Spotlight on Volunteer Bev Nuttall





                                                                                    Artwork by Lori Portka

   While Steaming Broccoli

 

It takes courage to question

and to sing in a crowd,

when I really feel timid

and don’t want to be loud.

It takes love of myself

to challenge the norm,

to expect a great deal

and not to conform.
 

It takes faith when a loved one

is snatched from above,

a belief in a force that encompasses love.

 

It takes trust when the stakes

seem to reach up so high,

that the walls and the borders

eclipse from the sky.

 

 It takes humour to laugh

when the world seems so grim,

to chuckle when sadness

attacks from within.

 

It takes work to express

clear, articulate thought

when my mind jumps around

to the groceries I bought.

  

 Bev Nuttall, February 21, 2012. Written while making dinner
 



Bev Nuttall, May 2015

Bev has been a volunteer tutor with Action Read for 2 years. She began writing poetry in 1996 on the 7^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. 

Bev lived in Beijing during this time, volunteering for Canadian Crossroads International teaching English to middle school students and their teachers. She witnessed first-hand the student-led demonstrations and protests calling for government accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and the restoration of worker’s control over industry. On June 4 troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted casualties on unarmed civilians, resulting in bloodshed that was unprecedented in the history of Beijing.

Bev returned to Canada and began teaching English as a Second Language in the Waterloo region as well as working for W.P.I.R.G. – Waterloo Public Interest Research Group. In her role with W.P.I.R.G, Bev was an advocate for education, the environment and social change. Much of the poetry she writes is about social justice, the environment and self-discovery.