Denver poets 101: Art from Ashes and the Phoenix Rising poetry program

Walking down Santa Fe Avenue through the crowds of First Friday’s Artwalk last night, I saw part of an Art from Ashes (a Denver-based creative therapy program whose aim is the empowerment of at-risk youth) poetry reading on the sidewalk in front of Spark Gallery, led by Bianca Mikahn. I was handed a flyer. “Hope & Healing,” read the front, “therapeutic poetry workshops for youth.”

“Did you say there are poetry workshops for adults, too?” I had just heard the kid who'd handed me the flyer say that to somebody else, and wanted to get the facts straight for this article.

“Oh yeah, we have workshops for adults, too.”

“I’m gonna write a blurb in the Examiner promoting you guys. Is there another flyer?”

“Oh you are? That’s great!”

I guess he didn’t catch that part about the flyer, or there was only one and he’d already given it to me. It was a great one. On its back was a quote from a 15 year old participant named Khlib: “I always had these feelings inside me, but I never lat the world see my shine.”

Executive director Catherine O’Neill Thorn has conducted sessions at numerous juvenile facilities, including residential treatment centers, day treatment programs, probation departments, high schools, youth groups and day camps since 1994. After the shootings at Columbine High school in 1999, O’Neill established and ran weekly poetry therapy sessions for students which program continued for three years. Participants gave a public reading attended by international media, and O'Neill Publishing produced  Screams Aren't Enough, a compilation of their poetry, which won the 2000 Colorado Book Award.

More from the pamphlet: “Sometimes the best way to save a life is to convince someone that life is worth living. The Phoenix Rising poetry program empowers high-risk youth to live lives of strength and hope by facilitating expression, connection and healing in every workshop. We use therapeutic guidance and proven writing techniques to offer youth opportunities for catharsis and self-discovery, giving young people the means to cope with the negative aspects of life.”

It’s inspiring to see literary expression put to this positive use in a time when the popularity of reading and overall literacy is on the decline in America, and many authors have turned to self-publishing to sidestep the coventions of bigger houses concerned more with salability than substance. More information about Art from Ashes, including videotaped performance in low- and high-resolution, is available at their website.