Jennifer Still is posing a simple question to community members: What does Winnipeg mean to you? Citizen's responses, shared through prompts on carefully-crafted booklets inspired by vintage city maps, will become The Story of Winnipeg, a collaborative poem project that Winnipeg’s poet laureate will aim to share in a variety of mediums. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Creating and telling the city’s story Still says that the inspiration for the project stems from her desire for the city to participate in poetry in an intentional and open way. "It’s my impulse to write with long hand and send messages by mail,” she said of the intentionality of her practice. “I actually think that’s where it started.” The open invitation for Winnipeggers to participate in the poem comes with no expectations from Still. She’s been delighted with the unique, personal touches that have been contributed so far, each highlighting experiences of living in this community in a way that only poetry can do. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Winnipeg Arts Council (@winnipegartscouncil) “There’s this real intimacy and personal approach,” says Still of the nature of the submissions. “This is a person writing this, and it speaks to a collective we. It’s these individuals, and it becomes a we.” “So much now is in perpetuity,” she continues, highlighting the tactile nature of The Story of Winnipeg. “It’s in a cloud, it’s in a database, it’s in a Dropbox. What if you write a physical word and send it away? The consideration that goes into that, the trust the sharing the generosity... you’re actually giving your words to someone and you’re trusting they will go somewhere.” Winnipeggers can contribute to The Story of Winnipeg at Winnipeg Public Library branches. Each of them has copies of the mini-book of prompts that Still has crafted, and once participants have finished, they can drop it off in a small paper mailbox marked “Winnipeg”. Once all of the submissions have been collected, Still hopes to be able to hear them read by the poets themselves at a future gathering and to maybe create a physical installation of the mini-books. Poetry walks serve as inspiration One way that Winnipeggers can be poetically inspired by the city around them is by participating in the Winnipeg Poetry Tours. Presented in partnership with Plume Winnipeg, these tours represent another effort by Still to get citizens engaged in the medium. Three different poets will be placed at three different parts of the city – the duck pond in St. Vital Park, Girdwood Park in East Kildonan, and the Portage and Main intersection – and people can listen to poetry being read and create their own, including writing poetry in chalk on the sidewalk. “A Winnipeg Poetry Tour is not your usual tour of the city,” smiles Still. “It’s talking about the imaginative elements that have fed into the practices of poets. Participation in both The Story of Winnipeg project and the Winnipeg Poetry Tours are completely free. Information on the collaborative poetry project is available at the Winnipeg Arts Council’s website, while more information on the poetry tours is available through Plume Winnipeg.