News

The London Music Office and The City of London’s Climate, Environment & Waste Management team are excited to share the release of the Watershed Poem video. Poet and former City of London Poet Laureate, Tom Cull crafted the London centric poem, “Watershed”, addressing local impacts brought on by climate change. “Watershed” has been transformed into a beautiful, captivating video that highlights and weaves throughout the City of London’s Climate Emergency Action Plan. Locals will resonate with the poems mention of familiar London places and themes of resilience and hope.

Local musicians Lola Hayman (Thunder Queens), Fiker (Fiker Kirubel), Shawn Durant and Fraser Teeple lend their voices to read out the poem in the video. London based band, Status/Non-Status, created an original composition that uplifts the powerful words of the poem.

Connecting climate action and music is a vital part to London’s UNESCO City of Music designation. Sustainable development extends beyond music – The City of London, Tourism London and London Music Office are actively using the UNESCO City of Music designation to inspire voices, share stories and advocate for a sustainable future.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are at the forefront of every project. Here we focus on SDG #13 – Climate Action and see first-hand how music and the creative sector can connect, educate and relay a shared message. While focusing on SDG #13, other SGDs were supported including #5 Gender Equality, #8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, #9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and #17 Partnership for the Goals.

The UNESCO City of Music designation truly thrives on community collaboration and working with local artists and businesses. This project could not have been possible without the support of the City of London - Climate, Environment and Waste Management team, London Public Library, Wolf Performance Hall, London Environmental Network and Tourism London.

Learn more about London’s Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) and progress here.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE!

Watershed Credits
Watershed a poem by Tom Cull

Credits
Music by – Status/Non-Status
Audio – Dean Nelson
Director – Chris Evans
Artistic Director – Mai Tilson

Cast
Fiker Kirubel
Fraser Teeple
Lola Hayman
Shawn Durant

Crew
Nil Pilecki
Jeff Chambers
Matthew Stephenson
Keith Tanner
Rachel Long
R. Rocha Neto

Watershed
i
We feel the change—
seasons stretched and squeezed
like a tattered accordion.

Autumn ashes in the air,
city soccer fields
hugged in smoke.                                                                     

Torrential winds
catch dog walkers dodging for cover,
a blow-up Yoda yard decoration
crushed by fallen silver maple limbs
—                                     

The moon pulls hard
on high tides, rises fat and orange
above a mom and her twin daughters,
walking home from the splash pad
in Gibbons park. Ice cream puddles,
the hum of cicada and air conditioners
straining against mounting waves of heat –                              

The geese holding up cars on Queen Avenue,
feel it too, the coyote disappearing
into fields of wheat off Gore Road,
the fox in Warbler Woods, carrying kits
in her mouth, one by one,
to higher ground.

The osprey in the light standards
over Labatt Park eye the horizon—
the river below climbs its banks,
rock bass rock the park.

Meteorologists are out of words
Sirens whip the streets
We stop at flashing red lights
a whole city at our windows asking
can we spare change?

ii
We finally woke up
when we stopped
hitting snooze.
Does a sundial measure or make time?
Shadows creep towards midnight.
We filled our gas tanks
with ancient swamps,                                   
released carbon captured
by trees that eat sunlight,
spun ore and oil into stories
so powerful they seemed
to write themselves,
Once Upon A Time
is at The End.

But also a beginning.
The dragon fly nymph crawls
out of water, up a cattail stalk
cracks itself open,
and spreads stained-glass wings.

iii
Hope can’t be found.
But it can be made.

As we have done before:
storms flatten city blocks—
the next day, chainsaws
everywhere, neighbors
knocking on your door,
asking, what do you need?

Community in concentric circles
anchored by a shared centre,
action cascading outward.

iv
The river is a blue print,
scored into the land 15,000 years ago,
flowing through First Nation territories:
Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee,
Lūnaapéewak  and Chonnonton—
written through Treaties
roles and responsibilities,
a model and mode,
ancient circular economy—
a set of instructions for how to live
that we buried, channeled,
rerouted, damned, polluted.

But the river still runs, Deshkan Ziibi
pulls itself back up into the sky,                                              
returns to the source to start again
each new cycle,
a chance to begin again.

The beaver knows how to build for weather.
Sandbar willow roots know how to hold
the riverbank, shape a watercourse
where turtles lay eggs in stony nests
and sandpipers probe the mud for lunch.

Picture a city as a watershed:
a thousand integrated systems.
Beneath our feet a million mycelium
synapses composting, recycling life,
nutrients released back into the soil,
anchor community gardens,
water stored in wetlands, rain gardens,                 
filtered, regenerated.
Energy captured by green roofs, green buildings.                     
Tree canopies breathing deeply, stretching their limbs
to shield us from the sun.
Picture a city where we move like a circulatory system
our commute to work, the best part of the day.
Walk, bike, scoot, plug yourself in, ride transit
-- there is an art to living--
Public spaces, music.

We are a mural;
paint your future in the Forest City—
a history yet to be written,
a forest yet to be planted.
Generations ahead look over their shoulders
Ask, can you see us?
What will you do?

We know the answers—
as clear as Ursa Major in a black winter sky,                                         
that Great Bear written in stars
who bellows out his light for future
eyes to see.