Rewriting History - Blackout Poetry with COAR

What is blackout poetry? It is, somewhat, intuitive - you cross out, or ‘black out’, words from a page of text until a few select remain and as such, a new story is born.

While blackout poetry itself does not require much (paper, black markers, a mind) its significance can be profound. On Sunday 16th April, people far and wide convened at the Food Co-op to join COAR in what was a tale of revolution - for the pages used were not just any old writings, but specially pulled from historically racist texts. This allowed us to carve out our own stories from ones which may not have supported, been kind to, or even acknowledged the existence of BIPOC.

Such was the spirit of Sunday’s blackout poetry event. As we redacted, drew, scribbled and highlighted, we were able to unapologetically be BIPOC with one another, reflecting on our thoughts and experiences of living in racist systems that are not just contained to old books. Stories were shared, critical discussions on movies were had, and poetry was certainly made.

Read on to see some cool examples, and remember: if you have some poetry or written piece you would like to share, the COAR Blog would love to hear from you (coar.cbr@gmail.com)!