Leonore Gordon

I am currently enjoying an adventurous week off of everything I usually do in a week (Habitat, Hockey, and CTR) and spending some time in Vancouver, taking a course in Print Production. The first day in Vancouver; Sunday, I went on a tour of Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain. On that trip, I met two women from New Zealand who were kind enough to share the trip with me, by the names of Leslie and Christine.

I also met two womyn from Brooklyn; Amina, and Leonore Gordon. It is the latter of the two that I would like to spend a couple of minutes discussing here. Sometimes you meet someone by chance, and when you meet them you have no idea “who they are”, and though you are grateful to have met them, you just part ways at the end of the conversation and that is the end of knowing them.

Leonore seemed to have a personality that was too determined and focused to just pass by, however. After talking with her for a few moments, she had already given me a set of instructions and her business card; I was to find out about cell phone antennas and her current petition to stop these antennas from going up onto roofs in residential areas, as the radiation they emit has been linked to brain cancer. Fair enough. I believe that any cause that can help to change lives for the better in any way is a cause worth pursuing. (See the next posting)

As well as an anti-antennae activist, Leonore is a poet, an author, a teacher, a mother, and a psychotherapist. Many of the causes she advocates are very personal to her, not least of which is Parkinson’s - a condition she has. I do not know if I will ever meet her again, apart from the few minutes I spent with her on the tour, but if I can pick a cause of hers (or all of her causes!) and continue to send out ripples, then I have helped her make a difference.

Leonore has taught poetry and writing in schools for almost three decades, with a focus on integrating this poetry and creative writing with other aspects of the student’s culture, such as African drumming or Native American dance and drumming lessons. Some of the things she has taught, and the approach she seems to take in her poetry, and creative writing remind me of my own Mother’s approach; studying similes and personification, use of vocabulary and sensory details, and integrating all these things into a curriculum that looks to empower students with cultural awareness, through putting on plays and performances, both projects my Mother has embarked on as well.

She seems to be an incredible woman. A few minutes of internet research have revealed more than enough proof of her accomplishments, of which I am sure there are many more than I have found out so far. I hope she is able to continue to teach, provide psychotherapy services, and continue to be an activist until well after her son graduates from high school, and perhaps even university. The world continues to need more strong women like her. Hopefully she can serve to be a living example of strength for many young women.