Collecting stories and poems about overcoming adversity

We are now in our third year! This year we are working towards national replication of our events gathering poems about overcoming adversity. Anyone who completes our online training process can now apply to replicate our events. We have a $75 stipend for the first ten hosts to replicate our program, and a $50 stipend for the next 40 hosts. We hope to have 50 replication events hosted by June of 2013.

Natasha Ria El-Scari spits some truth and hard hitting poems about overcoming adversity at Penn Valley community college

Poetry for Personal Power is a program coordinated by the Heartland Consumer Network,  Wellness Wordworks, the American Jazz Museum, Create Your Own Reality, Park University, and Harris-Stowe State University. We are gathering stories and poems about overcoming adversity and what people do in positive ways that helps them build friendships and feel better. See the video links and our event pages for what we have heard from people on the streets and in universities in Missouri.

This year, our third year, we are hosting 10 open mic events with cash prizes at two and four year colleges and universities across Missouri in the fall semester. In the spring semester, all poets who have entered our events can complete a short online training, then earn a stipend to host their own events, up to 8 events per community.

We have  two impact challenges to see which main event and which poet hosted event has the most participation to spread the message that all kind of wellness tools can be used to get through adversity. Students have talked about their resources in friends, gaming, spirituality, goal setting, sports, family, and of course poetry that helps them get through adversity.

Video from Park University about our competition for poems about overcoming adversity:

Thanks so much to the Sight and Sound Project for this excellent edit.