This province is alive with culture. I was lucky enough to spend Sunday afternoon at the Word On The Street festival in Saskatoon listening to the voices of some of my friends and some of my literary heroes.
The event featured more than 20 novelists, poets, storytellers and non-fiction writers sharing their voices as they read from recent work and answered a few questions about writing. There were booksellers and literacy organizations and the chance for me to add a few titles to my Saskatchewan literature bookshelf. The voices are still fresh in my memory and I'll have the tones of the writer while I read their written words.
This weekend across our province and the nation, Culture Days will invite people to take part in free activities focusing on arts and culture. There will be much to celebrate but the spread of culture won't be halted at the end of the weekend.
I am delighted by many visual, literary and performance artists wherever I go in Saskatchewan and many of the national artists I have met are connected to our province in some way. It isn't just the larger centres but the very small towns that have had a part in shaping art.
This summer I met a talented young singer-songwriter whose family lived in Maidstone for the first few years of her life. She is connected by a thread of family memories to the community and is building her own. This summer she stopped to give a concert to a tiny crowd and received a warm welcome and adventure in the form of a power outage. She was greeted with enough enthusiasm to promise to return and the Cat, Cat Jahnke, is coming back. She will be in Maidstone to share her melodies and stories Thursday Oct. 6 at the Legion Club Room.
Sometimes people don't believe culture thrives in small towns, but it does under this prairie sky in pockets of artists' communities in various regions and sometimes in solitude. Throughout this province there are so many voices, so many stories to listen to and tell, and so many diverse lives.
As the trees burst out in colour and we are reminded winter is on the way, we can be comforted knowing art is being created, imagination will warm even the coldest of winter days and there will be more to see and share and listen to in our land.
