The theme of the 2005 Festival – Dialogue sans frontières / Can we talk? – has resonance for those engaged in literacy work. Everyone learns to speak unless some cognitive impairment prevents it. Not everyone learns to read and write as naturally. In Western cultures, children raised in environments rich in the spoken word tend to have a stronger base for reading and writing. Adults who have not been proficient readers can move into literacy by starting with the powerful rhymes, rhythms and flow of poetry, drama and song. For aboriginal cultures that survived through passing down oral traditions, the challenges today include re-possessing many lost languages and becoming literate in the mainstream languages that can enable their voices to be more widely heard politically, socially and artistically. It was not by chance that the 1990 House of Commons Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs entitled a report on aboriginal literacy You Took My Talk. Western culture has given writing a privileged place over talk, yet new technologies are slowly restoring the importance of the oral.

The 2005 Grassroots: Community Writing and Arts event will bring together groups and individuals, from aboriginal and non-aboriginal cultures across Canada, who are mining the richness of talk and oral traditions, enlarging our understanding of what counts as literacy.

This year’s Grassroots: Community Writing and Arts event will showcase some brilliant examples from Quebec, Canada and abroad of the ways that the concept of multiple literacies can be used to reach more students.

WHO WILL PARTICIPATE?

Writers, artists, coordinators and researchers who have linked literacy and the arts through creating, performing, writing, recording and learning, in community-based settings

• Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden, Vancouver
• Helen Woodrow, Agnes Walsh and Millie Johnson, St. John’s, Newfoundland
• Lisa VanEvery and three writers, Six Nations Writers, Brantford, Ontario
• Nancy Cooper and Rita Buffalo, Toronto and Thunder Bay, Ontario
• Kathy Richan and Laurel Thomson Literacy in Action, Sherbrooke, QC
• Participants, Chateauguay Valley Literacy Coalition, Chateauguay, QC

Moderator: Linda Shohet, Executive Director, The Centre for Literacy

EVENTS

• Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival
  – A public session
  Friday, April 1, 2005 1:00 • 4:00 p.m.
  Hyatt Regency Hotel, 1255 Jeanne-Mance (Metro Station: Place-des-Arts)
  NO CHARGE
  An opportunity to share stories, poems, artifacts, performances, video clips, music

• The Centre for Literacy – Workshop
  “Community Writing and Arts : Pathways to Multiple Literacies Honouring diverse ways of knowing”
  Saturday, April 2, 2005 • 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
  Dawson College, 4001 De Maisonneuve West
  Registration Fee: (includes materials and lunch)
  Adult $30
  Student (with valid ID) $15

Participants from across Canada will perform and share models for sustaining community writing and arts programs and creating links to the formal education sector.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Adult literacy and basic skills educators and teachers, artists and community arts educators, aboriginal educators and community animators, social workers and community facilitators, professional writers and members of the public interested in alternative forums and venues for learning. Biographies of the participants are available here.

Registration Instructions for Saturday Workshop
Saturday, April 2, 2005

Fill in the form and return with your cheque payable to The Centre for Literacy or
VISA number to:

The Centre for Literacy, 3040 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3Z 1A4.

For information:
Telephone: (514) 931-8731, local 1415     Fax: (514) 931-5181
E-mail: literacycntr@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
Web-site: http://www.centreforliteracy.qc.ca

These events have been supported by the
National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources & Skills Development Canada.