PhoneMe Project creates a public platform and amplifies the voices of community members through poetry. The poems created as a part of this project are recorded live on mobile phones and are uploaded to a secure server. Using an automated process of posting phone calls, we hope to make it possible for people perform and record … Continue reading Phone Me: Build Something Within a 100 steps

PhoneMe is a project implemented by Digital Literacy Centre at UBC Learning Exchange in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). Our team is working with the poets living in the DTES to confront the negative stereotypes about this neighbourhood as a place of despair. As they walk the streets of the DTES, project participants record poems by … Continue reading Phone Me: Blackout Poetry

Today is week seven of the PhoneMe project, that Digital Literacy Centre is developing together with the UBC Learning Exchange. The project brought together a wonderfully talented group of people who meet every Friday at 1.30pm and write, read and celebrate the beauty of the spoken word and the power it has to transform the lives in the … Continue reading PhoneMe: creating poems together

I am travelling with mom to Smolensk, an old medieval town south of Moscow, where she grew up.  As a child I used to spend every summer there visiting my grandparents. The last time I was in Smolensk was in mid 90s. As we were walking about the town, I noticed a familiar statue, The Stag.  I … Continue reading Cherry Tree Stag

I am back in Saint Petersburg, visiting my parents for the holidays. Among the many things we have planned to do during my stay was an obligatory visit to the State Hermitage Museum. This museum is truly a jewel in the tourist crown of the city, one of the oldest and most renowned art collections in … Continue reading Bilingual signs in the Hermitage: Politeness for all?

  Eagle (by Rick) A lot of people don't notice how even in a rundown neighborhood, you can still find beauty I took this photo at the UBC Learning Exchange earlier this year. It is one of the many photo artifacts from the DUDES Club  exhibition  "Indigenous Men's Narratives: Reclaiming Our Lives".  This photo struck me to … Continue reading Eagle by Rick. An inspiration from DUDES Club