Mazaré Won!
-An event recap by Grace Downtown member Meg Montee-
A big congratulations to Mazaré, spoken word poet and Grace Downtown’s current Artist-in-Residence, for winning a recent poetry reading and open mic contest. The event, hosted by the DC Poet Project, was held Saturday, March 9th at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library. Mazaré’s first-place award comes with a $250 cash prize and qualifies her to compete in a final contest in May. The grand prize for the upcoming contest is the opportunity to publish a book of original poetry.
Mazaré debuted a new poem, “My Mind Is Home,” for the event, which was judged by a panel of local poets. I was in the audience with the rest of Mazaré’s cheering section, and loved hearing her confident and personal performance of a piece that included vignettes of adolescence in DC.
For our church community, this event was a chance to support Mazaré and also to engage with the arts, experience God’s beauty through these artists, and to connect with people outside of our church. I’m glad to have experienced this pocket of creative flourishing in our city, and to see Mazaré perform alongside other artists. After the event, Mazaré commented that one of the other poets had “a story that needed to be heard,” and I thought that was fitting–we need artists and we need to hear from them in community. I look forward to other events throughout Mazaré’s residency that will help us do just that.
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The Artist-in-Residence program at Grace Downtown was created as an opportunity for our church to:
- engage the arts
- experience God’s beauty
- bridge outside the church
- support an artist