students and community members gathered for a liberation-themed poetry and song night at Haven on Oct. 2.
As part of The Echo, a monthly open mic night organized by Carleton University’s Poetics Society, attendees and performers gathered to share new perspectives about Palestinian liberation. The event also featured a local art sale with proceeds donated to Palestinian organizations that help support civilians.
Omar Shaji, the vice-president finance for the Poetics Society and a Carleton English student, said the event’s primary initiative was to raise awareness and support Palestinians.
He said he hoped to “make a comfortable enough space for [Palestinian voices] to be heard.”
“This is a judgment free zone,” Shaji said. “We need spaces like this that help tie the community together to become more connected and comforting.”
Poets shared topics of cultural liberation, self-liberation, women’s liberation and gender liberation.
Carleton student performers along with two featured poets, Ellen Chang-Richardson and Chris Johnson, spoke about what liberation means to them, tackling issues of oppression and resistance through spoken word.
Some said liberation means freeing oneself from their own thoughts. Others said liberation is freedom from instruments of oppression. One participant said liberation comes following resistance.
For Bri Murphy, a performer and Carleton music student, liberation means “a mix of things.”
“There could be liberation in communities, cultures, race, but also in gender,” Murphy said.
She said liberation includes taking back power in different situations, “no matter what outside forces are being pushed against you.”
Murphy said her fellow performers excelled in raising questions and speaking out on the topic of resistance and liberation through their poetry.
“A lot of really great poetry artists here do a really great job of pushing that.”
Through their poetry and exploration of liberation, performers demonstrated the importance of art as a mechanism for activism.
Murphy pointed out that art isn’t just limited to poetry when spreading social messages. She used the example of fashion during the civil rights movement as an example of art pushing against societal norms.
Ellen Chang-Richardson, a featured poet and author who received the Vallum Award for poetry, highlighted how art is necessary for activism.
“Art has always been very closely linked with activism,” Chang-Richardson said. “Artists have always been the ones to highlight injustice and to talk about it, to force others to actually pay attention.”
Sameer Keldani, a performer and Carleton civil engineering student who co-ordinates events for the poetry society, said he believes “art helps activism come alive and be expressed.”
“Activism goes in the same context [as art]. It’s about expressing yourself, it’s about expressing the repressed,” Keldani said. “Issues [in Palestine] can be communicated through art.”
Keldani is one of many passionate faces at The Echo’s poetry nights. He said he has “gained a different perspective” from his peers’ words since attending the events, adding his “horizons have expanded.”.
“It’s the perfect atmosphere for so many people. It is a very inspiring and beautiful event.”
The Poetics Society’s next Echo poetry night will be held on Nov. 6 at Haven, with doors opening at 6 p.m.
Featured Image provided by Dylan Vinette.
