Vignettes Report (2024)
I finally finished my Vignettes project. It includes a series of seven videopoems and two chapbooks. Working through Vignettes demanded a constant switch in creation method. While some of the works started and finished with writing, either poetry, poetic prose or short essays, other elements started with visualizing events through writing and then working videopoems to carry the ideas to fruition. In the case of Crevasse and Pockets of Time, I went back into the chapbooks to create videopoems based on the texts. When I started to write from memory, and the memory of films seen as a child in Fort Churchill, it was necessary to reflect on events from my adult perspective as well. I also found more current and shocking accounts of the relocation of Northern Indigenous communities. Although I had worked for TNI Taqramuit Nipingat Inc. in 1988, to produce two video programs for northern broadcast, and at that time, I talked about the relocations with my Supervisor, who had himself, as a child, been relocated, I found it important to work through post 2,000 historical accounts of the relocations. In terms of significant challenges to completing the project, I took a pause to re-evaluate and to consult with two persons known to be knowledgable in the field of Indigenous cultural studies before re-starting the project. (Please read the Introductions to both Chapbooks.)
Overall the chapbooks and the videos function as philosophies that are sometimes rooted in the day-to-day and at other-times they draw on more profound reflection. The introductions to the Vignettes and War and Place chapbooks are also important references to my methodology. Some of the video works completed for Vignettes have been screened, or have been announced for screening later this year. They include: Clearcut which opened the Cadence Poetry Festival in Seattle, Washington, 2023; Piano Abandoned, screened in the 27th Video Bardo (2023), Argentina; and at the Festival acadien de poésie de Caraquet 2023. This year, Peat Moss will be screened at the Festival acadien de poésie Caraquet.
The text for It’s a Lack Of will be included in the two anthologies: Anthology of Silence and War in Gaza to be presented by Dr. Christopher Okemwa, Kisii, Kenya, August, 2024. I read from Vignettes and War and Place during the 2024 Word Spring Festival, Moncton, NB.
The videos are password protected at this moment. They will be released publicly in the coming months. The chapbooks are available for purchase here:
Vignettes
https://boutique.basicbruegel.com/index.php/product/vignettes/
War and Place
https://boutique.basicbruegel.com/index.php/product/war-and-place/
I am grateful for the help of artsnb for supporting this creation project.
