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2024 Power of Words Conference
September 26-29, 2024 at Unity Village, Missouri
This powerful conference brings together writers, storytellers, performers, musicians, educators, activists, healers, health professionals, community leaders, and more! Together we explore the written, spoken and sung word, seeking to find how it can bring liberation, celebration, and transformation to individuals and communities.
Pre-Conference events will be held on Thursday evening, September 26 and Friday morning and afternoon, September 27. They are open to all Conference attendees for an additional fee.
Important links & info:
Early Bird pricing has been extended to August 1st!
Travel and lodging information.
Information about becoming a sponsor or underwriter.
Scholarship and Work-Study Info & application form. (We offer work-study positions as well as partial scholarships for the general public and students and for people of color or people living with serious illness and/or disability.)
(If you join the TLA Network as a member, you will save on the conference now, and on classes and other offerings later.)
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg: 
Eric McHenry: Eric McHenry is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Odd Evening (Waywiser, 2016). His honors include the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest, and a term as poet laureate of Kansas. His poems have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Field, and The Yale Review. His prose appears in The American Scholar and The New York Times Book Review. He teaches English at Washburn University.
Huascar Medina: Kansas Poet Laureate Emeritus and Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, Huascar Medina is a father and arts administrator. He’s an op-ed writer at Kansas Reflector, an editor for seveneightfive magazine, South Broadway Press, and 
Glenn North: Glenn North is the Director of Inclusive Learning and Creative Impact at the Kansas City Museum. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMKC and is the author of City of Song, a collection of poems inspired by Kansas City’s rich jazz tradition. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His ekphrastic and visual poems have appeared in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Glenn is also an adjunct English professor at Rockhurst University and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. 
Wyatt Townley: Wyatt Townley is Poet Laureate of Kansas Emerita. She has published six books, four of poetry, including Rewriting the Body, The Breathing Field, Perfectly Normal, and The Afterlives of Trees. Her work has been read on NPR and published in journals ranging from New Letters to Newsweek, North American Review to Paris Review, Yoga Journal to Scientific American. Commissioned poems hang on the walls of the Johnson County Library and the Space Telescope Science Institute Library, home of the Hubble. 
Maryfrances Wagner: Maryfrances Wagner’s latest books are The Immigrants’ New Camera, The Silence of Red Glass, 
Mindful Writing (MW) offers an opportunity to rediscover the power of silence, somatic awareness, and writing to introspect and see from a wider lens. Mourning or sorrowing allows us to ritualize our feelings. Transformative Grief happens after we descend into the depth of feelings, thoughts, and emotions about a loss. MW is appropriate for examining the gifts of loss and building Transformative Grief. Yes, you are reading correctly; Grief is a spiritual, transformative force we can generate from loss.
The workshop would focus on selecting from a group of physical objects, each with an assigned one-sentence prompt, and then creating a fictional account on the prompt's behalf. The idea is to allow the writer to exercise their imaginative powers and to create, truly, from a place of non-restriction. Essentially, and summarized, this would be considered as "play time" but for writers. Readings of the work created would also be encouraged.
At its essence, Restorative Poetics is about the healing properties of poetry on both a personal and community level. Poetry provides a unique opportunity for introspection that can be helpful in confronting personal trauma or the harm we see unfolding in our communities such as issues in the areas of social justice, poverty, disparities in healthcare, gender inequality, and so on. Poetry is not a panacea, but where there has been harm, poetry can help repair; where there is a wound, poetry can be a balm. In the Restorative Poetics workshop, we will tour the -1.jpg)
This workshop includes two components. First, Dr. Cheng will show how she uses storytelling to build brave and intimate spaces conducive to productive dialogues. She will focus on the human values embedded in this art form. Participants will have the opportunity to share their stories and experience the transformational power of storytelling. Second, Dr. Cheng will demonstrate how this immersive approach can be utilized in different contexts to generate care, trust, and solidarity across differences. 
Divine Ink: Crafting Theopoetic Journeys Through Poetry and Handmade Books is an immersive workshop inviting participants into a transformative exploration of spirituality through creative expression. Through guided writing exercises, participants delve into the depths of their souls to unearth the divine whispers within. As they craft their own poems infused with the sacred, they also learn the art of handmade bookbinding, weaving their verses into tangible manifestations of spiritual insight. Join us for a soul-stirring journey of self-discovery and creative empowerment.
