audio

From The Prairies to the Pacific Rim

a poetic exchange & artist conversation with Rita Wong, Emily Riddle & Sacha Ouellet

produced and edited by Erica Hiroko Isomura

From the Prairies to the Pacific Rim is a poetic storytelling piece created in response to climate despair. It aims to connect listeners with the spirit of language, land, water, and one other.

Poets Rita Wong, Emily Riddle, Sacha Ouellet and Erica Hiroko Isomura trace their ancestries, activism, and artistic endeavours from amiskwaciwâskahikan in the Prairies, across the Rocky Mountains, and into the Salish Sea.

This is a process-based audio piece, created from a series of poetic exchanges and artist conversations recorded during June and July 2021 for the 45th annual Powell Street Festival.

ericahiroko · From the Prairies to the Pacific Rim (with Rita Wong, Emily Riddle & Sacha Ouellet)

Featured poetry includes:

"night walk" & "holders" — Rita Wong
"Sohkeciwan Maka" — Emily Riddle
"fireweed shakes" — Sacha Ouellet
"mourning song" — Erica Hiroko Isomura.

Audio recorded on location by Sacha Ouellet and Erica Hiroko Isomura at the Wedzin kwa, Kwecwecnewtxw (Coast Salish Watch House), Holmes Creek, Brunette River, Burnaby Lake, and skʷƛəma:ɬ stáləw.

Thank you to the Powell Street Festival Society, Province of BC Multiculturalism, and VIVO Media Arts for in-kind and financial support for this project.

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