Shane Koyczan comes to Windsor

By Taylor Desjardins

The St. Clair College Student Representative Council brought in a spoken word artist who has been featured on TEDTalks and the Vancouver Olympics to the Chrysler Theatre on Oct. 28.

Shane Koyczan was introduced by vice president of student life, Mark Merkestyn, to kick off Mental Awareness Week at the college.

Merkestyn said Erica Kitchen, the manager of student life, showed him a YouTube video of Shane Koyzcan because she was impressed with his abilities. After viewing the video, the SRC along with the board of directors voted to bring him to the college for mental health week.

“He spoke with great passion about such things as anti-bullying, among other topics as well, and we felt as though he would be a great person to speak to our students,” said Merkestyn. “It helped show many students that they’re not alone in the struggles they face, and it helped show them different ways they can deal with stress, or other things related to mental health.”

Merkestyn said it was a one-of-a-kind event to bring to downtown Windsor and the SRC thought it would put a new light on St. Clair.

“We felt it was a great benefit to our community due to it being the first time anyone has brought someone who has been featured on TEDTalks to the Windsor area,” said Merkestyn.

Koyczan said being a spoken word artist is not what he expected to have as a job but it was something he was always interested in and he wanted to do something with his talent.

“The practice for me has just been stretching the art form as many different ways as I can and do with it as much I can,” said Koyczan.

He also said he has never been to Windsor before and was excited to go somewhere new and see more of Canada.

“I’m always keen to go to places that I’ve never gone to before, whether they are large communities or small communities,” said Koyczan.

Koyczan said he loves being a spoken word artist because it is always different and fresh.

“I just didn’t want to be stuck. I look around and I saw all my friends go into these jobs and they all fit into their own various boxes,” said Koyczan. “I started to see what life is like in that. Maybe the first couple years are exciting but then it becomes a chore.”

Koyczan said he would love to come back to Windsor if he is invited. SRC is working to see what attendees thought of the event to see what possibilities there are for the future.

“If the opportunity arises again, yes, we would be open to bringing him back due to the positive feedback we received from the event. But we like variety, and we are open to looking at other speakers if we do such an event again,” said Merkestyn.