By Sylvester Brown, Jr.
St. Louis American
“Where is the poetry…
In the screams
In the cries
In the begging
I don’t need to see the poetry
I just have to put the gun down”
The author of that prose, “Everyday Elegy,” is Katerina Canyon, the executive director of the Peace Economy Project (PEC).
The St. Louis nonprofit is dedicated to researching military spending and educating about the hazards of an unchecked military-industrial complex and the need for “a more stable, peace-based economy.”
Canyon, 55, is a lifelong poet who admits that she’s been fortunate to have acquired a position that allows her to address her concerns passionately and creatively.
As a child growing up in the Los Angeles area, Canyon was introduced to poetry by her mother, an activist and artist. Her mom gave her a book of poems and short stories by Edger Allen Poe, the macabre author of infamous works such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Raven and The Oval Portrait.”
One of her favorites was Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which focused on a killer who murders an old man but continues to hear his loud beating heart after death. The repetitive sound increases the killer’s guilt and eventually drives him to confess to his crime.
Not exactly material for the average 5-year-old but Canyon said, even at that age, she was captivated by Poe’s wit, humor and deductive writing style.
“A lot of his poems and short stories had riddles in them and I really enjoyed figuring that out, as a kid.”
Canyon’s mother, who was an activist in the movement to integrate California’s segregated schools, was a major motivator in her life. She vividly recalls a poster her mother designed depicting a diverse group of children boarding a school bus. The banner read: “Integrate Now!”
After Canyon was eventually allowed to enroll in a previously segregated magnet school her mother advised her: “Remember you’re just as good as they are.”
Poetry, Canyon said, also helped her cope with her parents’ trials and tribulations such as drug abuse, poverty and the fight for civil rights.
“Both my parents were highly educated, but there was a lot of frustration for them as far as being seen the way they were, ” Canyon explained. “My mother, especially, always felt like she had to fight for me to be in spaces.’’
As an example, Canyon recalled family trips to her mother’s birthplace, Louisiana, and how her father warned them to move aside if a white person approached them on the sidewalk.
“And that was in the early 70s,” she added.
She found her way to the city by way of St. Louis University where she continued her studies in English, international studies and creative writing, with a minor Russian language.
Canyon said she held “a variety of jobs” … in tech, law firms, and major non-profits but, “despite the apparent success and stability these roles provided,” she said, “I always felt unfulfilled, as though I was not truly making a difference.”
When she learned about PEC, Canyon was instinctively drawn to its mission. She volunteered as a writer, social media, and international affairs intern and, later, as a board member. From the start, she set her sights on someday becoming its director.
That day came in January of this year.
Canyon describes herself as a human rights activist and “an experienced strategist with a bias for action.” When asked about inaction towards peace currently in the Middle East and Ukraine, she was not deterred.
“For me, the action is to educate. Even though I advocate for change, my goal is to educate the future leaders of this country, of the world. I don’t see it as a change that’s going to happen tomorrow. I see it as a change that’s going to happen incrementally through a generation of leaders we’re raising today.”
Now, Canyon asserts, is the right time to stress PEC’s mission to transition from a military economy to a more stable, peace-based economy.
“Right now, is the perfect time to address this because it’s never been as obvious as it is right now as to why we need a peace economy,” she stressed. “It’s never been a better time to ask ourselves ‘what happens when we invest in the weaponization of-not only America-but countries we consider our allies as well?’”
What Canyon does find reassuring are the voices and actions of young people on college campuses throughout the nation calling for divestment from military industrial complexes like Boeing and advocating for a more peaceful economy.
“When you hear that language; when you hear young people talking about these things on social media it’s heartening,” she explained, adding: “Because even though they may not have gotten it from us, that message is getting across because of our youth.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
Learn more about the Peace Economy Project, its mission and activities, here: tps://peaceeconomyproject.org/wordpress/