Grindrod’s Runaway Moon Theatre continues to help people connect with nature through art with its Calendario project.
The theatre’s latest event will take place in Armstrong Saturday to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and specifically the red-winged blackbirds that have been singing in the local marshland behind Okanagan Street while they stake out the rushes that will be their home for the season.
Besides the blackbirds, Runaway Moon’s Dawn Stilt Chorus will be singing, while poet Natalie Rice will read Swamp Songs, a series of poems she wrote just for this day.
“If you look carefully you will find ephemeral signs created by Crossings, a collective of Okanagan artists that includes Armstrong artist Rhonda Neufeld, Joanne Salé from Vernon, Pippa Dean-Veerman from Lake Country and Portia Priegert from Kelowna,” said Runaway Moon’s artistic director Cathi Stubington.
“As you linger along Meighan Creek, you will have the opportunity to write a poem honouring the red-winged blackbirds and their neighbours.”
All of this is part of Runaway Moon Theatre’s Calendario project, spearheaded by Stubington, who has been working with fellow artists and local students on combining local knowledge of nature, gardening, weather and agricultural practices into one circular calendar.
“We are developing a local calendar based on the timing of events that take place around us, rather than on numerical dates,” she said. “For example, when the first daffodils bloom, it is time to pick nettles.”
The public is welcome to stop by the Armstrong marsh behind Okanagan Street at Patterson Avenue across from the Valley First Credit Union. The event will start at approximately 10 a.m.
