Celebrating Poetry In MSI
Author: Megan Natoli, Challenge America Program Director
This month, the MSI Community is embracing our theme, “Poetry for the Soul,” as we continue celebrating the incredible women in our community. Together, we’re honoring their strength and stories while taking time to indulge in a little soul-nourishing self-care. 💗
The inspiration behind this month’s theme is that the month of April is National Poetry Month, an amazing opportunity to celebrate the power of words, expressiveness, and charm of poetry!
So today and every day this month, we invite you to feed your soul by brewing that extra cup of tea or coffee ☕ and snuggling up with a good book of poetry, a video performance of poetry, or a pen and paper to write some poetry of your own! 📖 🎭
To kick off the celebrations, we would like to share a few poetry resources with you:
Finding the Words: Stories and Poems of Women Veterans - In this book, ten women veterans, from a WWII Marine to an Army gunner in Iraq, share personal stories of what it's like to be a woman in the U.S. Military. With courage, honesty, wit, and wisdom, they find the words. Finding the Words represents the work of a memoir class taught by Indiana Poet Laureate Shari Wagner and sponsored by the Indiana Writers Center.
"In this collection, we are privileged to hear the voices of women from three branches of the Military, women who served from officer, enlisted and warrant officer ranks, in Active and Reserve Components and in eras and theaters from World War II to today. Different inner drives led them to serve; different motivations pushed them to tell their stories. Don't miss the opportunity to explore the diversity of women veterans' experiences and voices."
We would also like to again share an incredibly powerful archived video performance with you entitled “More than One Story”, a collaborative performance by military women. This performance was held in 2021 and was a collaboration between The Military Women’s Memorial and Community Building Art Works. Over two days in May 2021, 9 military women from across the United States of America gathered virtually to weave their stories into a collaborative performance. This performance is so amazing that it absolutely deserves to be shared about in our communities a second time!
This work is addressed to the women they came from, the women they were, the women they are becoming, and the women who will walk the trail they blazed:
Wishing you a wonderful day filled with poetry and self care for the soul!
Sincerely,
The Challenge America Team
