The Stanza Project – an intro to our pilot project for spring 2012

The Stanza Project

stanza: n., an arrangement or grouping of lines within a poem. Origin: Italian. room, station, stopping place.

This spring we launch The Stanza Project, an international collaboration between Belgian architecture firm MLP Proosten and Vancouver’s Thursdays Writing Collective.

As residents of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) members of TWC recognize and confront systematic marginalization related to poverty, mental health, addiction, abuse and prejudice.

A major concern in the DTES is housing. We are living on unceded traditional Coast Salish land in a neighbourhood experiencing tremendous pressure from developers. Housing for residents is inadequate and frequently substandard.

Throughout the spring of 2012 we will examine notions of shelter, housing, home, indoor/outdoor and accessibility. As we write our way through these ideas we will create a home in the text, building a literary environment of our own.

To do this we’ll use techniques of wordsquatting – a toolbox of techniques we have developed for inhabiting someone else’s words by borrowing syntax, interspersing our responses into the text, using erasure strategies for blackout poems, etc. Wordsquatting is a profoundly empowering technique we have experimented with throughout 2011 and has significance for any population that struggles with perceptions of the legitimacy of its voice.

We’ll be reading literary texts (poems, fiction, memoir, each other’s writing) as well in order to discover beliefs related to housing. We’ll look at Mark Proosten’s architectural designs, blueprints, images and models of structures as we consider what constitutes living space, literally writing on, and into, his images and plans. We will also write about the experience, as well.

These writings will then circle back to Mark Proosten for consideration in the drafting of new virtual and theoretical spaces. We have plans to present the work at conferences in Europe as well as Canada.

We’re excited to develop our ideas and writing in conjunction with Mark Proosten’s architectural ethics. Creativity is never a “closed” loop!