Vi Tran is a preacher’s kid and the son of butchers. Born in the shadow of Sai Gon, Vietnam and raised in the cattle country of southwestern Kansas, he’s equal parts sea salt and wheat fields. He is founding owner and managing curator of The Buffalo Room performance event space and as the creator of The Butcher’s Son, an autobiographical refugee story and folk musical memoir about his family’s escape from Vietnam. Vi Tran Band has opened for legendary rock band Kansas and has opened for such acts as Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Barenaked Ladies, Beck, Ben Folds, Counting Crows, KT Tunstall, Ray LaMontagne, Willie Nelson, and Violent Femmes. Their full-length album American Heroine, a symphonic rock, folk, and Americana song cycle, was included on Best-of lists by Mark Manning (KKFI 90.1 FM) and Timothy Finn (Kansas City Star). As a storyteller, actor, singer-songwriter, composer, and playwright, Tran examines topics as varied as the unpacking of inherited cultural trauma among refugee populations living in diaspora to the dismantling of the toxic masculinity within the mythos of the Hemingway Hero. 
Ken Lassman is the author of Wild Douglas County and Seasons and Cycles: Rhythms of Life in the Kansas River Basin, and numerous essays on the prairie, bioregionalism, and living close to the land. A fifth-generation Kansan, he and his wife, poet and writer Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, recently completed a 35-plus year journey to protect 130 acres of prairie and emerging woodlands through a conservation easement with the Kansas Land Trust. Ken is an occupational therapist with Minds Matter, and he leads frequent nature walks, and through 
The Embodied Storytelling technique uses personal narrative through body and voice to support key developmental processes like emotional regulation, identity formation, risk-taking and mistake-making, wrapped inside playful, creative games. Its egalitarian structure supports strong community-building and peer leadership as participants quickly become facilitators and is especially powerful for people experiencing marginalization and highly stigmatized challenges. Join us to understand this unique set of tools, play some games, and take some of them home with you. 
Kathryn Lorenzen
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D
Conventional psychiatric diagnosis masquerade as nouns, things that we have. From our studies with Indigenous elders, we have learned to view emotional suffering as verbs and not nouns. We will explore how to do this, to look beyond diagnoses as motivators and explanations for behavior, and to explore the suffering behind the diagnosis. We include writing exercises that involve turning nouns into verbs with reference to the emotions of characters and clients. 
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD (’75 Stanford University; ’80 Psychological Studies Institute) and Barbara Mainguy, MA, LCSW (’10 Concordia University; ’17 University of Maine) have studied the views of Indigenous traditional elders on mind and mental health for years. Their observations have led to a proposal within the Indigenous concepts of Two-eyed seeing, to incorporate Elder's views with contemporary neuroscience to improve how we understand and manage emotional distress. They practice in Orono, Maine. 
With polarization becoming a key challenge of our times, we'll explore potential strategies and solutions through the lens of language. By increasing our awareness of our own perceptions of terminology associated with public service, we can strengthen our ability to communicate with others, stay engaged in solutions-oriented conversations in their communities, and inspire new strategies to invite more community members to the table. This workshop is especially pertinent for people involved community-minded and/or collaborative projects, causes, and organizations.
Our bodies, too often treated as decorations, are incredible instruments that have a lot to say to us. Come build resilience and compassion toward your body through the power of poetry and writing in community together. Whether you've struggled with eating disorders or body image issues or not, this workshop -- welcoming all aged 12-99 -- offers a place where we can listen to and write about and from our bodies while also exploring innovative individual and communal writing together.
“...in which I will be reading from a future nonfiction manuscript in-progress. In this collection of essays, poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, the author seeks a compromise between themselves, the passing downs of the past, the possibilities of the future, and the current standings of the present. "You Mold Your M’s Like Soft Mounds, And I Sharpen My M’s Like Pointed Mountains, But Maybe We Could Meet in The Middle and Make a Smooth Hill?" centers upon giving and receiving, the debilitating mental effects of OCD, other'ed southern religions and their impacts upon fashion, art-form and the practice of sewing, and the familial relics we choose to pass down or store away. 
Theatre for All is an interactive presentation about inclusive theatre and using theatre to share messages of social justice. This workshop presents information about Open Arts Minnesota, a non profit dedicated to inclusive theatre for people with disabilities. 
