We have this year created a special award for an outstanding volunteer, our MVP Volunteer of the Year, if you will, to honor the service and special guidance provided to the TLA Network by John L. Swainston.
As a new member of our board, John has guided us as Treasurer on a path to financial health. He volunteered his services to us as a retired accountant with years of experience, including teaching accounting at area colleges. He has provided accessible and comprehensive monthly reporting to our board that continually helps us plot our course ahead. Because of John, our books, accounting, and tax status have been put in order, working closely with our bookkeeper. And because this has been a year of heavy transition, we have benefitted from John’s calm, cheerful, and witty presence, helping us keep our direction clear, and at times sharing his own poetry – as he is an artist in his own right. We are immensely grateful for his time, his talents, and his skills.
John says of the TLA Network: “At a young age I liked to dance. Then I discovered oil painting. When my grandpa retired he would come over and we listened to opera. Very late in life I became a poet. I never could find a place where I could enjoy all art forms. Until TLA Network. I just had to volunteer and help support the mission of TLA however I could. Discover for yourself all that they offer.”
When the pandemic brought tremendous risk to our good health, peace of mind and livelihoods, Jen Minotti listened to a small voice of conviction from within that urged her beyond her fears of creative risk taking. She sat down at her computer and founded theJournal of Expressive Writing. Because, Jen believes writing your feelings helps you survive, and sharing them helps others survive and say yes to each other. The Journal thrives on all of us saying yes to our feelings in writing.
As Jen describes on the journal’s website, “the journal publishes expressive writing, free writing, personal essay, non-fiction, memoir, reflective essay, poetry, prose, contemplative discourse, and creative non-fiction—all that originate from a writing prompt—by both established and emerging writers.”
As Jen describes on the journal’s website:
At a fundamental level, I have this very strong belief that sharing our stories is a radical act of self-love and love for others. During the pandemic, I couldn’t stop thinking that if we could just share our stories—in a raw, truthful and very real way—at this moment in time when we needed connection more than ever, it just might be one of the most valuable gifts we gave to ourselves and others. It just might help bridge the political, class, and racial divides that were simultaneously exploding and perhaps help in some small way. Three and a half years later, the Journal still calls on all of us to share what matters most as a form of individual and collective activism. It’s a platform to express who we are in a particular moment and to read who others are. I think too often, we hold ourselves back when we feel our writing has to be “finished” or “perfect” or any of the conditioned belief systems we carry with us. When we can write (and operate) from our authentic selves, our inclination to judge softens. Love emerges and so does healing, not only for the writer, but for the readers, too. Eventually, it’s a ripple effect. This is ultimately what I hope to achieve with the Journal.
Here is more about Jen: Jennifer A. Minotti (she/her/hers) is a Writer-in-Residence at the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University, where she facilitates Women’s Writing Circles as a means to merge her passions for expressive writing, positive psychology, community organizing, women’s health, and social activism. In 2020, Jen founded the Journal of Expressive Writing in order to provide a place for sharing expressive writing, believing that we need this space on a fundamental, human level and that whatever we are feeling is a link to what others are feeling across the planet at any given moment. For the past 25 years, Jen has dedicated her professional life toward working for the betterment of society. For 17 years, Jen worked at Education Development Center(EDC)—a global non-profit working to improve education, health, and economic opportunities worldwide—in a variety of technology, research, writing, and leadership roles for projects that focused on health and human development, special education, online professional development, literacy, bullying-prevention, urban education, science, assistive technology, and inclusive schooling practices
Outstanding TLA Publication: The Journal of Expressive Writing, presented by Kelly DuMar at the 2023 Power of Words conference
Vanita Leatherwood exemplifies what life-saving difference one person can make. As the Director of Community Engagement at HopeWorks of Howard County – which provides support and advocacy for people affected by sexual and intimate partner violence – Vanita has founded TLA programs for survivor wellness, youth leadership, community self-care & social justice, and Dragonfly, an artsandtransformative justice magazine.
An award-winning poet with a MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College, Vanita says, “The power of words led me to a place of safety, eventually to a place of joy, to that place within that I call the ‘YES.’ That’s part of what I wanted to create at HopeWorks – that’s what Dragonfly is; an opportunity to explore, learn, feel, connect, rebel and grow.”
We are honored to present our inaugural Outstanding TLA practitioner award to Vanita for her compassionate leadership, visionary program design, and community social justice programming, all of which she does with the heart of a poet and soul of a change-maker.
Here is a list of the programs Vanita has created:
Magazines (Founder/Editor): Dragonfly arts & transformative justice magazine and Cultivate youth arts magazine
Our Voice Project Monthly Support Groups: Preservation: Survivor Self-Care Circle, Reclamation: Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Support, and LOVED: Survivor Self-Care Circle for Black Women
One-on-One Self-care Sessions with Survivors: Poetry N2 Wellness
Newsletter: Journaling Our Voice
Speakers Bureau Training
The Survivors Health Project Monthly Groups: ARTiculation: Support & Education Group for Survivors Living with Chronic Health Conditions and Thriving Together: Survivors Mental Health Awareness & Wellbeing Group
Devised Theater, Creator & Producer: Telling This Truth at Slayton House Theater
Educational Curriculum (public programs): Over a dozen programs, including Self-care & Social Justice Events, Know My Name: Self-care and the Healing Journey for Black Women, The Organizational Equity and Inclusion Project, Ain’t I a Woman: Using the Arts & Humanities to Explore Oppression and Revolution, Unapologetic: Using Arts and Humanities to Explore Revolution and Oppression, and WOMEN-Global: Using the Arts & Humanities to Explore Oppression and Revolution
Outstanding TLA Practitioner: Vanita Leatherwood — presented by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at the 2023 Power of Words conference.
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Dragonfly Magazine Call for Submissions: Dragonfly arts & transformative justice magazine is a publication of HopeWorks of Howard County Maryland. Themes for submitted work (visual, literary, and musical) should focus on reflections about activism, oppression, love, advocacy, hope, transformative justice, trauma, racial and gender equity, intersectionality, relationships, healing, or self-care. Writers/Musicians/Artists do not have to be survivors.Submissions accepted until Jan. 31, 2024. Find all the details here.
Transformative Language Arts Network Blog 