Louder Together: a crowdsourced poetry initiative

An initiative of The Voices and Faces Project, “Louder Together” seeks to create poetry and performances that speak to a range of human rights and social justice issues. Each crowdsourced poem in the series utilizes the voices of those who have lived through or witnessed an injustice, and uses their words as a call to social and political action. We work closely with trusted allies – including Surviving the Mic, Justice for Migrant Women, and World Without Exploitation – to reach communities where they are in order to create work that is inclusive, representative and change-focused.

Every crowdsourced poem begins with a national poetry “all-call” to activists, writers, and – most importantly – those who have lived through or been impacted by a specific social injustice. Lines of poetry from selected submissions are then woven into a final, crowdsourced piece by a writer affiliated with The Voices and Faces Project.

We believe that powerful poetry deserves to be heard in as many ways and places as possible.

To do this, the Louder Together team at The Voices and Faces Project will bring each of our crowdsourced poems to life, either through a video, live performance, or through one of our literary publications.

The Voices and Faces Project is well suited to create powerful public performances and communications vehicles. Our deep and wide ties to actors and directors (with credits at Steppenwolf Theater, Goodman Theater and 16th Street Theater) musicians and producers (Bloodshot Records, Burn and Shiver, Chicago Recording Company) and others in the performing arts and literary world enable us to create an ensemble of talent that can bring the written word to life in inspired ways.

Watch and share “Imagining a World Without Exploitation,” the first video poem in our 2021 Louder Together Series.

The Louder Together Series will include (but not be limited to):

Imagine a World Without Exploitation: Survivors of gender-based violence and commercial sexual exploitation were asked by The Voices and Faces Project and Surviving the Mic to envision a world where no one is bought, sold or exploited. The resulting poetic performance, arranged by writer and Voices and Faces Project founder Anne K. Ream and performed under the direction of Ann Filmer (Steppenwolf Theater, 16th Street Theater), debuted at the 2021 World Without Exploitation Annual Gala. 

I Am Rural America: In partnership with Justice For Migrant Women, a longstanding Voices and Faces Project ally, this crowdsourced poem will feature the voices and testimonies of the immigrant and farmworker persons – most of them Black, Brown, Indigenous or other Communities of Color – from across North and South America. Their stories and voices are too often disappeared from narratives about rural regions. We want to change that.

Telling a new story about mass incarceration: Featuring the voices and testimonies of returning individuals and citizens (formerly incarcerated persons of any immigration status), currently incarcerated persons, and those negatively impacted by the criminal justice system in the United States of America, speaks to the racial, economic and social injustices that have contributed to the crisis of mass incarceration in our nation.

We are now accepting submissions for Telling a new story about mass incarceration. Click here to submit.

We Are The Stories We Tell: Over the last decade, over 1,200 writers from across the North American and African continents have taken part in The Stories We Tell, The Voices and Faces Project’s testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence. In “We Are the Stories We Tell,” Novelist and workshop co-creator R. Clifton Spargo (Yale University, Iowa Writers’ Workshop) turns the art of listening to survivors into a powerful, crowdsourced piece.

Get loud with us! If you are interested in finding out more about Louder Together or sponsoring a performance please email us at loudertogether@voicesandfaces.org