Voices
Voices is an ongoing series where we ask arts workers in Winnipeg to reflect on the impact of the arts in their lives.
In 2024 Voices features essays commissioned by guest editors. The fall series features essays edited by katherena vermette (she/her/hers), a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the spring series was edited by Jennifer Still, an award-winning Winnipeg poet exploring intersections of language and aesthetics.
-
From the editor, katherena vermette
I can’t think of anything better than savouring delicious writing like this. I have really enjoyed the slow curation of bringing KC, Jason, and Arlea together.
-
My Journey to Relational Making
Such a pleasure to meet you. Come sit on the grass next to me while I make a clay vessel.
-
Fieldnotes, frags
“Alexander Byvshev, a Russian Poet who criticized his country’s invasion of Ukraine in a four-line poem has been sentenced to seven years jail.” NDTV WORLD, 22 Mar., 2024
-
‘Dining Room’
My first foray into the artistic world was at the tender age of two. I created a mural on the ‘dining room’ wall of our house. I say ‘dining room’ because in actuality it was a bedroom with a dining set crammed in it.
-
From the editor, Jennifer Still
A short reflection on writing by Brandi Bird, Hannah Green, Rhayne Vermette, and Clarise Foster.
-
Critical Incident Report
Critical Incident Report: Confidential
Known circumstances of death/serious injury:The client has an opportunity to go into Independent Living. Independent Living is a program that places foster children in their own apartments. It is care without care.
-
LONELIEST GIRL YOU’LL NEVER MEET
So much of who I have become as a person and as a writer stems from a connection to community in Winnipeg. I was a lonely child and I have carried that adjective into adulthood.
-
Dear Manners,
I am writing you today, live from Montréal, on a break from “school” (a film producer incubator). And by “break” I mean, skipping school to watch a movie this afternoon.
-
Winnipeg’s Challenge To Me
I can honestly quote Dickens here and say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
-
Transformations
I first saw Winnipeg as a soft light reflected on low clouds from our farm near Selkirk. I had closer glimpses when I was seven and our family began travelling through at holidays taking my older sister back and forth to her school in Portage la Prairie
-
-
The Lights of my City
I carry an image in my memory of a place that is real but does not exist. This cave is, of course, within me. When I speak or write about it my hands go to my chest and stomach, so I think that’s where it lives.
-
