Coming up on May 27, 2025, I’m excited to welcome the youth poets of the 2025 Voices for Change program to the stage at The Handsome Daughter to share their poem, FIGHT FOR HOME with the Winnipeg Poetry Slam community.
Back in the fall, I stepped into my role as facilitator for the 10th time (!) to work with high school students to create a poem which would be professionally filmed, then later launched online and performed live for an audience at the Legislature as part of International Development Week. This year’s project was significant, however, as the topic of displacement carried a particular weight for the participants who each carried their own lived experience.
In a special partnership between the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation and the Resilia Community Wellness Centre (formerly Aurora Family Therapy Centre), I met Indigenous students Merek and Linnaya, as well as Ali and Tetiana, who were refugees from Syria and Ukraine, respectively. The group were a part of a youth leadership program at the wellness centre, and each certainly had something to say on belonging and security, whether within Canada, or from abroad.
Considering how Merek and Linnaya are both preparing to graduate into our society and inherit the living history of colonialism impacting all treaty relations, and how Tetiana and Ali had experience with displacement caused by violence in their home countries with literal physical and emotional scars to show for it, I definitely grew in my capacity to support others in expressing themselves. With extra guidance from MCIC’s education specialist and Resilia’s youth program facilitator, we navigated difficult subjects and emotions, and created what was clearly the realest poem to ever come of this program.
With that being the case, I’m proud of our work and must acknowledge the courage that everyone showed in stepping up to share these truths which so tragically affect the young and innocent. But also, the resilience, hope, and grace they carry towards the future.
Before you come see them in person, check out the video!
Steve Locke 