City Poems: Transformative Learning through Locative Poetry

City Poems is a path-clearing initiative that combines the power of poetry, technology, and community perspectives to transform how students engage with our urban environment. With a focus on accessibility, diversity, and inclusion, the project responds directly to the Faculty of Arts Place & Power requirement by generating site-specific “encounters with questions of place, power, and positionality.”

Facilitated by a comprehensive teachers' guide, created in partnership with Indigenous Initiatives and CTLT, the project employs pedagogical strategies established in the _What I Learned in Class Today_ series. This innovative endeavour aims to spark student engagement with poetry and deepen their connection between place and narrative.

The City Poems app invites students to immerse themselves "inside the stories" of Vancouver's places and poems, reimagining conventional mapping and wayfinding through augmented reality and poetics. It features poets like Joy Kogawa, Debra Sparrow, Jeremy Chu, Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li, and Donna Seto, among others.

David Gaertner, Associate Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Arts
Daisy Rosenblum, Assistant Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Arts
Janey Lew, Sr. Educational Consultant, Indigenous Initiatives, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
Cecily Nicholson, Assistant Professor, Creative Writing, Faculty of Arts