Poetic Health Justice: A Voice to Cancer Lore

Experience the stories and struggles of cancer through the power of poetry. This event weaves together performance, visual art, and critical conversation to illuminate the structural injustices of illness. Through creative expression and dialogue, we explore the lived realities of cancer, the inequities that shape them, and the possibilities for collective change.

In partnership with The Good Listening Project and the American Poetry Museum, we will host a performance, exhibit, and panel on April 9th at the True Reformer Building from 6:00pm to 8:00pm to create an experience that honors the lived realities of those impacted by cancer in the DC metropolitan area. Through this collaboration, we will create a space where stories that surface injustices and —often overlooked in clinical and policy discussions—are given form, depth, and power.

The Good Listening Project will help us build a physical and digital footprint by translating cancer lore into poetry, drawn from in-person listening sessions in healing spaces for cancer. These poems will be curated into an exhibit formed by printed poems, ensuring that the wisdom, grief, and strength shared in these spaces are not just heard but held and witnessed.

Our partnership with the American Poetry Museum will cultivate a mental and emotional footprint, drawn from a guided, in-person workshop. Members of the DC community (patients, caregivers, health practitioners, etc.) will be invited to transform cancer lore into poetry through a guided workshop. On April 9th, workshop participants will perform a live poetry reading, accompanied by jazz.

Both the exhibit and the performance will occur within a single gathering, designed not only as a creative expression of cancer lore but also as a catalyst for evidence building, dialogue, and change. Immediately following these artistic explorations, we will host a conversation that brings together a range of voices—physicians, policymakers, public health advocates, caregivers, and survivors. Moderated by poet, public health scholar, and activist Mariah Barber, this discussion will explore the critical medical humanities (with an emphasis on literary arts), the shaping of health narratives through cancer lore, and its path toward informing and influencing health policies and systems.

Host or Publisher Georgetown-Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice