Generation 2025

Foreward

It’s no secret that these are trying times for the arts. We are witnessing the erosion of creativity and innovation in our institutions of higher learning fueled by cost cutting mandates that are brutally short-sighted and disheartening. Regardless of business efficacies and the sudden need for “accountability,” the resulting adverse impact in classrooms, our university and college campuses and in society in general will be detrimental to the growth and development of our young people and our collective well-being.

At the same time, it is gratifying to see students filling the ominous void by resurrecting this time-honoured publication. By extending the invitation in this issue to students from other universities, we see collegiality at its best. For some, Generation Magazine is a first opportunity to be published; in fact, I was one such rookie when my offerings appeared in an ancestral edition of Generation nearly a half century ago. Though I would call my early work “experimental” (read mediocre), my fondest memory was of a future Governor-General’s Award winner, the Canadian poet, Phil Hall, who acted as our esteemed student editor. His encouragement and insights were welcomed by those to whom he gave this initial publishing break. For one shining moment, the future never looked better.

To produce a publication that includes poetry, prose and collage/visual art is to speak stridently about the importance of art in our lives. It is a statement to what is vital to a community. It is a challenge to conventional thinking and advances the proposition that a celebration of all that is creative has value—a manifestation of that which is the best in all of us.

The artist Henri Matisse tells us that “creativity takes courage.” In these unprecedented times, we need all the spirit we can muster. So, cheers to these young authors as they do what it takes to build brave new worlds. We will watch in awe and wonder.

Peter Hrastovec
Poet Laureate, Windsor, Ontario February 2025

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