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Connecting from a distance through the joy of reading

Cape Breton-born author Amy Spurway reads from her first novel, Crow, at the 2020 Cabot Trail Writers Festival’s Heard in the Highlands: Cape Breton Out Loud!


October 21, 2020

-by April MacDonald

    Rebecca Silver-Slayter came on as the lead organizer for the Cabot Trail Writers Festival in 2018, the festival’s 10th anniversary.
    Clearly, she had no crystal ball and knew not what the future would bring, certainly not a pandemic.
    The eight-day festival ran this year from September 27th, until October 4th.
    After deciding not to cancel, they went with an “On-Line, On Air, and Outside” approach.
    But why go ahead at all?
    “We knew we wanted to do something,” said Silver-Slayter, but she said it was so hard to predict and they certainly didn’t want to risk the local population.
    “Our preference was not to encourage travel here, so we made the decision to do something different as opposed to cancel or retract events,” she explained.
    She said their reasoning was two-fold.
    “During the pandemic people turned to art for distraction, for solace, to live more deeply and for potential transformation,” said Silver-Slayter.
    She added that, ways in which a community could connect now became more precious than ever.
    The other reason was to support all the authors who had faced such industry challenges of releasing their work while the world was on lock-down.
    “How do we reach more readers,” they asked.
    “We also wanted to give back to the ecosystem we are a part of in the literary world,” said Silver-Slayter.  
    They came up with a multi-platform festival with a theme inspired by recent experiences: The Resilience of Art and Community.
    The 2020 festival programming was offered for free, with only outdoor events taking place in person and most events being hosted online or on the radio.
    She said the organizing team conferred with other festivals that went online and they quickly became aware that internet access would be an issue.
    “Zoom was not an option for us as it had been for many urban literary festivals,” explained Silver-Slayter.
    How do you connect audience members with limited computer or internet access?
    “The majority of the programming was online or on CBC and everything was free. We made sure we reached our audience wherever they were,” said Silver-Slayter.
    “We found an avenue that worked,” she added.
    The adapted programming featured more artists than previous festivals, more workshops and book club events, and a number of new events.
    Slayter says she and the festival board created new opportunities to build friendship and community around the joy of reading.
    Asking what the highlights of the festival were, Silver-Slayter said that there were a couple of panels that were amazing. “They were on Facebook for a short time and then will be moving to YouTube,” she added.
    The theme, The Resilience of Art and Community, was brought to the forefront by two Indigenous poets, Shalan Joudry and Katherena Vermette.
    “How do we still connect to the land while we are shut away?” was answered by these two poets, said Silver-Slayter.
    She also noted that one of her favourite elements was called “The Soundtrack to where you are.”
    “It was a shared experience of the sounds all around us, the recording was beautiful and powerful,” said Silver-Slayter.
    Another highlight was the outdoor event at the festival’s end.    
    “There was so much online that actually getting outside with beautiful Lake O Law as our backdrop brought back the sense of joy of being outside together,” said Silver-Slayter.
    All in all, Silver-Slayter said that it was an amazing learning experience.
    “I am grateful to the writers and the audience for getting on board. It was an inspiring and powerful event warmed by the energy of the writers,” closed Silver-Slayter.

 

 

 


    

 


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