The Watering Hole

 

Candace G. Wiley and Monifa Lemons created The Watering Hole as a place to encourage and promote poets of color in the south. 

They also offer school workshops and summer camps to students to teach creative writing, self-confidence, and communications skills. 

Candace says she was influenced by South Carolina poet Nikky Finney and that her writing is putting people like Candace's grandparents "into a tangible form and saying these people existed in South Carolina, and we won't be silent about it. Now we have some kind of representation that we can pass to people as we meet them...because they exist here. They're represented...Every population, I think, shares a similar mission, and that is to be heard and to have whatever voice recognized." 

While their adult programs focus on writers of color, Monifa says their community and children's programs are open to "all colors, all creeds, all races, all everybody." 

To find out more about The Watering Hole go to twhpoetry.org