Ohio’s largest men’s shelter serves its residents with more than beds and meals. The Cleveland facility offers a platform for self-expression through writing.
On Wednesday afternoons, men gather for the Finding Voice poetry workshop at the shelter, known locally as 2100 Lakeside. Some participants show up for cookies and coffee. All of them come for friendship and conversation.
“Some men are there once and you never see them again. Other men are there for six months, a year. However long they're here, they get hooked,” said Annie Holden, a founding member of Finding Voice.
Holden has stuck with the program for 15 years, with the mission to help people make connections through poetry.
“It gives you more than even serving a meal,” Holden said. “You actually get to hear people talk and express themselves... It's just the commonality of the human experience.”
Roderick Green had never read or written poetry before attending one of the workshops. He said it helped him put words to many difficult emotions.
“It kind of opened up something,” Green said. “I was able to express the darkest parts of me. Those were the pieces I didn't share with nobody. And then bringing it out, it was kind of a release.”
Several works written by Green are included in a new anthology “These Words Are Not My Home: Writing From The Unhoused.” It’s a collection of short stories, poems and essays from participants in the Finding Voice poetry workshops.
The project was spearheaded by writer RA Washington as part of a fellowship with Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit that aims to empower diverse voices across Northeast Ohio.
“I kind of look at it as poetry is like, you come and serve soup at the soup kitchen,” Washington said. “It's a service position. I like those kind of projects, where it's like, community-facing. It’s not loud and boisterous. It's actually kind of generative.”
The anthology is the first in a planned series of collaborations between Washington and Finding Voice.
“It's just a small sliver of effort and momentum toward eradicating homelessness,” Washington said. “It's not this kind of like, mighty hammer. It's just a simple gesture toward communication and dialogue.”