hearts, hands and hugs
Pictures
from
the show
Welcome to our first performance poetry show:
"hearts, hands and hugs"!
We artfully merge different forms of creativity, from music and dance to spoken word and multi-media artwork to create
a safe space in which we talk openly about trauma and
the process of healing.
Our dynamic performance includes:
10 original poems
a dance
a program
a diagram
a book
audience participation
reflection questions to take home
handmade gifts for everyone who comes
If you'd like to listen to our first radio interview on Home Grown on 94.7 WPVC The Progressive Voice of Charlottesville explaining the show (and Fire & Smoke) please check out either this link or this link (we start around 35:50 on both links). Also there is a FB live stream on Home Grown's Facebook page we start around the 52:25 mark. Scroll down to the date is June 24th, 2018.
The process of healing is complicated and different for everyone. However, there are universal experiences everyone can relate to when working through the symptoms of trauma. We all struggle with vulnerability, relationships, and self-love. Thus, in the show, we share self-reflective poems about these sensitive subjects.
Through the act of sharing our personal stories of pain, isolation and fear, we create a brave space for audience members to experience a simple truth: that they aren't alone in their struggle for connection, acceptance and love. The realization that you are not alone is one of the first steps towards healing, for it melts away the walls we create and enables us to extend our hearts to people
we never thought we would.
The Fire Tigers' mission is to create safe spaces for self-expression, for we believe in the power of words and have experienced first hand the peace and empowerment that comes with
sharing our stories.
Our hope is to inspire all members of the community
to engage in their own path towards healing.
We encourage others to tell the truth
about who they are and where they've been.
We are passionate about celebrating
the creativity that lives inside everyone.
For a personal review of the show, please check out
this article from The Nelson County Times.
Also, we consider ourselves spoken word poets, but not slam poets. We have a great respect for slam poetry, but we are not interested in the competitive aspect. Instead, we identify as performance poets because our show is more of a theatrical production with a set, dance and audience participation.