North Battleford has met the “Mayor’s Poetry City Challenge” issued by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi earlier this year.
Nenshi had issued the annual challenge to his fellow mayors to find local poets willing to read at council.
At the start of Monday’s council meeting, councilors heard prose and poetry readings from three young individuals from the area.
The first was from Christopher Sanford Beck, one of 10 Imagine a Canada contest winners sponsored by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, for his winning entry that described taking his family to a cultural festival on a First Nation reserve in Treaty Six territory, some 20 years into the future.
That was followed by poetry readings from Mickayla Carlson and Donovan Schiele of North Battleford Comprehensive High School. Carlson’s poem was titled Mistatim, the Cree word for horse, while Schiele’s poem was called Snowboarding.
All three were recognized afterwards with a presentation from Mayor Ian Hamilton.