The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate viable possibilities of CommUNITY transformation motivated by meaningful communication, intentional commitment and inspired participation by community members. The process of exploring and identifying members' words of power and storytelling may serve as a catalyst of what they may model or teach other members of the community for celebrating, preserving and sharing the hopes and expectations of the community they live in and the world they touch.
Jane Hseu
Kimberly Gomes
Danielle Bainbridge
“Close Encounters” aims to foster a deeper connection with poetry by immersing participants in sensory experiences. After a brief introduction including a mindfulness practice of grounding through naming sensory experiences, participants will be introduced to the triante poetry form, using sensory description. The group will then visit the Carl N. Chinnery Nature Trail or the Unity Village Gardens to engage with the environment on the grounds of Unity Village.
We activate the tangible objects in our archives when we tell their story. From telling the history behind a single photo or heirloom to juxtaposing generational recurrences in nonlinear formats, this workshop will demonstrate how we can create new meaning in our family stories by engaging deeply with the things we and our ancestors have saved. Participants may bring in family heirlooms, but can also work with digital photos, memories, or objects in the room.
Louise (Lou) Eisenbrandt
Maggie Mosher
John L. Swainston
Michelle Finnerty
Kim Phillips,
In this workshop we will explore our spiritual connections to nature through images and poetry. We will use mindfulness, reflection, and free-writing to engage with the reactions of our spirits to the material, and then share insights with our companions. Weather-permitting, we may do our reflections/writing outside.
In this writing generative workshop, you will learn how writing for the stage differs from writing a memoir or personal essay. You’ll see how your personal experience of healing & transformation can be crafted into a short monologue to be performed as a theatrical experience that engages an audience. Stella Adler called theater the “seeing place”– the place we come to see the truth about our lives and social situation. And August Wilson was “fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness.” One monologue writer from Kelly’s workshops has described the impact of memoir-inspired performance monologues in her own words: “To write a monologue where someone else can perform the story and the knowing of my lived experiences…well that is a transcendent experience." No prior experience necessary.
The Manhattan Community Portrait project is grounded in the belief that every individual possesses a unique story. Adding personal narratives to a video portrait allows the viewer to see more than an image and promotes deeper understanding. Join this session to experience portions of the community workshops we facilitated using art and stories as the catalyst to build connection. We will view a sample of video-portraits and explore how this project could be expanded to other communities
Cultivate your voice and experience the joy of harmony singing. Notorious Chorus builds community through the power of music. All humans welcome and encouraged! If you can breathe – you can sing!
The Great Migration: My Heroine's Journey to the Dreaded “Down South”. An Ethnographic Telling of my childhood trip to the Deep South. This heroine's journey to visit my Father’s people in Monroe Louisiana would shape my understanding of culture, courage and cousins..jpg)
Amidst chaos and uncertainty, the call for balanced and inspired changemakers echoes louder than ever. In this workshop, you’ll discover simple energy practices to release stress, find your center, and shift your energy, empowering you to enact change while tending to your well-being. Ideal for beginners or those seeking a refresher, you'll explore tools to support your TLA work and foster personal growth. Don't miss this opportunity to empower yourself and enact positive change.
“Metamorphosis Through Verse: Poetry and Self-Transformation" is an immersive workshop exploring the transformative power of poetry. Led by Danielle Langin, participants will examine contemporary poetry to uncover themes of change, identity, and self-discovery. This intimate session invites poets and artists to reflect on their personal growth journeys through the lens of writing. With a blend of analysis, discussion, and creative writing exercises, attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of poetry's role in artistic and self-exploration.
Come immerse yourself in the poetic artistry of spoken word poems that are medicinal to the ear and the spirit. I will be performing original poems with a community-oriented passion and drive about inequities, injustices, and environmental harms happening in the world, all of these works are potential conversation starters. Anyone interested in helping to transform their community would learn more about the power and process of spoken word poetry for social change. There will be time for reflection about my work, themes, concepts, and process.
Sally Bailey, MFA, MSW, RDT/BCT
Co-Presenter
Co-Presenter
When that voice in your head insists that you're not good enough, you don't know enough, you haven't done enough, and you never will—do you give up and hide? Don armor and fight? Don't quit creating! Explore peaceful, productive ways to challenge and benefit from (yes, benefit from!) your personal Inner Critic.