The unknown of a knock on the door can be exciting for some, and nerve-racking for others. Imagine that the knock on your door was from someone who simply wanted to learn more about you – in order to write a poem for and about you – how would you respond? Should this ever happen to you, the person standing in front of you is likely Rowan McCabe, as he is the world’s first and only Door-to-Door Poet.
We think it takes a lot of bravery to do something like this – to step into the Big Bold World and ask people to open up to you with the possibly of them closing off more than their door. This is why we wanted to hear what Rowan has to say by inviting him on to the stage at TEDxYouth@BSN.
As this is such a unique idea (so unique it was featured in The Guardian and on BBC Breakfast) we wanted to know what inspired Rowan to do this and how he came up with this idea. “It started as an experiment to see if anyone could enjoy poetry. But as the project went on, it became clear that people have a lot of prejudice towards certain social groups in the society we live in. My experiences began to question those prejudices. ” Rowan explains.
His experiences with Door-to-Door Poetry led him to his talk idea which will focus on the idea of reconnecting with our local community. Rowan believes that in our modern society we are living more isolated as a result of busy schedules and digital lives. He wants to use his TEDxYouth@BSN talk to show us how we can reconnect with our local neighbours, and how this just might help us to reconnect on a global scale.
This is indeed a bold idea, and when we asked Rowan why he thinks this is an idea worth spreading, he said: “Isolation has been linked to a variety of different health problems. It’s also making us more judgmental. We are not getting out and meeting people who live their lives differently to us, so we’re making assumptions about them. Unless we reconnect with our communities, this is going to worsen.”
Rowan hopes that everyone in the world can “…put aside our prejudices, reconnect with people in our communities and create a fairer, more democratic world. “
We hope so too, and perhaps his talk on 9 November will help towards achieving this big, bold idea.
Only five more weeks until we can hear Rowan’s talk. Until then, check out Rowan’s favourite TEDx talk by Shane Koyczan:
