Our Voices: Festival of Words to Feature Nationally Renowned Artists, including Ashley M. Jones, Poet Laureate of Alabama and aja monet

Our Voices: Festival of Words, is a free family friendly community festival that will celebrate the diversity and joy of literature through a full day of activities, including performances, author readings, children’s activities, meditation garden, food trucks, music and much more. The festival is hosted by Art Prevails Project, a Broward based cultural arts social impact organization working to strengthen communities through creative and performing arts, in partnership with the local community.

Our Voices: Festival of Words will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2023 at Roosevelt Gardens Park (2841 NW 11th St) in Fort Lauderdale between 11 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. It was feature some of this generation’s most powerful storytellers –

• Ashley M. Jones is Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026). Ashley is the young person and first Black woman to hold this position. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University, and she is the author of Magic City Gospel, dark / / thing, and REPARATIONS NOW!.

• aja monet is a blues surrealist poet, storyteller and organizer raised in Brooklyn NY. aja also serves at the new Artistic Creative Director for V-day, a global movement to end violence against all women and girls.

• David Fakunle, Ph.D. is a mercenary for change, a master storyteller and a faculty member at the University of Florida, Morgan State University and Johns Hopkins. David also is co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to empower use of storytelling for healing and growth

Darius V. Daughtry, Art Prevails Project Founder and Creative Director says, “There is magic and wonder in the power of words. This festival aims to bring that, with a bit of flare, to the Broward County community and to residents that so deeply deserve it.”

Darius V. Daughtry, Art Prevails Project Founder and Creative Director. Photo Credit: Darius v. Daughtry Facebook page.

Our Voices: A Festival of Words will serve as an opportunity for local residents to be enveloped by the overwhelming power of language and literacy. Set in the beautiful landscape of Fort Lauderdale’s Roosevelt Gardens Park, a fun-filled day at the park for the entire family, this event aims to provide the local community with an annual space to engage with books and writers with a hope to impact, not only quality of life, but the staggeringly low literacy rates among community members.

“My life is a testament to the power of words and the telling your authentic story,” muses Ashley M. Jones “Since I was seven years old, I was aware that my voice had meaning and value because of the power of poetry and words.”

Art Prevails Project is proud to have the support of generous partners like The Community Foundation of Broward, the National Endowment for the Arts, Starbucks, South Arts, Broward County Libraries, the Children’s Services Council of Broward, The City of Fort Lauderdale and more.

“The Community Foundation of Broward is proud to be a longtime supporter of the incredible projects and events that Art Prevails Project does in Broward,” said Jennifer O’Flannery Anderson, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Broward. “Teaching, celebrating, and bringing the arts to life ACROSS our communities VITALLY IMPACTS the success of our youth and society. Darius is a master teacher and performer; he does a spectacular job at showing us the power of the arts.”

To learn more or get tickets to Our Voices: A Festival of Words, visit http://www.ourvoicesfest.com. The first 200 Broward County residents to register on the site will receive a voucher to dine with one of our food vendors.

Art Prevails Project, founded in 2015, is a cultural arts social impact organization that aims to strengthen communities – particularly those that are underserved and historically disadvantaged – by investing in people through literary and performing arts. With performance, cultural community-building and arts education, Art Prevails Project fashions a world lives are impacted by the transformative power of artistic expression.

To learn more about Art Prevails Project, visit www.artprevailsproject.org.