Drink the Wild Air
Date: March 18 – 20, 2022
Location: Online
Cost: $140
While we wait within our homes
And wintry winds blow through slumbering groves
There is a place both fresh and rare
A place called Drink the Wild Air
Where friends can come and share their words
And minds and hearts, their voices heard
Though we might not be in person
We’ll have a blast, that much is certain!
Drink the Wild Air is a creative writing retreat for youth ages 11 to 19.
Typically nestled in the gateway to the rocky mountains in Kananaskis country, this year we’ll come together online to take workshops with working professionals, play games, share our stories, our songs, our poems and our art. Join us on March 18th for orientation, and on March 19 and 20 for a weekend of creative razzmatazz, hijinks, capers, and general hullabaloo.
The 2022 Team
Colin Matty
Colin Matty (camp director) has been with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta since 2012, becoming the director of Drink the Wild Air and WordsWorth in 2015. He is the author of three plays, two sketch comedies, and thousands of poems. Colin has tread the boards of festivals and competitions from Victoria to Montreal and is an accomplished creator, performer and educator in the fields of theatre, poetry, and improvisation. His work has a strong focus on playful discovery and aims to foster the joy that comes with engaging the creative powers that lie latent within us all.
Nisha Patel
Nisha Patel is an award-winning disabled queer poet & artist. She was the City of Edmonton’s eighth Poet Laureate, and a Canadian Individual Slam Champion. Her debut collection, COCONUT (NeWest Press) is out. She has two short collections forthcoming in 2022: Not a Disorder (Gap Riot Press) and Patient+ (Gutslut Press).
Her poetry speaks to themes of disability and equity, racism, and identity, focusing strongly on her struggles and triumphs as a woman of colour navigating oppressive realities. She works towards the goal of building a stronger artistic community through living in her truth.
You can find her at nishapatel.ca.
Nasra Adem
Nasra Adem is a queer Oromo/Somali multidisciplinary artist based in Amiskwaciywaskahikan (Edmonton). Everything NASRA creates stems from the Black Indigenous belief that art is nature expressing itself; a language of languages that has and will continue to sustain Black life, history and imagination.
This belief named them Youth Poet Laureate of Edmonton in 2016 and birthed their festival turned platform Black Arts Matter. Which celebrates the inherent worth of Black creatives in Alberta through performance, education and paaaaaarties.
Nasra’s currently exploring their creative languages through DNAPLAY; a glorified instagram photodump-or more poetically put- a veneration of Black queer routine as ritual. Channelled through poetry, film, dance and the genre-bending, bass driven sounds of their ep Salve. No matter the form it takes Nasra’s heartwork honours the spectrum of freedom for Black/Indigenous Peoples everywhere.
For more information and to register, visit writersguild.ca.
