A Collection of Poetry About Having Patience in Our Search for Love: Never Been Loved, Just Wait, It’s Not a Race
As human beings we all want to be loved. It is a natural feeling that is at the forefront of our minds from a very young age. But the older we get the more we should realize that love is not something that we have control over, and it is often when we become desperate for love that we lose our patience and start trying to try to control love on our own. In this collection we look at the importance of having patience in our search for love. In Never Been Loved, we hear the story of a person that feels that they have never been loved and how they deal with not having control over finding it. In Just Wait, we hear the story of someone who has tried to force love into their lives but continues to fail. In It’s Not a Race, we watch someone running a race to find love but it is not until the end that they realize that love is not something that can be caught, it is something that is not a race towards but rather something to wait patiently for.
 
A Collection of Poetry About Being Gay and the Fear of Finally Coming Out: Games, Behind Locked Doors, Finally Coming Out
People who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community unfortunately have to find their way through this rite of passage, “Coming Out.” The idea is not balanced, or fair, straight people don’t have to come out but, in this collection, we ride the roller coaster of someone who explains how and why they’ve had to be closeted for so long. They share with us the idea of Games and that hiding who they were was like a game to them. If they weren’t found out they were winning, though so much of their self was losing. In Behind Closed Doors we are reminded of the strength that this person has. They know who they are, and they love themselves. The joy they have with the honesty that they have to hide from everyone but themselves. And finally, in Finally Coming Out, we hear the final moments before their truth is revealed and their adamant response that they are never going to hide again. A coming of story for all of the people in our rainbow that have fought just to be who they are and share that gift with the world. *This performer may be any gender.
 
 
 A Collection of Poems About Living While Black Part 1: Bottled Water for Sale, Jogging in a Pandemic, Birds and Bees for Black Parents
History tends to go through cycles, repeating itself over and over again. Throughout American history African Americans have experienced continuous cycles of oppression. In recent history there have been many discouraging stories of the treatment of African American people: men, women and children. This collection puts three true tragic stories into a poetic presentation. The hope is to raise awareness of the mistreatment and unjust situations that African American people experience on a daily basis. Not all stories make the news, but these did. These are three of the stories that we are not allowed to forget. These are the stories that will become a part of our history, that just goes to remind us how we are still not created or treated equal. A child selling water, a man jogging in his neighborhood and a parent that has to explain the new birds and bees that only apply to African American people. All sad American realities. *This collection can be performed by a male or female but the performer must be African American.
 
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a collection of short stories that all take place in a residential neighborhood where there is a man suffering from mentally illness.  This multiple perspective selection shows the voices and experiences of those who encounter Sam a man diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.  The voices echo those across America who lack the basic understanding of the mental illness crisis we have today.  In the end, Sam struggles to save his mind and loses his life in the process.  Inevitably revealing our lack of community in 2020, neighborhoods are not made up by neighbors, moreover just a group of houses where people would rather not get involved, because it may require more than they are willing to give.
 
Missing Pieces
No matter what your job, people sometimes lose themselves in their work.  In this selection, we see a Pastor who has put his/her church family as a priority for so long they struggle with finding the balance between the two worlds.  After his/her father has a massive stroke this pastor becomes the one in the waiting room in need of prayers and counsel.  Will he/she be able to accept the loss of their father as he is choosing to have his tracheotomy removed since he has lost his ability to speak and advocate for his own needs, his father does not want to live on a ventilator.  After his Father passes, she/he is finally able to find a new peace in the difficult process of death.
 
What Do I Tell My Students Now…
After the nation is turned upside down in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd a white woman struggles to find herself at the corner of racism and white privilege.  She has been overweight all her life so she brings some understanding to the table but quickly learns during this time of protest and pain that one must do more than just walk in the shoes to understand what it is to be black in America.  While at the same time calling for everyone to be a part of the solution if we ever hope to truly find justice.