Events/Readings/News

 Pivotal Words

Part of the umbrella event, the 2020 Pivot Festival, Pivotal Words is a showcase of writing hosted and curated by Susanne Hingley and Jacob Zimmer at the North of Ordinary Experience Centre, in partnership with Brave New Words.
This event provides a platform for a selection of Whitehorse’s finest writers to share their works-in-progress in public.

Feature Presenters:
Elisabeth Weigand, Siku Allooloo, Doug Rutherford and JoannaLilly.

Work presented by Elisabeth Weigand

Tomorrow does not exist

We came from a land of plenty.

And arrived in the land of a million amazement. A million different shades, sounds and scents, a million different landscapes, and people as diverse as the petals of a flower.
A million obtainable opportunities.

We started a transplanted life. With fresh and sometimes unfamiliar nutrition that made us flourish and bloom.

In unpolluted ground, and where the sky is still open, we grew strong and erect. Our feet rooted solidly in northern soil, with shoulders straight and the faces turned to the sun.

A million different days await, to be filled with strive and expansion.
Blossoming to our full potential.

And when the time comes, not soon, but without doubt, and the petals fall, they fall on this land. Knowledge that gives me piece today.

Tomorrow does not exist. Yet.

Frankfurt/Germany October 2019

Elisabeth’s text inspired the following piece of visual art by Leslie Leong

Circumpolar Duet

The exhibition features 20 visual and 20 literary works ranging from poems and stories to paintings, ceramics, fabrics and photography.

All artists started off by creating an artwork in response to the theme of ‘Singular/Plurality’.

Each of those 20 artworks was then given to a writer or artist who created a second piece in response, resulting in 20 visual artworks and 20 poetry or prose pieces.

The visual artists taking part in the project are Nicole Bauberger, Marten Berkman, Heidi Hehn, Jackie Irvine, Astrid Kruse, Françoise La Roche, Leslie Leong, Lillian Loponen, Joyce Majiski and Martha Jane Ritchie.

The participating literary artists are Ellen Bielawski, Corinna Cook, Lily Gontard, Jamella Hagen, Susanne Hingley, Ruth Lera, Joanna Lilley, Kirsten Madsen, Laurel Parry and Elisabeth Weigand.

Work by Elisabeth Weigand

Coming to Canada

 Half an hour into this tour, as into any other tour I was guiding, the question came up.
“And what brought you to this country?”

My immediate response is mixed with a touch of annoyance. Well, how could I not have come? Look around? Isn’t that why you came?
Only I stayed.
26 years ago.

Clearly do I remember that day.
First time in Canada.
Opeongo Lake in Algonquin Park.
Paddling.

Enchanted to the very bone, I was thinking: “Wow, that is like a Lassie Movie and I am right in it. This is where I want to live.”

I had been traveling the world. Extensively. Any time possible I flew away, seeing foreign places, different people, exotic cultures. Searching, and not knowing what for.

Then came Canada.

The revelation hit me with such determined force it was nearly physical. A desire not new, but already planted inside me. Waiting to be discovered.

I wasn’t finding this place; I was reclaiming it from within the deepest corners of my soul.
I was not coming to Canada, I was returning. I was actually coming home.

 Among so many countries, so many cultures, landscapes and climates, I chose this.

This single one.

Shallow Bay/Yukon, May 2019