Finding Your Voice with Art Prevails Project

[Poet Alana Jackson] Express yourself.

Those are two words we cling to, spring to, that ring to some unheard of rhythm in our ears, some new and exciting, strange yet inviting call.

Art is a vehicle for self-expression to find yourself, to connect, to collaborate and to grow, but like well, how do we help you find what is right for you?

My name is Darius V. Daughtry.

I am the founder and executive artistic director of Art Prevails Project.

Art Prevails Project is an organization that is focused on creating equitable access to arts programming and education through storytelling, theater, poetry and art education in schools, detention centers, community spaces and things like that.

We actually give people opportunity to connect with different art because everyone isn't a visual artist.

Everyone's love isn't poetry.

Everyone may not be super comfortable getting up on stage and doing something as the theater is concerned, but we believe that there is always an avenue and so we have, you know, theater workshops where we do improv workshops here at the Old Dillard Museum.

We have acting, we have poetry writing, creative writing, we have visual art workshops.

We try to give an opportunity and a space for people and for community members to find themselves and to find that art is a varied experience and that there's something in it for everybody.

When I was a high school teacher, a middle school and high school teacher, what I saw was that there are many students that didn't have access to these programs and didn't have access to a drawing class or a music class and it's all dependent upon where they lived, you know, what their zip code was, how much money their parents made.

And so with Art Prevails Project, that is kind of one of the main pillars of what we do is, like, if you don't get this in school on a normal basis, here's this opportunity that exists so that you can kind of also have that experience.

Our Voices: Festival of Words is a beautiful experience, all-day open-air festival full of storytelling, book giveaways, authors, performances, panel discussions from local and international artists and authors and poets.

We have the poet laureate from the state of Alabama.

She'll be here, her name is Ashley M. Jones.

We have Aja Monet, who's an internationally known poet and author and writer.

The Broward County Libraries and Broward Schools Title One department will be giving away books so everybody that comes in will get a book in their hands and they'll get a chance to just experience a beautiful day for the entire family.

We have Ja'’’Nia Harden, who wrote a what she calls a storybook musical called Fat Cat Caterpillar and Ja'’’Nia is an amazing vocalist, jazz, gospel, R&B, soul all that because she's amazing.

[Ja'’’Nia] It's almost time to fly!

When I thought about creating this event, I thought about the fact that this area Fort Lauderdale, specifically in the 3331 zip code has a very low literacy rate and how important it is to inundate that area as much as possible with words, with books and the love of words and language and to show and see that hey this is, this is real and so here are these authors who have taken the idea of words and created something beautiful.

So this being the first year, I'm super excited.

It's been a labor of love.

It's been a lot of work and I'm learning a lot about what it takes to put on a festival like this and so I'm excited about this year, but I'm really excited about the years to come.

I see this as becoming a seminal event in South Florida.

It is all about creating this love and this power and passion for not only literacy but literature.

I know, it's kind of a twofold, right?

Like yeah, we want you to be able to read and to communicate but also maybe we can turn on a love and passion for the written word, for writing, you know, for things of that nature and hopefully somebody walks away inspired.

Giving them an opportunity to speak what's on their hearts, what's on their minds and also to dream.

If you give a child a chance to dream, a chance to write their own story literally, then you've given them a tool that can be a life changer and something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.