WORDS BY THE WATER
An initiative of the TD Blue Metropolis Children’s Festival, made possible with the support of
What would it be like to explore the rivers and shores around us with words and sounds? This is what “Words by the Water” offered – a series of free bilingual outdoor poetry workshops for families, organized in the spring of 2024 by the TD-Blue Metropolis Children’s Festival.
Poets and facilitators Rachel McCrum and Catherine Poulin guided participants through a range of creative activities: sound poetry exercises, concrete poetic animal drawings, and much more. These workshops were designed to deepen our relationship with natural elements and find new ways of expression through everything that surrounds us.
Listen to the podcasts to discover this wonderful initiative!
WORDS BY THE WATER WITH RACHEL MCCRUM
Join us for a poetic journey by the water, as we relive the highlights of the workshops and explore the beauty of the words and sounds that flow around us. Listen to Rachel McCrum and dive into a universe where poetry and nature meet to create unforgettable moments.
DES MOTS AU BORD DE L’EAU – ENTRETIEN ENTRE MARIE-ANDRÉE LAMONTAGNE ET RACHEL MCCRUM
(Podcast in French)
Rejoignez-nous pour un voyage poétique au bord de l’eau, où nous revivons les moments forts des ateliers et explorons la beauté des mots et des sons qui coulent autour de nous. Écoutez Marie-Andrée Lamontagne et Rachel McCrum, et plongez dans un univers où la poésie et la nature se rencontrent pour créer des moments inoubliables.
April 27 workshop photos
DISCOVERS THE FACILITATORS AND HOSTS
Rachel McCrum
Rachel McCrum is a poet, performer, editor, and curator. Originally from Northern Ireland, she lived in Edinburgh, Scotland between 2010 and 2016, where she was the first BBC Scotland Poet in Residence and recipient of a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. Her debut collection The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate was translated by Jonathan Lamy and published in a bilingual edition with Mémoire d’encrier in Fall 2020, and was a finalist for the Le Prix de traduction de la Fondation Cole from the Quebec Writers’ Federation in 2022. She is currently working on a new spoken word show on stepmothers. Rachel is the vocalist for noise-poetry group Pigs & Wolves.
Photo credit: Colin Usher Studio Faire
Catherine Poulin
Catherine Poulin is a poet who leads creative poetry workshops and provides literary and editorial support. She has written three poetry books.
READING SUGGESTIONS
SOS Water, by Yayo, pub. Tradewind Books (2024)
Over and Under the Pond, by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal, pub. Chronicle Books (2017)
Science Comics – Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean, by Maris Wicks, pub. First Second (2016)
An Anthology of Aquatic Life, by Sam Hume, pub. DK (2022)
The Great Lakes – Our Freshwater Treasure, by Barb Rosenstock and Jamey Christoph, pub. Random House Children’s Books (2024)
Over and Under the Waves, by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal, pub. Chronicle Books (2022)
The Water Walker, by Joanne Robertson, pub. Second Story Press (2017)
What Goes on inside a Beaver Pond?, by Becky Cushing Gop and Carrie Shryock, pub. Storey Publishing LLC (2023)
The Noisy Puddle – A Vernal Pool Through the Seasons, by Linda Booth Sweeney and Miki Sato, pub. Owlkids Books (2024)
Water for Life, by Valerie Bodden, pub. The Creative Company (2022)
We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade, pub. Roaring Brook Press (2020)
Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior, by Carole Lindstrom and Bridget George, pub. Roaring Brook Press (2023)
The War on Waste, by Valerie Bodden, pub. The Creative Company (2022)
