Laurier and Neruda Arts will bring positive messages to Waterloo Region through mobile Kindness Project trailer

Nov. 8, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Wilfrid Laurier University’s Library on the Waterloo campus, in partnership with Laurier’s Community Music program and Neruda Arts, is launching a new initiative that will bring music and messages of kindness and hope to communities across Waterloo Region.

The Kindness Project: Music in the Library for our Community is a mobile trailer equipped with a large screen, which will travel to neighbourhood spaces where community members have limited access to local arts programs. The screen will play pre-recorded performances and presentations from Laurier music students and faculty; book and poetry readings from library staff; and greetings from Laurier’s President and Vice-Chancellor Deborah MacLatchy and University Librarian Gohar Ashoughian.

“The Kindness Project is an opportunity to join hands – safely – to transform our landscape of fear, anxiety and loneliness to one of comfort, hope and unity,” said Isabel Cisterna, the manager of cultural programming and community engagement at the Laurier Library and the founder and director of Neruda Arts. “The project will also give us the unique opportunity to engage our community safely and build bridges between Laurier students and the community.”

The Kindness Project will launch at a virtual event on Nov. 12 from 5 to 6 p.m. Audience members can have a first look at the mobile trailer, watch a music video and hear from organizers and supporters. Speakers at the virtual launch will include Ashoughian and Cisterna, as well as Cynthia Johnston Turner, dean of Laurier’s Faculty of Music, and Tamara Menon, acting artistic director of Neruda Arts. There will also be a pre-recorded message from Darren Thomas, Laurier’s associate vice-president of Indigenous Initiatives. The event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required.

From Nov. 15 to 26, the mobile trailer will be visiting, among other locations:

• Emmanuel Day Care Centre, 65 Noecker St., Waterloo, on Nov. 15 at 10 a.m.
• Victoria Hills Community Centre, 10 Chopin Dr., Kitchener, on Nov. 15 at 1 p.m.
• Courtland Shelley Community Centre, 508H Sunnydale Place, Waterloo on Nov. 16 at 4 p.m.
• Hatts Off, 20 Haddington St., Cambridge on Nov. 17 at 12 p.m.
• Extend-A-Family, 91 Moore Ave., Kitchener on Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.
• Sunnydale Community Centre, 1052 Courtland Ave. E., Kitchener, on Nov. 23 at 4 p.m.
• Chandler Mowat Community Centre, 222 Chandler Dr., Kitchener, on Nov. 25 at 1 p.m.
• Laurier Library, Waterloo campus (internal audience only), on Nov. 26 at 11 a.m.