Letters to the Future is a Canadian/United Kingdom music and literary artistic exploration supported in part by the National Creation Fund and produced by independent producers, Neil Pearson (UK) and Miranda Mulholland (Canada).
Inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley's notion that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, the project is built on the belief that artists shape policy decisions and public opinion through imagination and the power of music.
We are in the middle of our four stage unique creative process.
Preparation - Curation of songwriters, thinkers and development partners.
Incubation - Bringing songwriters and thinkers from both countries for a week in April 2025 on Prince Edward Island to envision the future we want to live in.
Illumination - Shaping the songs from the Incubation phase for the stage with our Illumination Creative Team in September 2025 at Theatre Aquarius.
Presentation - Our cross-disciplinary performance will have a world premiere and tour in the UK in February, 2026.
Jeanette Winterson writes "art does not imitate life, art anticipates life." We intend to do this.
Songwriters
Aysanabee
Chris Luedecke
Catherine MacLellan
Clerel
Lorraine Segato
Mimi O’Bonsawin
T. Thomason
John Smith
Wesley Stace
Sadie Jemmett
Michele Stodart
Emily Barker
Thinkers
David Sax - The Future is Analog
The Disability Collective - Emily Maxwell, Nathan Sartore and Ali Hand - The Future of Accessibility
Brendan Van Nijenhuis - The Future of Truth
Rhiannon Rosalind - The Conscious Economy
Robin Mazumder - The Future of Cities
Johanna Mizgala - A Preoccupation with Paintings and Patriarchs.
Julie Pellissier-Lush - The Future of Indigeneity
Kiki Benzon - That Thing from the Future
Ex Officio Letter Writers
Robert MacFarlane - The Future of Rivers
Jeanette Winterson - The Future of Storytelling
Peggy Seeger - The Future of Folk