Young northern Ontario writers contribute to new book

Tony Ryma speaks with northern Ontario author Connor Lafortune about an anthology he co-edited entitled, 'A Thousand Tiny Awakenings.'

A Sudbury writer and spoken-word artist has collaborated with another artist to release an anthology.

Connor Lafortune and Lindsay Mayhew called this new book ‘A Thousand Tiny Awakenings.’

“It is really seeking to listen to young people, young voices who want to talk about breaking barriers, overcoming oppression,” Lafortune said in a video interview.

“Talking about the issues they are facing and how to find ways to resist those systems.”

While he calls himself a poet, he said he does multi-disciplinary art, like combining storytelling with physical art like Indigenous regalia and different beadwork pieces.

“I create cultural pieces and stories about colonization and how Indigenous peoples have faced them,” Lafortune said.

“I use a lot of those tactics in my poetry to really kind of resist the urge to be palpable as an artist.”

The artist said he believes in using beadwork and sewing in his presentations to create a more visual element for the audience and his readers.

“It brings them into the story and immerses them into the understanding of what I am speaking,” he said.

“It is also a beautiful way to highlight the art that has existed here for centuries and has adapted to modern context. So, it is a way to bridge those two pieces of that tactile understanding with those audible understandings of those pieces.”

The poet said, in the beginning, he tried to speak about colonization as more abstract concepts: things that he has heard, things that he has seen, policies, practices or systemic understandings of colonization. However, in the last few years, he has taken a more personal approach.

“I am sharing my story, the stories of my family and those who live around me,” Lafortune said.

“And bring those very in-depth understandings of what colonization can look like, how policies affect us today and how it relates to language revitalization when it comes to connection to land and a lack of access to clean drinking water.”

He said it was difficult to share the personal story initially, however, he said the more it is told, the more it builds upon itself.

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