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Coffee with: Active Angelica yearns for human contact

For periods this summer, Steveston’s Angelica Poversky will have to remain silent and motionless for stretches as long as five to six minutes at a time.
Poversky
Angelica Poversky, who’s going into Grade 12 this fall, fears for the future if people rely more and more on Facebook as their point of reference for what’s going on in the world. Photo by Philip Raphael/Richmond News

For periods this summer, Steveston’s Angelica Poversky will have to remain silent and motionless for stretches as long as five to six minutes at a time.
While those episodes may sound brief, it’s a tall order for the McMath secondary student who’s used to being on the go, running the local dyke trails in a build up to a marathon event, playing with her folk/rap band called Goons, finishing her novel, serving on an advisory committee for the city’s latest festival, or delivering one her forthright performances as a spoken word poet.
The News got a chance to sit down with Poversky at Waves Coffee on a recent, spectacular, sunny Steveston morning to find out what exactly will be keeping her from her own form of perpetual motion.
“I am a living statue during the Ships to Shore event and Maritime Festival, which means I have to remain motionless and quiet until someone drops a coin into a box,” explained this year’s Youth Arts Awards winner between sips of steamed milk. “Then I can burst to life and start telling them my story.”
It’s a perfect role for the 17-year-old since it allows her the opportunity to combine a pair of favoured pursuits — one-on-one communication and performing. It’s an art the soon-to-be Grade 12 student believes is absent for many hunkered down in today’s world where communication through social media is often the preferred mode.
“One of my biggest issues is the lack of human connection people have today,” she said, adding when people do interact, it’s all too often very superficial. “It’s all about saying, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ without actually talking about the world, and seeing past the Facebook timelines, taking a picture and being fake happy.
“I feel like right now people are selling an image of themselves when we should be more honest. But I don’t think social media is the place for that kind of honesty. It’s very much the place to advertise yourself. And when you’re doing that, you tend not to advertise the negative.”
Poversky said society can strive to hold those more authentic conversations and still have things such as Facebook in the background.
“But (social media) shouldn’t be the dominant force in our lives like I feel it’s becoming,” she said. “We’re losing those real conversations, and it worries me.”
You can feel the anxiety-laced passion in Poversky’s plea and understand it comes from a place in her upbringing which encouraged her to speak her mind.
“I’ve always had something to say. And I’ve always been welcome to express myself growing up,” she said. “With my friends and family, I’ve felt my opinions were appreciated and valued.”
Without that freedom in society — fostering open discussion — Poversky said advancement of many societal issues can be blunted.
“I just see a lot of change I’d like in the world,” she said. “And I feel if I just stay sitting, doing nothing, nothing will come out of it.
“I see a lot of pain and not very good things happening. And I wouldn’t have a life of very much meaning if I don’t try my best to solve problems that I see.”
And if one of her spoken word performances can leave someone with a new outlook on a subject, she would consider that a “pretty cool change.”