On Friday, January 31 and Friday, February 6, Cascadia 2050 members Zach Charles, Ankober Yewondwossen and myself (Veronica Martinez) drove to Vancouver, Washington to host guest poetry workshops for middle and high school students at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. These workshops were a part of a project created by Zach, where students and poets are prompted to think about what they want their community to look like in 24 years in the year 2050. We guided students through conversations about bioregionalism and how we can sustainably care for our homes so they are thriving in 2050. Students were then given blank postcards and asked to write poems and design postcard art surrounding the question, “How do you envision your home as a garden?” 

Zach had this to say about the experience: 

The past 2 Fridays I was very happy to spend driving the 2.5 hours to and from Vancouver, WA to guest teach a poetry activity at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics in 2 of Jody Adams’ classes. As a teacher, I was impressed by the classroom set up and the student engagement. It was awesome to work with students who were excited we were there! And as a poet and fellow citizen of Cascadia, I was really grateful for the students’ participation in a Cascadia 2050 project. It felt like a significant step toward enacting our new mission and toward sharing our bioregional vision with the world. Seeing the students’ interest and hearing their questions about bioregionalism, about our home bioregion of Cascadia, and about how poetry can play into those visions was a beautiful experience, capped off by the power of hearing the students’ poetry. My only regret is that the fire alarm interrupted us! 

We hope to continue this project in schools and youth programs around Cascadia and showcase the collected postcards this summer! If you have connections to a school, after school program or club involving young people that may be interested in this poetry postcard project, contact us.