Poetry for Wellness
Reignite your Healing with Free-Verse Poetry
∙Find your voice
∙Develop your passion
∙Speak your truth
Poetry For Wellness welcomes all levels of experience with poetry. Those who join this course work alongside poetry facilitator Gemma Blackburn for a foundation of free verse poetry centered around personal wellness.
This course uses writing to reintegrate awe an wonder back into adult life, reuniting the inner and outer world. Those who take this course invite a lens of creativity and passion through a selection of guided writing, discussion, revision, and teambuilding activities.
This poetry workshop integrates the tradition of free verse poetry from both written-word and spoken-word/performance styles.
DETAILS:
*Enrollment is capped at 10 learners. First come, first served.
Tuesdays 6-8 PM for 7 weeks
March 24, March 31, April 7, April 14, April 21, April 28, May 5
@ The Living Room Therapy & Wellness Center
614 S. Pickwick Ave., Springfield, MO 65802
Final Session Details:
Our last session consists of a community poetry reading with The Bards of Moon City on Friday, May 5th. Participation is optional.
Last session only is located at Big Moma’s Coffee& Espresso Bar, 217 E Commercial St., Springfield, MO 65803
CIRICULUM OVERVIEW:
Matches: introductions & foundations
Smoke: the written word
Flame: the spoken word
Blaze: reigniting the outer world
Inferno: reigniting the inner world
Embers: revision & integration
Coals: Optional poetry reading: community & performance
Meet Gemma Blackburn
Gemma Blackburn is dedicated to helping others discover, cultivate, and embrace their creative voice. During her Master of Arts degree in Communication, Gemma designed and conducted a research project investigating how learning to write and perform original poetry can be tools for personal healing and community-building. This study served as the inspiration for building her community course in collaboration with The Living Room Therapy and Wellness Center: “Poetry for Wellness: Reignite Your Healing with Free-Verse Poetry.”
Currently, Gemma serves as Program Coordinator at the Ozarks Literacy Council, managing the nonprofit’s one-to-one reading tutoring program, helping low-literate children and adults in Southwest Missouri learn to read. Formerly, Gemma served as a Public Speaking instructor at Ozarks Technical Community College and Missouri State University. Additionally, for the last 4 summers, Gemma has worked as an instructor of poetry at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, a 2-week intensive summer program for high school students in the arts.
Gemma also holds a strong volunteer presence and is passionate about bringing creative outlets to her community. In addition to running the local “Free Voice” poetry workshop series for 1.5 years, she served as the director of the monthly “Show Me Poetry” poetry slam for 3 years. She has managed the “Oh Snap Poetry” open mic series for the past 11 years, still running today. Gemma has been a proud member of the Bards of Moon City, a local poetry collective, for the last 3 years and has appeared in several locally published poetry anthologies and Springfield News-Leader articles.
Outside of her professional life, Gemma loves to spend time with family and friends, books and notebooks, tea, cooking, nature, and cats.