Powerstories Theatre stages true stories to open minds and hearts and inspire action worldwide.
Each week we will share 8 submissions or more from our neighbors around the city, country, and globe. Please enjoy all the stories that bring a smile to our faces and joy to our hearts. To send us your own story, click the button to complete our form, and upload your own work.
After you’ve finished, please click take the survey at the bottom of this page to let us know your favorites.
Video Submitted By Agudela-Vega Family
Video Submitted by Cash Family
Tacoma, WA
It’s been a challenge explaining to out 3 1/2 year old son why he can’t go to school with his friends. However, you can tell from the song he wrote, that I think he gets it. And as stressful as it has been, we’ve had some great times holding music class, cooking, gardening, skateboarding & riding bikes.
Artwork Submitted by Fiely Matias
Hiya:) My name is Fiely Matias and I wanted to submit an image I created during this pandemic. I remembered as a child how my mother would stay home and take care of me whenever I was sick. She would cook for me, give me medicine and most of all hold me and give me a hug. Then I thought about how the Earth was so sick and how much it needed a hug during this very awful time…so I drew this image.
Artwork Submitted by Sydney Stern
As I kid I would draw on shoes to stay busy. With the current state of the pandemic, I thought it would be a fun way to keep me busy now. So I bought a pair of shoes and some fabric markers and started drawing!
Story, Video, and Photo Submitted by Lorri Brown
Story, Video, and Photo Submitted by Lorri Brown
CONTINUED
Video Submitted by Gretchen Suarez-Pena
Bartow, FL
Video Submitted By Zummo Family
Four year old Adalyn would like to spread as much distant love as possible!
Story and Video Submitted By Dru Rabin
Video Submitted by Julie Ravelo
Julie shares stories with her grandson during social distancing.
PAST PERFORMER
Most recently seen in Clarity Cometh – 2003
Artwork Submitted by Castillo Family
I picked to draw this picture for our town’s Hearts in the Window. It’s to bring our home together. I saw this picture and really liked it because right now the earth is sick and we have to work together to make it feel better. AGE 9
Artwork Submitted by Meghan Kelley
Decatur, GA
How am I staying sane? Oil pastels and regular walks through the park.
IG @propleaf
Video Submitted By Brent Walker
Video Submitted by Deb Kelley
PAST PERFORMER / DIRECTOR
Most recently seen in Breast Advice – 2019
Video Submitted by Lisa and Omar Negrón
PAST PERFORMERS
Most recently seen in Working A Musical – 2020
Video Submitted By Gershom Vacarizas
PAST PERFORMER
Most recently seen in Working A Musical – 2020
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Video Submitted By Melody Craven
Tampa, FL
PAST DIRECTOR
Most recently directed Sonia Flew – 2019
Video Submitted By Dodie Domino
PAST PERFORMER
Most recently seen in Falling – 2017
Video Submitted By Robin Gordon
PAST PERFORMER & FACILITATOR
Moffitt Cancer Center Workshop Performances
PAST PERFORMER
Most recently seen in SheVolution – 2019
Video Submitted by Turner Family
Eleven-year-old gets sends blessings out to the world.
Video Submitted by Levine Family
Fifteen-year-old gets real about life in the pandemic.
Video Submitted by Adam Sardouk
Eighteen-year-old talks about his unconventional senior year during Coronavirus.
Click here to visit Facebook group or here to donate to their GoFundMe
for an organization founded by two high school juniors, ages 16 and 17.
Video Submitted by Paine Family
Ten-year-old writes a play and performs with family.
Video Submitted By DeAnna McMahan
Mother and daughter perform together.
Artwork Submitted by Newsome Family
My thirteen-year-old daughter loves to draw, and paint and creating art helps her pass time during the Coronavirus isolation.
Video Submitted by Sophia Fuller
Sophia shares her Motherhood Manual.
She is the granddaughter of Mary Bernadette, the title role in past Powerstories production, Bernadette’s Bravo.
Video Submitted by Leah Crowe
FIRST LOBBY MANAGER FOR POWERSTORIES THEATRE
Video Submitted by Maddie Levine
Maddie sends Mother’s Day wishes to her mom. “I made a short video for my mom to celebrate Mother’s Day while in quarantine!”
Video Submitted by Emma Lodgrigue
Hi, I’m Emma I’m 11 and live in Louisiana. I submitted a video in Quarantine Karaoke on Facebook. It’s a parody of Never Enough from The Greatest Showman that I titled “I’ve Had Enough.”
Video Submitted by Katie Welch
I know times can be tough right now. But what I’ve been doing is continuing writing my stories. The good thing about this virus is that I have some time to focus on my writing. Another thing is that I have been creating ideas for new YouTube videos. Like the current one, I’m getting a lot of videos together of other people singing the song Tomorrow from Annie with me.
Video Submitted by Kim Linton
Local business owners are coming together to provide “community kits” to families who need help as a result of the pandemic. We intend to help over 7,500 families in the Tampa Bay Area. Kits will include activities for kids, non-perishable foods, and health & wellness products. So far we’ve partnered with several local businesses (Psalms Brittle Co, Seventh Avenue Apothecary, Tampa Printer, MADE, and more). We’re still looking for product donations as well as donations. Text LOVE to 941-499-5933.
Video Submitted by Lauren Butterfield
A hilarious musical parody to “On My Own” from Les Miserable. This comic music video shows the way introverts experience the quarantine during COVID pandemic.
