The Watering Hole Poetry Org

TWH Mission Statement We are a vanguard whose core purpose is to build Harlem Renaissance spaces in the new contemporary South and cultivate Tribe everywhere we go. We do this through bolstering traditional education through creative writing and performance workshops, classes, seminars, retreats, etc. When we come together as a village, we build poets of color from the ground up and help them reach their best work.

When Candace and Monifa, the Co-Founders of The Watering Hole were children in South Carolina, the place was a literary desert for them. Candace had grown up having never met a writer, let alone a writer of color. Monifa, visiting for the summers, felt the same lack in the creative community. They recognized that professional writers were coming out of South Carolina, but then they were either moving away or living in isolation from other artists by staying here. In addition, arts were not a part of our weekly lives in South Carolina. There was church, school, family, and sports. We were artistic children who had to learn the ropes in isolation.

The Issue: When arts are absent,
***both children and adults are less empathetic to the experiences of others,
***both children and adults are less reflective and less able to connect diverse situations to each other,
***both children and adults perform mental activities at lower levels,
***and both children and adults have lower self-perception

Studies have proven the power of arts time and time again. Arts makes room for pensive self-expression, the ability to see things in a new way, and creative exercise improves performance both in the classroom and on the jobsite. Creativity through the arts is essential for a critically engaged, progressive, and empathetic community.

The Solution: The Watering Hole is asking you to help us to continue to grow poets #fromthegroundup. They have been creating arts spaces for adults and youth since 2013 and now we want to do this in a permanent home--a Live Work Arts building. Here, artists will be able to live for free and work on their art. There will be indoor and outdoor performance spaces for writers and musicians, galleries for visual artists, multi-use rooms for community classes, and several lofts and apartments for artist residences. Arts will be happening all day, all year, for all ages. Since most artist residences exist in the North East or West Coast, this artist village will be a premier destination in the South.

Impact: More importantly, this Live Work Arts space will help change the face of literary arts in the South. Having this kind of Harlem Renaissance space in the New Contemporary South will help make art more a part of everyday life for our community.

Imagine grabbing a coffee at The Watering Hole Lofts, hearing some poetry, seeing someone painting, and heading back to work. Or dropping the kids off at a collage class and sitting in on a poetry class in the next room, both classes taught by professional artists in residency. Or spending Saturday mornings doing yoga in the community garden.

Imagine resident artists teaching supplemental classes in local schools to increase literacy and empower at-risk youth through the joy of art. Imagine the Midlands as an arts oasis. Imagine having an oasis like this in every state capital. Imagine yourself being on the forefront of what will become a major self-sustaining arts movement.

How You Can Join the Movement: We are looking for community partners to make this happen. We have a three-year goal of raising $1 million, with a first benchmark of $80,000. We need more local business people, more city officials, more local organizations, more educators, more concerned families, and more artists to make this a priority on all fronts. This investment in the community is one that could become a national model.

You can join the Tribe, too! Click the donate button or contact us to continue the conversation about how we can work together.

Testimonials

The opportunity to be immersed in poetry while surrounded by a loving Tribe was amazing. I grew in my craft exponentially, even though the focus was not on critique. The openness the facilitators and their willingness to address both craft and the "business" of poetry was invaluable. Getting to finally see myself as a poet was priceless. -Joelle Edoward

I absolutely loved the feeling of community that is developed here. I am also grateful for the caliber of the facilitators. -Honey Sanaa

The thing I loved the most about the The Watering Hole were the workshops. I enjoyed learning so closely with some of my favorite poets and performing artists, and being able to share my work with them. Hearing their thoughts about the process to do what it is they do was also fascinating and inspiriting to say the least. In my workshops we listening to audio files of poetry, read other writer's work off paper, and even enjoyed an occasional joke or two about our drafts that came out of the exercises too. We had fun...