Thompson rivers university wiw-h - 1.25.22 - presentation

#Poetry4MentalHealth
@artwithimpact
#WellnessinWords

Opening Words
Elder Doe Thomas

YOUR FACILITATOR: 1990s Chris
1990s Chris (he/him) is a queer
working class poet and writer, from
Hereford, England, specialising in
ﬁlm and audio. He has performed
at the Royal Albert Hall, and the
Eden Project as well as writing for
BBC sounds, and Channel 4
Random Acts. His work hopes to
start discussion around
masculinity, class, queer identity
and mental health.
IG & Twitter: @1990schris

○ Campus workshops
○ Monthly short ﬁlm competition
○ Short ﬁlm production grants
○ Global community
BROUGHT TO YOU BY

HERE’S THE PLAN
1. Deﬁne our terms
2. Practice a way of expressing ourselves:
Immerse - Explore - Express
3. Share
4. Panel
5. Evaluation (and a chance to enter to win
a $50 gift card to Superstore)

HEADS UP
● Mental health is personal – YOU are the expert on
your own experience
● We are going to be talking about complicated ideas
that can be highly connected with our sense of self
● We are online - this is a public, shared space
● We are recording this session for internal training
and evaluation purposes
● Please take care of yourself however you need,
including asking for help.

NEED SUPPORT?
Access mental health support throughout this workshop.
Click Shared Notes
To link to online
resources
Private Chat mental health pros.
They are at the top and have * next
to their names
#1 #2

3 WAYS TO ENGAGE
We welcome your participation
CHAT BOX: Use the
Public Chat to connect
with the whole group
#1

POLL: respond
to a Poll when
prompted
#2
Set Your Status by
clicking on your name
and selecting from
the drop-down menu
#3
3 WAYS TO ENGAGE
We welcome your participation

If you need tech
support, ask…
Look for the person whose name begins with
AWI Support and Private Chat them with any issues.

#Movies4MentalHealth
POLL: Who’s here today?
C
B
Student at
TRU
A
Faculty/staff at
TRU
Somebody else

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE
DISCUSSING MENTAL HEALTH?
None
A B
C D
E
Unfamiliar
Very Familiar
Familiar
Expert

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental illness
Mental wellness
MENTAL HEALTH

A None
C
B
D
I mean, a little in
school, maybe?
I’ve written a
bit here and
there...
I write poetry all
the time!
WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE
WITH WRITING POETRY?

POETRY
For this workshop we’ll deﬁne
poetry as a condensed
expression of your thoughts or
feelings
Anything you put to paper with
intention can be poetry

IMMERSE, EXPLORE, EXPRESS
As a group, we will immerse ourselves in 2
short ﬁlms from our OLIVE Film Collection.
Together, we will explore the themes brought
up in the ﬁlms through discussion.
Individually, we will express our thoughts
and feelings through writing exercises to
create poetry as a response.

Round 1

PARALLEL
By Naomi B. Smith
AWI Winner, December 2019
Immerse
Content heads up: depictions of depression

HOW ARE YOU, REALLY?
heavy, tired, real, what people are going through,
familiar
Depletion
One thing I knew and was portrayed here was the
physical pain
Reality
money :(
Mindsets Outlook
message from outside
Isolation
lack of social connection
The will, feeling overwhelmed
Immerse

EXPLORE
Hope can be difficult to hold on
to, to keep sight of, and through
life we are often tested.
Explore

Explore
What can stand between
us and hope?
self esteem and conﬁdence
the news is a good point
brain chemistry and physiology, grief
trauma, trust or lack there of
my mind
negative self talk/ mental landscap
As a society we don't talk enough about mental health and so
what treatments are available are not always known
safety and your perception of safety
The length of time one has been feeling hopeless.
politics, corruption, oppressive leadership, pandemic,
patriarchy, white supremacy, exclusion

Take a breath.
Explore

FREE WRITE
“Climbing the Mountain of the
Morning…”
Express

SELF REFLECTION
How did that feel?
Did you write anything that
surprised you?
Express

