For the past year, Friends Life Community has been experimenting with branching out into a new form of artistic expression in their Advocacy Through The Arts programming. Initially used as a tool for artistic inspiration in a variety of visual art classes, poetry has quickly become its own unique entity in the form of multiple semester-long classes. Poetry has inspired dozens of Friends to express their experiences of the world in a new and exciting way. From recalling childhood memories to describing what it feels like to navigate the world with a disability, the Friends at FLC all continue to utilize poetry as a mode of describing their experiences of joy, belonging, grief and hope, offering us the opportunity to see the world more clearly through their eyes.  

Since January, FLC has partnered with the beloved local poet, Ciona Rouse, to further develop The Friends’ voices and experiment with language and form. This partnership has culminated in the form of a poetry showcase on April 18th, which features a small selection of work from the over 100 poems The Friends have written in the past year. In a world that often speaks over or outright ignores the thoughts, dreams, and musings of adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, poetry has given Friends the platform to speak their truth loudly and with an emotional clarity that feels rare in this day and age.  

This event is a true partnership between the work that The Friends have developed and the growing artistic community that Nashville continues to curate. Featured readers from organizations such as Oz Arts Artwire, The Nashville Poetry Party, Vanderbilt, and our own Mayor Freddie gather to uplift and celebrate this milestone of creative work, strengthening the creative connections that Friends Life Community has been forging with the Nashville artistic community for over a decade.   

RSVP here.