We’re calling on our community to help us co-create a mobile poetry library.
Poetic Assembly is an interdisciplinary project and newly formed collective of cultural workers, united by a shared vision of creating opportunities for decolonized study and gathering. Our goal is to develop a mobile library focused on circulating poetry to foster community engagement and preservation. We view poetry as an active method for cultivating relationality and enlivened perception, helping us see beyond capitalist and colonial enclosures.
During our research and development residency at PlaySpace, we’ll be transforming the container into a working creative studio. Together with designer and educator Rahul Sehijpaul, we’ll prototype interactive elements like portable listening stations and structures to house our poetry collections.
Drop in and hold space with us. A community librarian will be present during visiting hours to engage in conversation and document feedback, as well as collective visions, for the project. We’d love to discuss poets or works you’d like to see included in our mobile library. We’re building a few collections that will grow from the community’s primary interests and needs. Portable listening stations will also be in development and available for anyone to record and explore. These will serve as both poetic archives and relational tools.
Operating in public and community spaces, Poetic Assembly seeks to create an autonomous learning space that reclaims vernacular practices. The mobile poetry library supports informal, everyday encounters, creating temporary autonomous zones of knowledge production where the freedom to learn and explore is prioritized.
Studio Hours
July 31 – August 17
PS707 (PlaySpace at 707 Dundas St West)
Thursdays & Fridays: 3:00 – 7:00 PM
Saturdays: 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Instagram: @poetic__assembly
Contact: info [ at ] poeticassembly [ dot ] com
Malcolm Duncan (he/him) is a registered professional planner, multi-disciplinary artist and creator of Actual Book Club. Combining artistic practices, and his knowledge of placemaking, Malcolm creates a space for readers to build connections, share knowledge and give back to community. This work is highlighted by a quarterly zine (A to Zine), which includes writing, photography and artwork from book club members and interviews people doing interesting and important book related work.
Jessica Kasiama (she/her) is a Toronto-based writer, DJ, and book worker. She is interested in exploring themes of safety, transformation, and belonging across creative disciplines, as well through open dialogue and community-building. Her writing and conversations have been published by C Magazine, Inuit Art Quarterly, The Creative Independent, and more. In collaboration with Whippersnapper Gallery, she recently developed a dual reading room and listening room focused on fostering engagement with Congolese music and history.
Farhia Tato (she/her) is a place-based curator and community organizer. She seeks to confront the limitations of a culture built on exclusivity and resistance to difference, bringing concepts like creolization, hybridity, and gender fluidity into active practice.. With a focus on decolonized and alternative models of education, Farhia teaches in organizing and academic spaces, most recently at Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (Academy of Fine Arts of Munich). She curates public programming for exhibitions in galleries and cultural institutions including: COOPER COLE, Art Gallery of York University, Oakville Galleries, Gallery TPW, Evergreen Brick Works, SummerWorks Festival and the 519. She is the founder of Tender Possibilities, a participatory poetry exploration and creative placemaking initiative, and the 2024 Poet-in-Residence at Gallery TPW.
