For Immediate Release

April 1, 2021

In honour of National Poetry Month 2021, Windsor’s Poet Laureate Emeritus Marty Gervais and Poet Laureate Mary Ann Mulhern are bringing poetry to the Windsor community in an innovative way.

Throughout April, “Windsor’s Resilient Voices” is placing short six-line inspirational poems on interior advertisement spaces across the Transit Windsor fleet of buses, on social media, and throughout select City of Windsor facilities including the WFCU Centre Vaccination Clinic.

The poems, written and submitted by area poets, including youth, focus on the theme of “Resilience.” The League of Canadian Poets selected “Resilience” as the theme for National Poetry Month this year, explaining the theme as follows: “What does it mean to be resilient? We meet resilience in every corner we’ve ever been backed into, every hardship that we endure. Resilience is geographical, spiritual, historical. It’s the fight against climate change, the inner battle with mental health, the outcry for human rights and an end to systemic racism. Resilience is the backbone of generations of trauma, the silence at the dinner table, the bow to culture’s violin. Resilience is the courage to start each day anew. This National Poetry Month 2021, we celebrate, reflect on and respect the resilience that has made us who we are.”

Gervais and Mulhern selected over 60 poems to display throughout the community.

Quotes:

“I’m proud of this initiative and grateful to the poets who reached out to share their words at this time. This gets poetry out into the community at a time when small acts of kindness and inspiration can help us face the challenges of COVID-19.”
-Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens

“Resilience is what this town knows best. Time after time we have been through life-changing moments, and we have always bounced back. That is our character, and for the past year, we have shown how, in spite of the challenges and setbacks, we are pushing back; we are lifting ourselves up; we are resilient as we always have been. We will make a difference to the generations to come.”
-Marty Gervais, Windsor’s Poet Laureate Emeritus

“Poetry has truly connected people all across our community throughout the pandemic. These poems present another way to help us pause and reflect not only on all we’re facing together but on the strength, spirit and resiliency that’s helping lead us through.”
-Mary Ann Mulhern, Windsor’s Poet Laureate

“Transit Windsor is delighted to participate in Windsor’s Resilient Voices. It gives us great pleasure to see the mingling of arts and culture with public transit, and I hope that these messages provide hope and uplift people’s spirits in these difficult times.”
-Tyson Cragg, Executive Director, Transit Windsor