As Poiema Gals, we have been working together as a group since 2008, though we weren’t calling ourselves Poiema until 2009.  And although we consider ourselves to be a company in most senses of the word, we have not yet incorporated.

Now in our 5th year of operation, we have decided to look into becoming a society.  Lucky for us, Edmonton has fostered a lovely inter-disciplinary arts community that is interested in the success of everyone!  Edmonton artists want everyone to succeed, realizing that we aren’t competing against each other for audiences or popularity, but that the more successful someone else’s company is, the more people will continue coming out to community arts events.

So as we begin to embark on our incorporating journey, we were blessed to have Ainsley Hillyard of Good Women Dance Collective join us this past Tuesday evening at Remedy Café.  She generously shared her successes and failures with us imparting a breadth of knowledge that she spent over a year researching.  Even after our 2 hour long conversation, she continued to go the extra mile, emailing us resources and ensuring we know we are welcome to call her if we have anymore questions along the way.

Stay tuned over the next year, as Poiema starts another leg of our journey, continuously moving towards bigger and better things. We are definitely in a good company in Edmonton, what a wonderful community we have here.  I am so proud of the Edmonton arts scene!  Love you guys, may one person's success be a victory for all.

-S

While it costs quite a large dollar to go to a Ted conference, you can see them on the internet for free.  Or, if like me, you want to be in a room surrounded by hundreds of other people getting fired up and inspired by their fellow human beings, then you could head out to Pecha Kucha for only $15.

Similar to Ted Talks, there are a variety of speakers speaking on any number of topics.  The difference is, each speaker only gets 6 minutes and 20 slides each lasting roughly 20 seconds.

I attended the Vancouver chapter of Pechu Kucha with a few friends on June 13th for the first time.  The main theme was “Around The World” and featured native Vancouverites sharing the work they are doing around the world.  One guy was developing a water filter to give to families in developing nations, another volunteered at an elephant sanctuary, another was founding girls soccer clubs around the world and the list goes on.  The innovation, hard work, and what seemed to be random happenstance, came together to create something beautiful and inspirational.  These people’s small hopes to change one person's life, teach soccer, or take photos, lead to the changing of communities, countries and entire lifestyles.

Pechu Kucha has put a fire in my belly to live beyond myself, keep dreaming, and get connected to the silent voices in my heart that are leading me towards whatever it is that I will do to help better the world around me.

This all leads back to the wonderful accomplishments of people immediately in my world, like the Fashion For Freedom fundraiser that my fellow Poiema Gals pulled off with major success.  Who knows, maybe us Poiema Gals will be up on a stage at Pecha Kucha in Edmonton or Vancouver one day to talk about the things that we have been doing, and hopefully all the lives we are positively affecting.  I’m so proud of my fellow Poiemians and privileged to count myself among them.  Can’t wait to see what great things come out of your lives, ladies.  I love you so much.

Find a Pecha Kucha event near you, and be inspired. 

-S

I just watched this video this morning and it brought me to tears. The ability of those two humans bodies is unreal, but it’s also the trust that they have in each other. The hours they must have spent in the studio developing that routine is incredible, YEARS I’m sure.

But even before they met one another, their parents put them in dance class. Or perhaps they had to pay for it themselves because their parents didn’t support it. Then they chose to take the risky, sometimes thankless path of becoming an artist, because you can’t develop a skill like that on the weekends, or a few hours in the evening during the week. Becoming that talented at something means giving up so much, and dedicating your life to your art.

Still, what you gain is worth it. Whenever I create something with others, from nothing, we develop a relationship. That relationship, like any other comes and goes with time, but in that space for whatever amount of time you hold it, there is the deepest connection you have ever felt. You connect so deeply with who you are, and with the other people in your midst partly because of trust, and partly just this magical, subconscious, consciousness, creation-thingy-bondy, indescribable something seems to happen. In that space in time you are a community, where everyone is contributing by just being and bringing who they are to the table.

As our world gets larger and people spend more time connecting online, I feel, and I know others I have talked to feel the same as well: that what we crave above all else and hidden under all the crap, is connection, a sense of belonging, community. But it’s hard to find in a world that revolves around your face and a screen. You need human to human contact.

So art, giving people the space to create something out of nothing, even if they do it just in their spare time and never as a career, is more important as our culture moves towards more introverted lifestyles. In this video the performers and the audience were engaged and created a community for just 6 minutes, but the time is irrelevant, because you measure this experience in feeling. Seeing the faces in the audience, you see how moved they are, and I, watching this was brought to tears, as those two artists reminded all of us of how beautiful creation is and how majestic and breathtaking it is just to be alive, in these glorious bodies.

THANK YOU ART! 

- S