Advocacy Poetry Workshop Exercise 
 
Introduction 

Some of our greatest civic and political movements of all time have stemmed from the work of poets and artists around the globe. 

From Amanda Gorman reading her Inauguration poem, The Hill We Climb, to Maya Angelou's Caged Bird, poets are moving people to seek action and justice in their communities. 

We all are passionate about something. If we use our words, and voices to affect change, we can impact the world. 

Who is Joan 

Hi there! I'm excited to meet you and help you become your best artistic self and advocate poet. I'm Joan. I am a certified urban planner, that focuses most of my work on transportation planning and design. I've worked in communities across the US and our world. I became passionate about this issue after living in Louisiana and realized the exponential disparities black communities face throughout the deep South. Prior to my studies, I was Colorado's High School Journalist of the Year, and Youth Journalism International's Journalist of the Year. 
 
At the start of my time in the profession and as an advocate for better public spaces and streets, I created a social advocacy organization and social media campaign, Move Happy Louisiana, to help people understand the concepts of Vision Zero, and used the platform to advocate for better infrastructure in Baton Rouge. 

Following my time in Louisiana, I obtained a Masters in Science in Urban Management and Development from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, assisted the Harvard Graduate School of Design with their research on Design for the Just City, and returned to Colorado to advance just transportation design and planning in my hometown. 

While in Colorado, I assisted Bicycle Colorado with their Neighborhood Navigators program, worked alongside the City of Boulder developing their Shared Streets program through the Can Do Colorado Community Challenge, led Boulder B-Cycle's integration into BCycle LLC, a Trek Subsidiary company, and served on multiple boards and advisory commissions focusing on local, state, and national transportation and planning efforts. 

Since moving to Raleigh, I've joined forces with Oaks and Spokes as their Advocacy Co-Chair, poured my time and dollars into other amazing Raleigh non-profits, and started writing a book about women in the transportation industry, Women Moving People. 

Finding Your Niche

Maybe you aren't as passionate as I am about transportation and cities, and that is OKAY! We all have experienced pain, trauma, or had something impact us.
 
Maybe you feel the weight of climate change; 
Or you are a mother who wants to make sure your child feels safe in schools; 
Maybe you grew up in a rural area where water was integral to your family's operations and those water rights were taken away from you. 
 
Whatever your story is, you deserve to tell your story and share it. 

Poetry allows us to feel.
 
It allows us to speak our emotions on a topic in real time. ​

Take 5 minutes to think of topics you feel have moved you and jot the ideas down. No idea is a bad one! 

Poetry Form

Now that you've come up with some ideas, it's time to put pen to paper. Writing can take time, but if you look beyond the broader topic you've selected to write about it, there are likely sub topics that you can use to formulate your message and poem. 

Using my own work as an example, we'll dissect a few of my own poems and understand the sub topics utilized in the poems. 

Examples: 

When I Die 
 
When I die, don't name a highway after me. 
Destroy it. 
When I die, plant flowers where the beams once lied. 
 
Don't paint a white bicycle if I get hit. ​
Put a statue in a garden or park. 
Fill it with children laughing. 

When I die, throw a dance party in my honor. 
Don't cry. 
when I die, tell a funny joke or story. 

Don't feel bad. 
Feel happy. 
For now, I am at rest. 

This poem is inspired by memorial signs where roads and highways are named after a person. You've probably seen them driving around, walk, roll, or as you ride your bike. It's also likely that you have seen a painted white bicycles. These are memorials for people that have been hit and killed while riding their bike and typically rest where they died. 

In my opinion, the institutionalization of highways, and cars have destroyed our nation. It's separated black and brown communities through redlining, led to sky rocketing carbon emissions, a climate crisis, broken infrastructure, and has made our communities more and more isolated; leading to rising mental health cases. 

I used this poem to show people that instead of building more roads, we need to use what we have and make better use of our public spaces and tell a story of my own passions; creating spaces for all, filled with flowers, and love. 

The poem uses patterns in length of sentence structure, and paragraph structure to tell a story. 

Motherhood Part 1 

The closer I get to 30, the more they ask me, 
"Are you having kids?" 

I want kids. 
I love kids. 

The closer I get to my husband, the more I think, 
" I want a mini you." 

I can't do it now.
The timing isn't right.

They say the timing is never right, 
but I know it's not right. 

Motherhood Part 2

I think of all women on days like today. 

I think of women who can't. 
I think of woman who lost. 
I think of women that are alone. 

I think of the women experiencing motherhood. 

Motherhood. 
A gift. 
A lesson. 
A trial. 

One day, I'll get to motherhood. 
For now, I mother my fur children. 

The combination of these two poems tells the my story with motherhood and the internal monologue many face with bearing children (myself included). Our world is a heavy, dark place, filled with a lot of anger and hostility. Much of my time in adulthood, I've questioned the idea of raising a child in such a negative world.
 
In a past life, I have been a ski coach to groups of 5 year-olds. The best age. the world is your oyster. You have no fear. Inner child is still ever-present. It's why I love kids and know that eventually, I will feel ready to raise my child to be a good person and whoever they want to be. 

My mother, unfortunately, was a woman who experienced infertility. She had seven miscarriages until she had me and had to have reconstructive surgery so that she could bear children. Infertility rises as women are having children later, want to have careers, and live up to the expectations our world now faces. I sadly know other women that have lost children at infancy, or have had miscarriage. 

I also know many mothers that work hard to raise their child to be amazing, strong-wild, and bright. Raising children is hard. Women tend to be more hard on themselves for not "doing enough" or "being present" when they are showing up, and some days that is enough. 

These poems take many concepts (infertility, parenting, loss, aging, traditional household views), to tell a story about motherhood and were written in honor of Mother's Day. The poems use word repetition, sentence structure, and paragraph structure to tell a story. 

You can use other things, like alliteration, rhymes, sonnets, meter (rhythmic structure), or a variety of other methods to showcase your passions.

Now It's Your Turn!

Write your heart out.

Share the important voice inside of you, and what you are passionate about. 

Thank you for showing up for this exercise. 

Don't feel comfortable sharing with the group? I'd still love to see what you create from this exercise. If you feel comfortable, email me your work.