CCH’s Horizons creative writing program hosted their annual showcase on June 24 at the American Writer’s Museum downtown. The event welcomed participants’ family and friends, as well as CCH staff and supporters to witness live readings of poetry composed over the past year.
Grassroots leader Kellia Phillips emceed the event, inviting fourteen participants to share original poems exploring themes of cultural identity, leadership, systemic barriers, domestic violence, and more.
For nearly twenty years, our Horizons program has fostered creativity and healing among people with lived experience of homelessness, especially mothers with children. Founded by Director of Organizing Wayne Richard, the program helps participants share their truth and find their creative voice through poetry, expressive writing, and storytelling.
Zina Grace shares her poem, “My Soul Home AKA Soul Mansion”
“It just opened up a whole window, a whole door full of opportunity for me to do something that I love, which is telling stories, which is performing, making people feel again, making people connect with the heart and souls of themselves,” participant Zina Grace shared. “And so that’s why programs like this is important. This program and this experience has helped to revive me and rejuvenate me.”
Led by Special Projects Organizer Claudia Cabrera, workshops are held twice a month at two Chicago shelters. The program welcomed more than 30 participants this year, including both CCH grassroots leaders and shelter residents.
“You never know what somebody else is going through,” said participant Malasia Brown. “Y’all could be going through the same thing. We all can stand together. Y’all can come together and, you know, share our story together.”
At the event, each performer was gifted with an original work of art created by an Adler University student and inspired by the performer’s poem. This was made possible through a longtime partnership with Adler professor Dr. Jennifer La Civita.
Malasia Brown reads her poem, “What It Felt to be Seen”
