News on The Stanza Project

Here is some updated information on our plan for The Stanza Project.  Because it is a collaboration with Mark Proosten, an architect in the Netherlands, Mark and I started a facebook page to be able to stay in touch easily with anyone interested in what Thursdays Writing Collective and MLP Proosten Architects are  doing. On the page Mark and I both post videos, quotes and items of interest and have a chance to commnicate in a different kind of public space, a virtual one. We invite you to participate by “liking” The Stanza Project page.

 

The Stanza Project

 

Stanza : – In poetry; a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. A stanza consists of a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. – in Italian; chamber, apartment, room

 

What? The Stanza Project is one-year collaborative project of Thursdays Writing Collective and MLPProosten Architecture Theory Practice for Downtown Eastside Vancouver writers about literary and virtual space. All are welcome to drop in and participate in writing about notions of shelter, accessibility, housing, home, indoor/outdoor, public/private during our regular Thursdays Writing Collective sessions, 2-4pm, Thursdays at Carnegie Community Centre.

 

Why? A major concern in the DTES is housing. We are living on unceded Coast Salish land in a neighbourhood experiencing tremendous pressure from developers while safe and affordable housing for residents is scarce. Our lives are shaped by the city. At the same time we shape the city through our use and movement. The connections between architecture and writing go beyond a shared idea of the “poetics of space” to ideas of “reading” a city and finding a home in the text.

 

How? We’ll also use architectural designs, blueprints, images and models of structures from architect Mark Proosten, a young architect and writer who is passionate about literature and community. Using Mark’s drawings as prompts and our own writing we’ll build a literary environment of our own design. Over the last year we’ve experimented with “wordsquatting,” a way of moving into other people’s writing by borrowing sentence structure, inserting our words, erasing some of theirs, using a line or section of someone’s work, etc. We’ll read poems, fiction, memoir and literally write on – and into – Mark’s architectural images and plans. Then we’ll send our writing and “invaded” architecture drawings back to Mark so he can use them to invent new buildings and architectural drawings.

The Stanza Project plans include:

  • Weekly writing sessions (Thursdays, Carnegie Community Centre, 2-4pm)
  • A public reading in June 2012
  • Participation in the Heart of the City Festival in November 2012
  • An exhibit at the UBC Liu Centre for Social Justice Lobby Gallery featuring our writing, photos and videos and a live writing event November 7, 2012.
  • Launch of The Stanza Project book (like The Writers Caravan publication from Thursdays Writing Collective) in February 2013 with a reading and exhibit.
  • Mark Proosten, the collaborating architect, will also present what we have written on our behalf with his designs at two European conferences.
  • The Stanza Project is our theme and framework but we will also read and write on different subjects throughout the year. Participation is up to your joy level!

 

More info at www.thursdayspoemsandproseective.ca, on Facebook’s The Stanza Project or Thursdays Writing Collective pages and http://mlpproosten.net/. Reach director Elee Kraljii Gardiner at thursdayseditor@telus.net or 604 202 0072.

© Thursdays Writing Collective 2022