but our lives will only ever always
continue to be
a balancing act
that has less to do with pain
and more to do with beauty.
(Excerpt, To This Day, Shane Koyczan)
If you use social media regularly, you’ve probably seen an animation of a poem presented by Shane Koyczan at TED2013. Shane is a spoken word performer from Penticton, British Columbia who has inspired many with To This Day – a poem about the deep and lasting impact of bullying in a person’s life. Shane’s book Visiting Hours* was chosen as a Book of the Year Selection by The Guardian and Globe and Mail newspapers. Since then he has released Stickboy, Our Deathbeds Will be Thirsty and an album entitled Remembrance Year. (See link below in Related for more information.)
[Shane Koyczan] makes you feel the depth of love, joy and pain in everyday life. Love, after all, is in everything. –Joel Pott, The Guardian, writing about Visiting Hours
— Shane Koyczan (@Koyczan) March 1, 2013
To date there have been 5 1/2 million views of Shane’s presentation on YouTube. This means that there’s a good chance your friend, family member or colleague hasn’t seen it yet. Please do share a link to Shane’s work, if you have the chance.
Here is a link to the animation of the poem and more resources about Shane’s work.
You can comment about this posting using the comment function below or by visiting the BC Family Facebook page. Your opinion matters so don’t be shy!
Related
Shane Koyczan on Twitter
Shane KIoyczan on Facebook
Get a new poem and updates from Shane once a month – newsletter
Buy To This Day and other works by Shane Koyczan
To This Day project website and the To This Day call for animation submissions
Bullying.org was a supporter of Shane’s animation project.
Blog post about Shane’s presentation on the TED website.
Vancouver sun article about Shane and interview with him.
We are More (video) Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics poem