So, I asked GROK: “Who is Mandy Robinson, Cobourg?”
What a wonderful read, well detailed, and very current. Almost like an intelligence briefing. Mandy Robinson was appointed Cobourg’s first female Town Crier in 2015 and she remains in her role, a voice of inspiration for freedom and community. In the full flourish of her gown, she is a rose on the lapel of the community as well as an active relic of British culture providing continuity to the community.
Back in 2019, I asked her if she would portray Susanna Moodie and recite a Susanna Moodie poem for Words On a Wire, the poetry extravastanza of the Northumberland Festival of the Arts. We went to the Northumberland Players costume centre for a proper costume to transform her into Susanna Moodie, a proper British subject subjected to the indignities of Roughing It In the Bush.
Her performance was spot on. She brought with her a small bouquet of wild flowers in a common glass jar. That was just the touch of modesty and humility that highlighted her performance of Susanna Moodie. Once again, I was pleased to bring Susanna Moodie to attend the unveiling of the picnic table of Susanna Moodie poems curated by Cobourg Collegiate Institute students. But better yet, we unveiled a table of Mandy Robinson’s Catalyst Poetry.
It is one thing to read her poetry on a picnic tabletop, but quite another to listen to her delivery, either in person or on-line. Uplifting, dramatic, individualistic, motivating, civic minded, are a few tags I would apply to her. Tenacity. Her vocal performance carries many of her poems. Now there is a tabletop of her Catalyst Poems gracing Our Poemtown’s Victoria Park. For example:
FIRE
Fire purges
Defines the rough cut diamond inside
Fire cleanses
and replenishes new growth.
Fire destroys,
The old to make way for the new.
We are tried by the fires
That we must walk through.
Fire also ignites from within,
We ARE the driver of our lives!
How we choose to stay the course and drive through our fires,
Determines our strength and growth!