Power of Words
Teré Fowler-Chapman celebrates poetry on Fourth Avenue
The poetry community in Tucson is alive and strong with resources like the University of Arizona Poetry Center, a collection unrivaled across the country; Casa Libre en la Solana that houses poets in residence; and Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, among others.
One beloved monthly poetry event is Words on the Avenue, created by Teré Fowler-Chapman.
Fowler-Chapman is a gender-fluid teacher, student, publisher, speaker and poet who works in every aspect of their life to bring poetry to the community.
In 2012, Fowler-Chapman started Words on the Avenue, an open mic poetry reading and performance at Fourth Avenue's Cafe Passe that happens on the last Sunday of every month.
"I created it because there was a need in the community that just didn't exist," Fowler-Chapman said. "There really wasn't a space for people who were just starting out to go and perform."
The event, which is entirely donation-based and free to attend, encourages poets of all ages and at all stages of their lives to share their work. Each Words on the Avenue evening includes 12 poets and a featured reader. Sometimes there are themes, but generally the stage is set and open for whomever wants to speak and share their work with the crowd.
"The community is really supportive, I mean the fact that we are still here speaks to that," Fowler-Chapman said. "It has been great to see the event blossom. It's great to hear the voices of the community come together at the end of each month."
Fowler-Chapman spread her own voice and spoke to the power of poetics at the TEDxTucson event in January this year, an event that she auditioned for and sought after.
"That was the first audition that I had ever done and I was really scared," Fowler-Chapman said. "I was obsessed with TEDTalks as we all are so I auditioned."
After opening their talk with a spoken word poem, Fowler-Chapman dove into how poetry can affect everyone.
"I really wanted people to know that the power of poetry comes through ourselves every day and that we are all poets," Fowler-Chapman said.
Along with doing their first audition and speaking at their first TEDx event, Fowler-Chapman has another first this year in publishing a chapbook. Fowler-Chapman's grandfather had a dream to create a publishing company named HOPE Etcetera Press, standing for Helping Others Prepare for Excellence. So Fowler-Chapman fulfilled that dream by publishing "Bread &," a chapbook of recent work.
"I feel like that chapbook is braver than me most days," Fowler-Chapman said.
The chapbook is a 40-page collection of poetry that focuses on topics such as resilience, strength, blackness, gender and joy according to Fowler-Chapman, who hopes to publish one or two works a year.
Fowler-Chapman says poetry should be part of everyone's life.
"Words are so powerful and I feel drawn to how people use language," Fowler-Chapman said. It's something that can imprison you or it can break you free," Fowler-Chapman said. "If you can recognize and access that then you can write your own destiny and write your own truth."
—Tirion Morris
