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TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • 23 February 2025
  • 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
  • online

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TLA Network Virtual Salon

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Join Us!

5:00–6:30 pm ET (UTC-5)

4:00–5:30 pm CT // 3:00–4:30 pm MT // 2:00–3:30 pm PT // 10:00-11:30 pm UTC

Click here to find your timezone.

Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.

The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

The salons are free to attend and donations to TLAN are very welcome to allow us to continue to sponsor events like this.

Our February Presenters!

Alec Esparza: I am an altarista and storyteller. I work in collaboration with families, schools, community partners and Department of Corrections throughout California. I utilize the folk arts of storytelling, altar making (ofrendas), creative writing, experiential critical thinking activities and adventure learning. My approach embraces creating sacred space for community building, social transformation, and healing. Participants engage in a process of becoming more responsive and responsible members of the community. Our goal is to deepen and broaden personal life skills to face life’s challenges in the world we touch and to walk in beauty with greater strength, understanding and wisdom. Keep up with Alec’s work at ozocommunity.com


Jane Hseu: Jane Hseu is a Professor of English at Dominican University, board member of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and core organizer for Banyan: Asian American Writers Collective. She has published personal essays and poetry and is currently at work on a memoir about a family history of mental illness. At Dominican, she teaches racial minority US literatures and writing creative nonfiction. She regularly presents and facilitates at venues such as the APIDA Arts Festival, Ada Cheng's Pour One Out storytelling series, American Writers Festival, and Casa de las Americas (Cuba) in order to build community and encourage storytelling for social change. Learn more about Jane at https://janehseu.com/about/


Michele Hampton: Michele’s career has focused on supporting people find wellness and health in their daily lives. As an avid camper and traveller, Michele embraces new cultures and the self care that nature brings. Falling into deep grief with the untimely death of her Mom, Michele had to stop and look at her life. This grief journey helped to redefine what’s important in life and embrace small moments. Michele lives in Calgary, Canada with her husband, kids and herd of pets. Learn more about Michele’s work at: www.openingdoorsoccupationaltherapy.com


Mike Alvarez: M. F. Alvarez is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of The Paradox of Suicide and Creativity (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020) and Unraveling: An Autoethnography of Suicide and Renewal (Routledge, 2023), for which he won the 2024 Qualitative Book Award from the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. He is also the recipient of an Early Career Award from the International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry. Keep up with Mike’s work at: mfalvarez.net


Polly Alice: Polly Alice McCann is a Kansas City artist, book designer, and poet with her MFA in Writing from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She is the author of five poetry collections, she's the editor of four international poetry anthologies and over twenty-five other titles including a short fiction anthology that won top 100 Books of 2021 by Kirkus Review. She says her favorite thing is to tell stories, maybe yours. Find more at www.pollymccann.com.


Sharon Pajka: Sharon Pajka is a Professor of English. She holds a Ph.D. in English Education and a graduate certificate in Public History. Her writing combines a love of words and the stories of those who came before us. She is the author of Women Writers Buried in Virginia (2021) The Souls Close to Edgar Allan Poe: Graves of His Family, Friends and Foes (2023), winner of the 2024 Saturday Visiter Awards by Poe Baltimore in the "Adaptation of Poe's Life or Works" category. On the weekends, you can find her in the cemetery volunteering, giving history tours, researching and writing about cemeteries. Find more information on her website: https://www.sharonpajka.com/.

The TLA Network exists to support and promote individuals and organizations that use the spoken, written, or sung word as a tool for personal and community transformation.

The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our offerings, organization, and aspirations. Words have the power to question, subvert, and transform limiting cultural narratives as well as reinforce entrenched stories and stereotypes. The TLA Network wants to make clear that we celebrate and uplift conversations across identity and difference, whether rooted in race, religion, social class, ethnicity, disability, health, gender, sexual orientation, age, military service, and other identities. In the past we have responded to a lack of diversity by actively recruiting underrepresented groups to: present and keynote at the Power of Words conference; serve on the TLAN board; teach classes; and contribute to our publications. We will continue to look at ways to incorporate greater access and representation in all of our projects, not just through the power of words but through the specifics of our practices.


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