Fresh from the Field: Using Poetry to raise awareness during a pandemic
While COVID-19 caused much of the world to slow down, if not stop completely, nothing could stop the participants in our Creative Foundations online course from continuing to develop creative ways to raise awareness about environmental issues prevalent in their communities. During the course, 22 participants representing 18 organizations in Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Belize, met each week to learn a wide range of creative methods to build decisive leadership, develop the capacity for creativity and innovation, and inspire behavior change at the individual, community, and systemic levels.
In one session, participants worked in groups to use art, such as songs and radio dramas, to examine environmental challenges they face in their communities. One group composed poetry (see below), to raise awareness about the lack of environmental education in their community. Through this powerful and evocative art form, the group examined the ways in which the pandemic highlights and exacerbates their community’s lack of education about environmental issues.
Fantasy or Reality?
A period of calm existed
Before the misery of the soul
A virus making its presence
Affecting the whole world
Health, profession, economy
Social disruption at a day's end
Families exposed to shortages
Valid state contributions lacking
Pharmaceutical industries selling themselves as superheroes?
Do the rich take advantage of resources scarcity?
Every home providing for themselves
Divided communities by consumption disparity
Half the world in quarantine
Hunger, sleep, and others' concerns
An increase in domestic violence
Women, children – aesthetics affecting all
A pandemic has been unwrapped
The world reacting differently
Social and environmental impacts incalculable
When will we gain back normalcy?
¿Fantasía o Realidad?
Existía un periodo de calma
Antes de la desdicha del alma
Que se presentó por un virus
Afectando al mundo entero
Salud, profesion, economía
Disrupción social al final del día
Familias expuestas a las carencias
Sin el aporte estatal con vigencias
¿Industrias farmacéuticas se venden como superhéroes?
¿Se aprovechan los ricos de la falta de recursos?
Cada hogar viendo por sí mismo
El pueblo dividido por la disparidad del consumismo
Medio mundo en cuarentena
Hambre, sueño, y la preocupación ajena
Ha incrementado la violencia doméstica
Mujeres, niños — todos afectados por la estética
Se ha desenvuelto una pandemia
El mundo reaccionando diferente
Con los impactos sociales y ambientales incalculables
¿Cuándo recuperaremos las normalidades?