It was so so lovely to sit down with Jode Roberts (
@joderoberts ) for coffee this week. We met to talk about the David Suzuki Foundation (
@davidsuzukifdn ) Rewilding prize, which celebrates artworks reimagining our relationships with nature, community and culture. Celebrating 659 applicants and 20 finalists, this project’s momentum spans across all provinces: “The project aim was to connect with our hearts and minds in a way that a policy paper will never do.” Jode notes that one of the biggest challenges acknowledges that our country is so vast, even within a national competition like this, our communities exist within silos - it is hard to connect when many participants live far away from one another.
We spoke at length about this art project, whose winners will be announced in mid April. But of greater interest to me was Jode himself, who presented an incredibly joyful slightly mischevious approach to community building. He kept referencing this very secretive storage facility beneath the Christie Pits pool, with this funny little smile on his face! Going on to describe all his community scheming! “We started a lending library for community events with tents, tables, chairs and giant board games. Amazingly, Pizzeria Libretto (
@pizzeria.libretto ) joined the fun, dishing out pizzas at monthly pizza parties in the park for six years!”
Towards the end of the conversation he was referring a somewhat apocalyptic Suzuki interview, which suggested that, considering the direction our society is heading towards, it would be wise to start building closer ties to our immediate community. This kind of messaging is slightly triggering to my manic depressive tendencies - I have a bad habit of spiralling into apocalyptic headspaces, but I am so reassured by the existence and leadership of guys like Jode, who are not just running ecological not-for-profits and coordinating neighbourhood parties, but who is also running a fun art gallery (
@gallery.1065 ) and just trying to build an optimistic kind of connection between neighbours near and far.
This is the kind of positive energy that keeps despair at bay, with social engagement front and centre. Love the enthusiasm here!
