Lift up your voice

Aylin Kohan participated–and flourished–in MCIC’s 2023 Voices for Change (V4C) program. Aylin wrote her poem, titled Someday, with the guidance of local slam poet, Steve Locke. It is a passionate piece, exploring themes of identity and human rights, while reflecting on her home country of Iran. Aylin performed Someday at several events including MCIC International Development Week, the Big Brothers Big Sisters National Conference and the Iranian Community of Manitoba’s Yaldā Night. 

You can watch Someday here:

Aylin is an inspiring person. She is currently studying at the University of Winnipeg, and continues to write and perform poetry with Winnipeg Poetry Slam. We were thrilled to reconnect with her.

MCIC: Reflecting on your time in Voices for Change, can you tell me what motivated you to get involved in the program and what it meant to you?

Aylin: For me specifically, a lot of it was the fact that being able to do this program showed me that I am able to do stuff like this. For a long time, I imagined performing poetry about topics that I was passionate about, but I never really knew where to start. 

I feel like Voices for Change was a really good first step because I feel like most of the time if someone were to start [performing poetry], maybe they would perform at cafes or places like that, which is really good as well. It’s just that through Voices for Change, I got guidance and so many opportunities. I performed at lots of important places with important people and I got to be recorded–the video is on YouTube. So, I think through this program, it kind of gave me this new confidence and it feels good knowing that I did this.

MCIC: Your poem, titled Someday, is very personal. Can you tell me what it is about and why it was important to you to write about Iran?

Aylin: Well, for me, the poem was about gender equality and more so about gender equality in Iran. 

After [writing and performing] Someday, I became more connected to the Iranian community here in Winnipeg and I got to perform that poem for them too [at the Yaldā celebration]. So, it was like seeing them see me do this, it was really good for me to see their reactions. I also enjoyed seeing other people perform their pieces because they are also connected to global issues.

MCIC: Is there anything else you would like to mention?

Aylin: One of the other really useful parts of Voices for Change for me is the fact that right now I’m applying to different places, and I can always say I did this, and it really impacted me in a way that now I believe in myself more. 

I would also like to say that participating in Voices for Change made me much more aware in my daily life, as well as at school, of those small subtle things that can cause barriers, especially with say, gender equality. I was aware of it before, but this program made me dive deeper into it. That’s something that it did.