03: Amend

“Dandelions don’t know whether they are a weed or a brilliance.”[1] —Adrienne Maree Brown

Amend features eight original essays responding to our times with a sense of how to move forward. It was produced from an international call for writers to participate in the 2021 WriteON workshop series. Our aim was to question vantage points. With shifts come the opportunity to witness and to repair. How can we amend, we wondered? How can we begin to see, feel, and listen to what has previously been overlooked, or maybe even forgotten?

It is time for a reset. Amend writers carry the weight of questions that provoke us to repair, and even to reframe our ways.

You’ll read about the disconnect of abandoned government buildings coexisting with a substantial unhoused population; about rethinking the relationship not just to the work, but to the worker; and how fresh water ponds become cultural artifacts—even communities are named after these ponds—and yet the ponds are disappearing.  One essay explores the role of public transportation in creating social equity; another explores identity within the framework of travel adapters. Another explores the unexpected utility of scaffolding.

These essays ask us to rethink stories of occupation and conflict. One essay reveals the untold lived experience of feeling unsafe in the public realm, including, “Don’t say anything!” Another explores the growing gap between the powerful and the vulnerable. They reveal a need for more plasticity in order to embrace difference with empathy. What well-intended designs create protection for some but a lack of safety for others? We can not stand on the sidelines.

Amend is made possible with the support of Calgary Arts Development, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Calgary Public Library and Esker Foundation. Thank you to workshop leaders K. Jake Chakasim and Nina Verma; and thanks to Mimi Zeiger for her critical support for each writer in the process of developing these essays. A special thanks to the editorial support of Alicia Ta and the FOLD committee including the efforts of: Christina Amaral Kim, Emily Cargan, Hyeseung Jung, Justin Loucks, and Sergio Veyzaga. FOLD is an initiative of d.talks (dtalks.org).

In an essay about emergence and the future resilience of all species, Adrienne Maree Brown recounts how dandelion seeds create fields of brilliance. “We are invited to be that prolific,” she continues. “And to return fertility to the soil around us.”[1] One’s classification of a dandelion as a “weed” doesn’t stop the dandelion seed from creating brilliance.

We hope you enjoy the Amend issue [below], and that it inspires you to move forward in creating the future you want to see. — amery Calvelli

[1] Brown, Adrienne Maree. “What is Emergent Strategy?” Essay in All we Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K Wilkinson, 37-38, New York, NY: One World, 2020.