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June 7, 2023
Dear friends,
As we move into the summer season, many of you may remember summer holidays from your childhood. Perhaps you spent time at camps or exploring the outdoors near your home. Maybe you had access to a neighborhood pool or park to ease the hottest days. Or perhaps you explored new worlds through good books or movies. If we're lucky, summer can bring a more gentle pace and an opportunity to relax into a different rhythm of life.
This different rhythm, though, does not allow us to escape from climate change and its effects. Even now, so much of Canada and the northeast United States are under an eerie fog of smoke from wildfires. As we at The BTS Center seek new ways of understanding and engaging with this complicated world, we're deeply aware of the powerful role that art (broadly construed) plays in helping us to imagine possibilities and creative futures, and we are glad to bring you some ways in which to engage with the arts in the coming weeks and months.
Next week, on June 13, Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill will host a conversation and poetry reading with Maya Williams, Portland's Poet Laureate and the author of a new collection of poetry, Judas & Suicide. We hope you'll join to hear Maya talk about their powerful work and process. We're also kicking off our first annual Summer Fiction Book Club, which will meet three times over the summer to discuss three different novels. Fiction can offer a way into the depths of our humanity, and we hope that reading and discussing climate fiction in community will allow you to access the broad spectrum of emotions which art can surface — from grief and anxiety to delight and playfulness. More information is coming soon, so keep an eye on your inbox!
Finally, if you're looking to incorporate more embodied arts into your own group or community, you'll want to check out our newest resource on the Leadership Commons, Exercises for Embodied Practice and Play, created by Madeline Bugeau-Heartt. And be sure to take a look at her intro video to the resource, which is included below!
We hope that summer brings you opportunities for deepening the living art of your life — and we look forward to seeing you at some of our programming as we explore the arts together!
With best wishes,
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