MAC selected Polyphonic celebration for Mississauga’s 50th Anniversary project as 2024 success

“Poet and author Anna Yin used her Matchmaker MicroGrant to produce the ebook Polyphonic celebration for Mississauga’s 50th Anniversary – 2024. This heartfelt, community-engaged work captures the essence of local artists, particularly writers, celebrating Mississauga’s 50th anniversary through poems, stories, paintings, and photos. The ebook can be served as a “yearbook” of 2024, and captures writing in English, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Persian.
The book is written in three parts – the first explores the friendship between Mississauga and its sister city, Kariya, Japan, through poetry, particularly haikus. The second section features interviews with Mississauga community leaders and poetry writing on events that took place in Mississauga in 2024 and prior. Highlights include tributes to long-running Mayor Hazel McCallion and insights into what the future of Mississauga will hold. The final part showcases haikus written by students at Clifford International School in Guangzhou, China, guided by Anna during her 2024 travels. ” — Mississauga Arts Council, Oct 24, 2024

Polyphonic celebration for Mississauga’s 50th Anniversary project has been completed on Oct 2, 2024)

Mississauga is home to Indigenous peoples and diverse ethnic groups. Over years, Mississauga has evolved from small villages into a modern city. This project is a unique project designed and lead by Anna Yin to celebrate Mississauga’s 50th anniversary by collecting stories from different people and arts in Mississauga, creating a new set of poetry, and collaborating with artists and translators to create polyphonic celebration. With a Matchmaker Microgrant from MAC in Dec, 2023 and sponsorship from local business and artists, this project started on Jan 1, 2024. The followings are some highlighs:

Paintings of Mississauga by Nisreen Art.

Main activities’ schedule


Jan 1- July, 2024: appropriate stories collected and researched to compose a series of poetry
April- Aug 20: Anna collaborates with other artists for paintings and photos
Mar, 2024:Free public zoom meeting: Poly-Translations from art to poetry to film (跨界多译­—艺术/诗歌/电影)
(sponsored by East and West Learning Connections & The League of Canadian Poets)
April 6, 2024: A haiku presentation in Kariya, Japan and many photos
August 2024:  Anna and participants translate appropriate poems (3-4 locally relevant languages)
Sept 2024:  the above photos, photos of paintings, poetry, translations will be combined to produce eBook.
Oct 2, 2024:Release the eBook and showcase it on social media and sureway press website

Online showcase:

Anna Yin’s poems with local artists’ arts as samples
Students’ work from Clifford International School, Guangzhou, China (April, 2024)

Photos and Haiku from KIFA (Kariya International Friendship Association), Japan (2024) (in English and Japanese)
Mississauga Travelogue by Toshitaka Okumura, 2024 (in English and Japanese)
The Beauty of Friendship (in English, Japanese and Chinese)

Artists and arts at Pollinator Showcase Garden, Mississauga 2024 and poems
Writings from local writers in Mississauga, Canada (2024)

Painting (Juno Jiang) and poem for Mayor Hazel (Anna Yin) July 25, 2024, (in English, Chinese, Perse languages)
(The poem is also on Sauga Arts Hub, Thanks MAC)
Beautiful Dreams (poem in English & Chinese) -inspired by Mississauga’s Olympic Champion: Katie Vincent (2024)

Thank sponsors for their great support! Please also check our previous successful projects with the following link. You are welcome to join us for this new project in 2024!

Updates from Kimball Electronics’ Take a Haiku Hike Challenge

Anna Yin was happy to be a guest speaker and a judge for Kimball Electronics’ Take a Haiku Hike Challenge. Here are the winners with Communications Director Scott Saalman’s announcement. Thank Anna, Scott and all the participants, for bringing about such an amazing event where new talents were discovered. Anna invites all interested to join our online haiku workshops in the summer. Your contributions will be considered for inclusion in our eBook in Oct.