FIND THE SCULPTURE
“Climbing the Mountain of the
Morning…”
Express

Let’s share!
Express
BEEP BUZZ ALARM BEEP BUZZ
Snooze
Alarm
Snooze
Alarm
Snooze
Finally
I awake
I stretch
I yawn
As I ‘stair’ at it is seems
It is appears higher that usual it is
unsurmountable….
Does the day insistent I participate, must I
climb today
I breath
I look up again
I breath
I breath
I breath
I look up the mountain again
inhail deeply
It seems a little smaller
I breath
I sit up
I smile
One step one step one step I will climb…….
We are all Mourning- the losses - the babies, the
children. The History, The Way our ancestors attacked
Indigenous People all around the world. We are
climbing the Mountain of the Mourning. Mourning the
losses we are finally waking up to see. Perhaps this is a
morning - dawning of recognition - of the atrocities -
committed again and again against the innocent, the
smallest, the littlest, and kindest and sweetest and
most helpless- the most generous and heart-led.
Deceived by the arrogant God of man-made pride, by
the father's of our Colonial past.
In the mountain of thoughts flows a valley of tears /
there are yellow flowers of hope / I try everyday to
conquer the mountain / leading with fear and see it
set. with love. / the night dawns and I muster courage
again....

Let’s share!
Express
With each climb those barriers come
crashing down. With conﬁdence and sureness
each step becomes lighter with hope and
love I start to live! ....
My thoughts are like the yarn threads my
mother buys every grocery run. Theyre
waiting to be made into a smooth ball. My
thoughts wait for me to learn how to crochet,
perhaps. But as i said, want and will are two
different things .

Round 2

LITTLE ELIZABETH
By Elizabeth Ayiku
AWI Winner, February 2018
Immerse
Content heads up: Discussion of Trauma and Childhood Sexual Assault

HOW ARE YOU, REALLY?
sad, grateful, contemplative
Key words: Understood, heartfelt,
acceptance
relatable
Love "you are worthy"
sobbing beautiful powerful - got it
you are not alone"
"you are enough" loving yourself ﬁrst
hopeful
Immerse

EXPLORE
In our lives we’ve all grown
and overcome
a lot of adversity
Explore

Explore
What are some important messages you’ve
needed to give yourself in order to grow?
Never give up Hope, we can do Hard things
one moment at a time
i am equal
kindness
You need to treat yourself like you treat the people you
love. Do not be so harsh on yourself.
you are a human. Its okay
I don't have to be the same.
I don't have to be like that.
I can do things differently.
I love you (to me)
it is not always necessary to choose a difficult path to
reach your destination. sometimes go easy on yourself

Take a breath.
Immerse

FREE WRITE
“A love letter to a younger you”
Express

FIND THE SCULPTURE
“A love letter to a younger you”
Immerse

Let’s share!
Immerse
quest of ﬁnding who you are/ it is okay to be stuck/all a part of growing up/ you are young not naive/ you
are enough and brave/ love is complicated and comes in different ways/embrace yourself ﬁrst/to know what
you deserve/ explore and stop not/ the sky is just the beginning
Hey, Awesome; Astounding; Astonishing; Amazing Amy Amy Amy oh Amy!
Its ok, your hair will get sorted
I know your bangs are a travesty but honestly - you get it sorted!
I promise.
Also, oh my heart I love you so very much
You are magic! There is something extraordinary inside of you.
That powerful feeling you have inside of you isn’t wrong
Its just where you are now isn’t big enough for your beauty
so hold tight because I promise you the rainbows and unicorns are coming
Also, its ok to feel lonely
You are not alone
Also, its ok to feel so important and amazing
You are don’t be ashamed of your self belief
It’s a gift
So valuable
Keep it
I am sorry that I forget to check in
Thank you for reminding me that inside this big AMY is my little amy

Let’s share!
Immerse
You are a joy, a gift.
Loving and kind.
Remember these things.
You are brave and deserving of all the
wonderful and amazing things life will bring.
Trust in your extraordinary wisdom,
trust in your self.
Follow your truth and do not resist
the wisdom and knowing within.
You have the truth.
You are love.
You’re spectacular.
You are!
And thankfully, a part of you knows that!
You need to grab hold of that part.
Now.
You don’t have to go about it humbly.
You’re smart and funny and lovely,
and people like being around you – just as you are.
You don’t have to put on the show.
You don’t have to follow a script
or make situations bigger or worse than they are.
You don’t have to be strong all the time.
Don’t shrink yourself to make people comfortable.
They’re just not your people.
Your spirit and experiences and feelings are totally valid
– just as they are.
Yes, there are things you can do differently, but that’s okay.
It’s okay to look at them and consider them and work on them.
It’s okay to be imperfect and still learning.
Always learning.
It doesn’t make you less than.
It doesn’t make you unworthy.
Unsightly.
Unimpressive.
Let go.
Relish the fall.
Embrace the wild sleeping within you.

Let’s share!
Immerse
you are smart, you are kind/different is
good,you are respected for your
language,colour of your skin/no one
has the right to take your self worth
and stomp on it/ the beauty of your
skin shines/the colour of your hair is a
beautiful ebony /your beautiful bown
eyes/ emanates kindness and
caring/continue to walk gracefully with
your head high/with each step confides
in your identity / proud of your culture
and language/ sharing the goodness of
who you are
I love you. I love your fiestyness. You don't
know it now but that little Rebel in you is
going to give you the space you need to
become your truest self. Your Fight. Your
Resistance - Your Subversion - Your doing it
Your way - even or especially the places
where you feel lost and confused, and bad.
Those are the parts of you that will
eventually be windows -escapes- through
which you can crawl to your freedom. You will
no longer be sneaking out in the middle of
the night, lying, hiding, stealing, pretending -
You will be uncovering, unleashing, allowing,
accepting, embracing, and loving - all of you
- and all of us - who didn't fit in - or know or
like or want "our place" - the places we were
forced into, or abandoned in.

The Blessing of the Morning Light
BY DAVID WHYTE
Immerse

i. Something from nature you love
ii. A type of weather you love
iii. A day of the year you love
iv. Your favourite food or drink
Explore
A HOPEFUL LIST

FREELY &
DELIBERATELY
“This New Morning...”
Immerse

Let’s share!
Immerse
This new morning I revel in the blessing of another day to laugh,cry, to celebrate
TO BE
sunny summer seaside
sand and books and
a bit of a breeze
no one to bother me
a day to be free
This new morning
In the dark
I push
I stretch
I wiggle
I break free
It is dark and moist
I am pushing up up up up
And then I feel the warmth
sunshine sunshine sunshine on my leaves
It is life and I shall grow grow grow
GROW

Let’s share!
Immerse
This New Morning... I will stand atop the cliffs of Cinqfoil in the gusting winds and
howl amidst the five-petaled yellow flowers - even if its a rainy May day - I will
make my way to that place I can, fuelled by perogies and when I come home I will
warm my tired bones with Grandmas chicken soup
This new morning… I will find all that I seek.
I will breathe and climb and search for what I need.
I will take the view around me deep into my lungs – into my soul.
I will look out upon it, brimming with possibility and beauty and the intensity of it
all.
And when I’m done, when I lower myself back down to the world, I will rest.
Boxed in by flesh and furr, black, brown, and white.
My heart will relax as the experiences of life settle themselves into their spaces.
As we stretch and purr and grumble with one another,
we slide into connection and creation together.
Even if we don’t know what we’re doing.
As i see the sunrise from the mountains/ I just hope for summer to stay/ I guess
as long as it is a hopeful day/ i will eat corn in rain and be okay

You can take this process forward…
Immerse
Explore
Express

AWI: Continued Connections
Exclusive community events and spaces
Arts-based discussion trainings
Interview and discussion opportunities
Weekly art + wellness prompts
Click the link in the chat to learn more!

MEET THE PANEL
bit.ly/tru-wiw-h
Holly Winzey (she/her)
Student Affairs Case Manager, Faculty of Student Development,
Thompson Rivers University
Sandi Cooper, RPN (she/her)
Clinical Practice Educator, Acute Psychiatry, Royal Inland Hospital

Please ﬁll out the evaluation!
@artwithimpact
info@artwithimpact.org
You can enter for a chance to win a $50 gift card to Superstore!
If you are receiving credit for attending this workshop, at the end of the
evaluation, you’ll be prompted to add your information to a sign-in
sheet.
Evaluation responses will remain separate and anonymous.

Virtual Mingle/Panel Q&A
Ask a question or share a thought!
You can raise your hand (see image below) to be given
instructions to audio in, use the public chat box, or
send a private message to AWI Support / a panelist.

Closing Words
Elder Doe Thomas

Stay in touch!
Sign up for Continued
Connections!
...and don’t forget to copy/paste the
resources in the Shared Notes!
@artwithimpact
info@artwithimpact.org

Thompson rivers university wiw-h - 1.25.22 - presentation

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Thompson rivers university wiw-h - 1.25.22 - presentation