Reflections from the Road: The OctoGenarian Poetz Tour

The last thirteen months of the OctoGenarian Poetz Tour have been both a revelation and a confirmation.

A revelation—because I did not expect to find Poetz collaborating in so many cities across the country.
A confirmation—because what I witnessed affirmed what I’ve always known: that Poetz and Artivists remain faithful to their historical responsibility—to keep their people and communities informed of the severity of these times, while also illuminating the promise and portal that these times represent.

The Road Traveled

We began here in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the end of September 2024. Since then, the Tour has touched down in:

Ithaca, NY · Boston & Framingham, MA · Cleveland, OH · Comer, GA · Washington, DC · Suitland, MD · and across Washington State in Olympia, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Bellingham, Friday Harbor, and Seattle.

At each stop, I was blessed to stand among Poetz, Musicians, Artivists, and Organizers for whom poetry is not simply a noun—a literary art form—but a verb, an action, a pulse of community life.

Each gathering became a ceremony, a conversation, a collective witnessing. Poetry lived as breath, rhythm, and remembrance—alive in the Poetz telling and in the people’s remembering.

Gratitude

Without naming you all, I offer my deep gratitude for the opportunity to share platforms, open circles, and build organic presentations with you. You reminded me that poetry’s truest home is in the hearts of those who dare to speak from love, grief, and resistance at once.

I’ll soon be reaching out about next steps in the Tour—possibilities that will bring us into deeper collaboration and continued relationship-building. The journey continues.

Back Home: Gathering Poetz to Purpose

Meanwhile, here at home in Indiana, I’m preparing a five-session November workshop series titled “Gathering Poetz to Purpose.”

This next cycle of work is designed to root what the Tour revealed—our shared calling to create space where language becomes ceremony, and where community becomes the poem.

• Memory as Continuum — Poetry as archive, keeper of memory
• Voice as Liberation — The tongue as akoben (war horn)
• Spirit as Portal — Poetry as ceremony & cosmology
• Resistance as Duty — Poetry as blade of truth, mirror of injustice
• Community as Circle — Poetry as collective healing and belonging

Through conversation, journaling, sound, and shared reflection, we’ll explore poetry as communal ritual, self-discovery, and social change—as a living tradition that keeps us whole.

Registration information for the November workshop series will be available at the end of the week.

Closing the Circle

What began as a journey of witness has become a deeper return to self and community. The work continues, not just on stage but in the sacred spaces where we gather, listen, and imagine together.

For those who have journeyed with me—modupé, thank you.
For those just joining—welcome to the circle.