Magic can happen in the most unlikely spaces. On Saturday, August 23, 28 writers and storytellers gathered in the courtyard behind a New Orleans dive bar to partake in More Than Words. This fundraiser event was organized by local poet and storyteller Z.W. Mohr in collaboration with Bar Redux to benefit the non-profit organization Toup’s Family Meal. Known for its neighborhood vibes and movie nights, Bar Redux hosts a multitude of events, including poetry open mics and drag shows. This particular evening, the eclectically decorated courtyard transformed into a space for sharing art, stories, and specialty drinks, all to raise money for a crucial cause.

 

Established by Isaac and Amanda Toups of Toup’s Meatery in response to the urgent needs revealed by the COVID-19 lockdown, Toup’s Family Meal has evolved into a dedicated entity committed to addressing hunger and transportation insecurities, with a focus on supporting children and individuals facing food insecurity in Orleans Parish. They have served over 100,000 meals to date and remain steadfast in their commitment through various initiatives such as summer meal programs, disaster relief, holiday meal distribution, and community outreach in food deserts.

This impact is a community effort: volunteers help deliver meals, and donations sustain the efforts. I was honored to be asked to participate in More Than Words as a poet not only because their mission is close to my heart, but because it can feel futile to be an artist in times like these. It can seem impossible to return to the page, organizing words into poems when I know that other people in my community are organizing meal distributions. To be given the opportunity for my poems to have a positive impact on a community program was a true gift.

 

While there was no limitation to what performers could do at More Than Words, I chose poems that reflected our community spirit through food and camaraderie. I closed my set with “Here Come the Girls” (published online in Boudin, aptly enough), a poem that catalogs a few experiences in New Orleans dive bars, including a shared holiday feast. Together, the speaker and her friends spend a night dancing:

…until the room was warm
enough to bear what had already been
bared: our skin, our hunger,

the gifts of our wanting…

To be in community is to share joy and pain, love and hunger—to remember that as long as we show up for each other, none of us goes through anything alone. On Christmas morning, the speaker makes waffles at a neighborhood watering hole, and others also contribute to the family meal:

…and a neighbor brought cane syrup straight
from Youngsville, and a neighbor brought sweet oranges

from his grandmother’s tree and a neighbor
brought Coquito, a family recipe…

These details are all rooted in true experience. In my sixteen years of living in this city, I’ve been nothing if not fed by community, and there are so many ways to do so. Folks will eagerly share their food customs rooted locally and afar. This city has strong traditions, yes, and it is also home to transplants from all over the world. The poem continues:

…we fed each other, ourselves,

making a home away from home,
making kin with open mouths

and full plates…

This is the work of Toup’s Family Meal. This is the work of events like More Than Words, which raised over a $1000 to donate to Toup’s mission. I return to the organization’s name: Toup’s Family Meal, as if a meal isn’t a meal unless it’s shared. A family meal is more than just food: it’s a shared space to connect and nourish each other. It’s a home place, and so is a poem.

More Than Words isn’t the only event that houses poetry and social change together. Ada Limón, former US Poet Laureate, started You Are Here: Poetry in Parks, an initiative bringing poetry installations to seven national parks across the country, each featuring a historic American poem that connects language to the landscape. These features encourage park visitors to feel in community with the environment and to share their own responses to the natural world.

Similarly, Split This Rock is a far-reaching organization that explores and celebrates the many ways that poetry itself can act as an agent for change. Split This Rock’s programming integrates poetry of witness into movements for social justice while supporting poets of all ages who write and perform this vital work. Poetry, they believe, can help us imagine a better world.

Together in our shared efforts, we can make home materialize, for ourselves and others. I was grateful to share a few poems, but it was a true honor to hear what other performers shared. The poems, novel excerpts, stories, monologues, and more were beautiful, hard, vulnerable, and true.

I left this event inspired that words do matter on their own, and that sharing them can amount to much more. Through creative collaboration, poetry, storytelling, and all other art forms can, in fact, make a big impact, helping to motivate community and raise funds for organizations doing good, hard work. This work feels crucial now, in a time of changing values and loss of funds. Yes, this work is crucial for putting actual food on the table; the art itself also helps us survive. I hope to organize a similar event on my own and to keep writing poems that reflect my personal values and experiences in this world. I think it’s within all of our power, though it may not always feel like it. True to the fundraiser’s name, our work means more than words. I hope others will feel inspired to take action, and, at the very least, to keep writing.

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Stacey Balkun is the author of Sweetbitter & co-editor of Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulist Poetry. Winner of the New South Writing Contest, her creative and critical work has appeared in Attached to the Living World, Best New Poets, Mississippi Review, and several other anthologies and journals. Stacey holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Mississippi, Oxford, where she was awarded the Holdich Scholar Award, and an MFA in Poetry from Fresno State. She has been granted fellowships and grants from the Modern Language Association, PEN America, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, among others, in support of her writing. Stacey teaches online at The Poetry Barn and the University of New Orleans.