Check out the virtual program for this event HERE.
Poetic Theater Productions is proud to present a free-to-the-public reading of original work by veterans and the family members of veterans: Veteran Voices: Reckoning. This will be the culmination of a six-week, four-part workshop series led and facilitated by veterans.
Warrior cultures of the past such as the Greeks, Romans, and Native Americans welcomed their military home in rituals of storytelling. Following in that tradition, Poetic Theater’s Veteran Voices program seeks to revive these practices through creating an environment for veterans to share their stories, helping them to express those stories in a way that informs others, helping them recognize that their experiences do not define them and that they are universal and part of a long line of experiences from warriors throughout history and, to help them become comfortable sharing these works with others in an intimate but public setting.
The workshops were designed to guide veterans through a process of writing and performance that empowers them to speak their truths, share their experiences, bear witness together, and exist in a space of creativity, compassion, and camaraderie.
Featured Artists include:
kínisi
The event is curated by Jenny Pacanowski, J.A. Moad II, and Omar Columbus. Workshops were facilitated by J. A. Moad II, Jenny Pacanowski, Karen Alvarado, and MJ McConnell and the program was produced by Kelly Teaford.
Poetic Theater Productions has been presenting work by military veterans since 2012 in connection to the company’s award-winning production of GOLIATH by Takeo Rivera. The current Veteran Voices program is a merging of Poetic Theater Productions’ former annual Kicking Down Doors program curated by Jenny Pacanowski and Everett Cox (launched in the 2016 Poetic License Festival) and the Veteran Voices program initiated in the fall of 2017 (in collaboration with Consequence Magazine, Warrior Writers, War Literature & The Arts, and the Veteran Artist Program) presented with the 3-week run of J.A. Moad II’s production of Outside Paducah: The Wars At Home.
Event image adapted from artwork by veteran and workshop participant, Maria Salazar.