Voices in Power

A Moment in History: The Inaugural Poets Gon' Poet Awards Join us on April 25th for a landmark evening at World Cafe Live as Voices In Power hosts the first-ever Poets Gon' Poet Awards, celebrating 13 years of poetic influence and community. This event promises to honor the transformative power of poetry, recognizing voices that have resonated across Philadelphia and beyond. The Prelude: Kick off the night from 6pm in The Lounge, where you can dine before the ceremony. While this experience is independent of our curated event, it's a perfect start to an evening dedicated to the art of poetry. Remember, the main event will focus on drinks and the celebration at hand. The Main Event: Starting at 7pm, immerse yourself in an evening designed to captivate from the very first moment. Being on time means experiencing every crafted detail, from live interviews on our orange carpet to the final applause. Expect a night filled with performances by renowned poets, surprise appearances, and the unveiling of award winners who've significantly impacted our poetry community this year. With the heart of the event centered around awards like Poet of the Year and Trailblazer Poet, your engagement through voting, open until March 8th, is vital. Dress Code: Embrace the evening in Grammy-style glamor. As a grand celebration, your attire should reflect the elegance and spirit of poetry in its most festive form. With the spotlight on, ensure your look is camera-ready. Beyond the Awards: The night doesn't conclude with the ceremony. An after-party at a secret location promises to extend the festivities. Details to follow, ensuring the celebration of poetry continues well into the night. Get Involved: Opportunities for partnership and sponsorship are available for those looking to support this monumental celebration. Reach out to partnerships@voicesinpower.com for more information. Don't miss this historic occasion where the community comes together to spotlight the art that unites us and to look forward to the bright future of poetry. Tickets are limited, underscoring the intimate nature of this gathering. Secure your spot early, follow our journey on social media, and share this event with friends who cherish poetry's transformative power. For additional details and to get involved, visit voicesinpower.com/pgp. Let's mark April 25th as a night where the poetry community shines, showcasing the enduring power of words to inspire, connect, and transform. With love, always, Luis Marrero Founder / CEO of Voices In Power

Whatʼs up family? We hope this finds you well and in good spirits. For those who have been with us before, you already know our vibe and for those who may be new to us, hereʼs some information that hopefully leads you to come experience what we do best. We are a National Poetry Open Mic Experience in multiple cities across the country with Philadelphia being where we began our journey. Weʼve been curating monthly experiences since April 2011 and have grown tremendously over the years, especially here in Philly, which brought us to introduce a second monthly experience – The Poetʼs Pit now at our new home location World Cafe Live. This will carry the same culture and vibes of our larger experience on 1st Saturdays – family, generosity, love, encouragement, passion, and of course – poetry while also highlighting local small business and visual artists. We knew once a month wasnʼt enough and we wanted to turn up with our family on a Tuesday evening over some food and drinks. If youʼre interested in being one of our vendors or live painters, please send us an email to findme@imsuperdope.com with “The Poets Pit” in the subject line. The Poetʼs Pit will be hosted by either Mic Phillips or Jovan McKoy with music by DJ G33k. We will have a recap video from each night shot and edited by Dolo and poetry performances recorded by Bagi Image. All videos will be up on our YouTube channel and posted on our social media. Again, if you know, you know, and if not, the best way you can find out is by grabbing your ticket and coming through to experience something that will feed your soul. Tickets are limited and always sell out so please donʼt hesitate on grabbing your tickets. For poets looking to perform, we have an all raffle open mic list and get between 14-17 poets on stage each night. The process is simple-once the doors open, by the stage youʼll find one of our team members who will have raffle tickets ready for you. Each poet gets one ticket and it gets tossed into our bowl. Poets have until 7:20 PM to sign a ticket to be considered for our open mic that night. At 7:30 PM one of our hosts will get on stage to start the night and tickets will be randomly selected and that poet will make their way to the stage to perform. We will do this throughout the night until we end it off with our featured poet. Please note: raffles can only be signed on site between 6:00 PM & 7:20 PM. No exceptions. We hope to see you there as we believe your soul needs this type of energy. With love always, Luis Marrero Founder Please note: We are a poetry only open mic experience, meaning we do not allow any other type of performances but poetry. No music is allowed, whether live or on a track, no comedians, no singers, etc. We know our heart is for poetry and we want to create a space for our poets.

Stephanie Coleman, professionally known as "StefMarie", is a 42-year-old 3x Author, Motivational Speaker, Career Development Coach, Mentor, Entrepreneur, Event Curator, Mental Health & Women Empowerment Advocate... So, how did she get here? Before the well-known artist became StefMarie she was simply known as Stephanie, an introverted soul who at a point in time was not only shy but mute as a child. She suffered with severe low self-esteem, depression and anxiety which often affected not only her school work and activities but also her social life, more often than not she considered herself a loner. Although Stephanie loved to write notes and songs as a child It wasn't until 1997 that she discovered she the gift of poetry. Her first performance was in High School for black history month with the first poem she ever wrote "I am a beautiful black woman". From there she started performing at church, local & private events. Although Stephanie performed locally and continued to write throughout her life it wasn't a consistent practice. From being in trade school, the military, transitioned to Islam and experienced abuse, then later found herself again and married with 2 kids... Poetry took a backseat on the priority list. Although she still wrote poetry every now and then for personal reasons or special occasions. Fast forward to 2018 Stephanie found herself feeling like that little girl again, low self-esteem, depressed and alone. Just a few years before she had gone through a divorce and suffered through losing several friends which hit her hard. Eventually all the stressors of life caught up to her and she began to lose her piece and eventually her mind as she was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. As you can imagine this story alone is a lot to unveil. You can read the full story in her book "A Sound Mind" which details her mental health journey and how she made it over to the other side by the grace and mercy of God. She is currently medication free and now advocates to help others who may be struggling mentally. Fast-Forward to 2020 after the pandemic, Stephanie finally had enough. From a dead end job and relationship, it was time to move forward to uncharted waters. She left a job she had for 14 years and an emotionally abusive relationship she was in for 5 years. Once she let go of the dead weight she found herself again, the rest is still being written!