Wholly Purpose: Mental Health and the Power of Poetry

In this poetry writing series, Prudence and Steven guide us through a playful exploration of our own mental health, what that means, and our collective ability to heal. Together, we will define for ourselves what it means to be and become whole, with each ‘piece’ in the series representing a part of that journey.

Please join us on Sunday, October 24 for the second in a series of monthly sessions. Participants may choose to attend one, several, or all four of the series workshops. Each session is designed as an individual experience, with new and exciting tools, that construct the whole.

Participants can expect to: engage with others in a supportive space, free from judgement, made up of writers and non-writers; create individual works that might encompass one poem you craft over the length of the series or several poems created in each session; contribute meaningfully to a “community poem” that incorporates lines from each participant to create one collective art piece that we all own; play with new poetic forms that exist both on the page and on stage; experience the power of poetry as a liberatory activity, as a form of actionable love and as a path to dismantling stigma.

Facilitators: Prudence Omale, Steven T. Licardi, Jeffrey Aron

Prudence Omale, is a creative writer, an advocate and a Performance Activist. She uses her writings to influence societal change and call people to action.

Steven T. Licardi is an Autistic social worker, spoken word poet, and performance activist. He (usually) travels domestically and internationally using the power of spoken word to create empathic dialogue around, to confront the realities of, and to assist communities in dismantling the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness.