Written By: Education and Career Development Council of the Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance

The poetry slam fundraiser for the Heartbeat Campaign was held at the Q Space Cafe last Friday night, February 22 2013 from 7 to 9 pm and hosted by the Education and Career Development Council of the CTYA.

The event was successful due to a great turn out where many witnessed the rise of talented young Tamil poets and spoken word artists. Pieces were recited in both Tamil and English. These flavors embodied a slice for people of all walks of life.

One of the current Research Coordinator for the Heartbeat Campaign, Rosana Tharmaratnam, explains her first time experience at a CTYA’s poetry slam. “We definitely heard some great talent out there today; soulful poetry that spoke about several themes, from love to illness to justice, things all close to the heart. It was a wonderful opportunity for the performers to show their talent. And as part of the audience, I was amazed to see some of the talent we have in our Tamil community.”

Along with the poetry came the great cause. The Heartbeat Campaign is a way to educate many in the Tamil community about the importance and various ways to make healthy lifestyle changes to prevent heart disease.  When the problem is understood, the solution will be much simpler and we, the Education and Career Development council want to provide the tools for people to utilize daily. Thivya Santhakumar, the ideologist behind the Campaign, exhibited a very optimistic spirit. “It was great to see youth in the Tamil community come out and support the launch of our Heartbeat Campaign. With the money raised, we will work towards future prevention and awareness events regarding heart disease.”

We thank everyone, performers and audience members, who came to support us and believed that this campaign is worthwhile. We would also like to thank KSJ photography for taking all the pictures, and Q Space Café for generously allowing us to use their space.  We hope you all continue to support our future endeavors.

Stay tuned for photos!

Tags: Artists, ECD Council, Education and Career Development, HEARTBEAT, News, Poems, Poetry Slam

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 8:35 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.