Collaboration Update #3

DAWN

"I was able to get this 1967 Photo that appeared in the London Free Press. A photo of Dawn's Grandmother who practiced ikebana. She is holding a bouquet of flowers: Iris, tulip, daffodils and eucaplyptus.
I was able to get this 1967 photo that appeared in the London Free Press.
(Photo by George Blumson, courtesy of the LFP Collection / Western U. Archives)

Generation / Regeneration
Kayla shared some photos and stories about her family’s past, and coincidentally my relatives have been sharing some family history over email this past week or two.
I was thinking about my grandma Obokata, who did ikebana and was a star of the London Ontario Garden Club. I was able to get this 1967 photo that appeared in the London Free Press.
(Photo by George Blumson, courtesy of the LFP Collection / Western U. Archives)


About my Grandma Obokata (from my play, Japanese Maple):

Scrub scrub scrubbing
your garden hands grandma;
Rub rub rubbing
your rounded back grandma;
blink blink blinking
your tired eyes grandma
so many mysterious
and wonderful things you do in a day…

You fall asleep with your glasses on—
“To see my dreams better” you laugh.


What dreams do you dream
grandma
behind your glasses
behind your smiling flower eyes

KAYLA

is a home a who, a what, a where? how do we mourn the loss of the places we no longer recognize? how do
we acknowledge the ones we never met?
▪️
this week, dawn and i briefly spoke on the idea of place.
for her, for me, for them