The Reveal:
The Irony of Covid
Video Submitted by Dodie Domino
PAST PERFORMER
Video Submitted by Emily Whittington
Video Submitted By Rhonda Eldridge, Community Pet Project
FIRST STAGE MANAGER
Video Submitted by Sheri Whittington
Poem Submitted By Deb Kelley
A civil war is brewing
A divided nation is undoing
A madman on the highest pedestal
A false prophet, cruel without a soul
Looting starts, shooting starts
Says the man without a heart
Hate inciting
Chaos inviting
While the nation burns
What lesson can we learn
In this somber hour
When pure evil is in power
When your color marks for you to die
Little recourse, just a question why
Leads back to his lofty throne
An agenda that we should have known
A repeated warning that needs to be heard
A brave few are joining hands to share the word
Lock arms with one another
Support your sisters and brothers of color
When asking what else can I do
In November, I beg of you, vote blue
When conscience finally end this con
And another takes hold of the baton
What side of history did you stand
Complicit, unmoved or change demand
Past Director
Breast Advice – 2019
Poem and Photo Submitted By Jim Yerman
What if the Gods created the most beautiful planet
and filled it with valleys and mountains and trees
with wildflowers that bloom in Spring
with fishes, and birds and bees.
What if they added waterfalls…and ladybugs…an occasional butterfly
and sunrises and sunsets so colorful they kaleidoscope the sky.
And what if once they were finished the Gods were so elated
with the beauty and magnificence of the planet they created
they decided this beauty needed to be experienced to be felt…and thus
what if the Gods created people to enjoy it…what if the Gods created us.
What if the Gods hoped we’d not only appreciate the love and beauty that surround us
but spread that love and beauty to everyone and everything around us.
What if the Gods never dreamed anything bad would happen
What if the Gods were wrong…
What if the people tainted the beauty the Gods created
What if the people could not get along.
And what if now every time the Gods look down on us
every time they realize their mistake…
their tears fall as rain from the heavens
filling our oceans our rivers…our lakes.
What if the Gods created the most beautiful planet
with but one hope…that we’d enjoy it…
What if the Gods created the most beautiful planet…
and all we did…was destroy it.
Regular Patron of Powerstories
Poem Submitted by RAin Christi
Where is the answer
In all of this?
White Amerikkka choking
On stolen bliss
Black America fighting
Just to be free
White Americans
Take time to refuse to see
Liberty and Justice
Never been for all
We were created equal
Then came the Fall
Colonialism needed
Power to thrive
Stole the peace of living
From every Black life
Winding up for something
What will come next?
How many peaceful protests
Got no respect?
White man resting
On a black man’s neck
What type of values
Does this system protect?
Rising up the anger
Rising up the lies
White man’s knowledge
Has never been right
Sifting through the facts
Makes it hard to decide
What pathway to peace
Can we embark on tonight?
Strategic miseducation
Of an entire population
Distracting a nation
They got them chasing sensation
So they miss all the truth
Right in front of their faces
Sit in their comfiest chairs
And yet they feeling complacent
They only see the anger
Not the lives that were taken
They witness the system
And would never trade places
Whispering hatred
Inside of their bones
They don’t know how to leave
Racism alone
They act like they’re better
Because they aren’t out in the streets
But they missing the point
Try escaping the heat
Judgement is coming
It cannot be escaped
Babylon is America
And the whore must pay
Playing with fire
And you’re bound to get burned
Read in between the pages
And you’re bound to learn
The victor tells the story
It rarely ever is fact
So take American history
And rewind it back
Black history began
Long before the slaves
And Amerikkka should begin
With every unmarked grave
Every soul they took
Without permission
Every family torn apart
With no remission
Forty acres and a mule
Could never bring forgiveness
Let’s all begin
Supporting black owned business
May every conscious soul
Stop feeding the system
May we all take time
To truly stop and listen
To the anger, the pain
The injustice, the wisdom
May we fight the injustice
Release them all from this prison
We are one human race
All deserve to be free
May the pathway to peace
Begin with me
Story Submitted By Mark Ferguson-Nokham
Racism. Yeah, I seen it, and spoke out against my whole life. From leaving in Cleveland, Ohio, to Chicago, and now here in Tampa, Florida. At a early age my parents shown me the importance of treating everyone as equal. I never cared about how someone looked like, or the color of their skin. I accept everyone for who they are, and treating each other with mutual respect. But here we are today, the riots that have taken place lately is because of continuing treatment people have received from not being treated as equal. And the constant evidence of that comes from a behavior breed by hate. When I was a child I lived in a beautiful neighborhood community where every family was from a diverse background. I had neighborhood friends who were Black, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, and every spectrum of the world. In college, I found out just how much hate would go and it forever open my eyes. As Student President of the Ball State University Religious Council I was invited to march with the Student President of the Multicultural Affairs Council during the first ever MLK march at Ball State University. What was shocking was that cold day walking down McKinley Avenue was very little police presence, along with a handful of college students along the side of the streets. I was marching with at least 400 black students and leaders of the community. Needless to say I was excited, and a little bit uncomfortable as we approached Riverside Avenue. Men in white sheets, and hoods. It was the KKK. And their main office in Knightstown, Indiana is very close to Ball State. They just stared at me with looks of hate that made my chest, and heart get tight. I was told by one of the leaders marching beside me to not respond. As we marched past them one of them looked at me and yelled “We know who are N lover, and know where you live.” Shocked, I had my first real experience of how far hate from others was like. The next day walking home late from evening classes I found the place where I was staying at vandalized. Everything I owned was vandalized, rug soaked in urine, and my pet cats missing. I was scared and I immediately called the police department who never showed up. My first experience ever being a target of hate. Through out my college years I moved from place to place. Never publishing my phone number, or address. I cut back from student activities on campus. But I will never forget my first time ever dealing with racism. My Senior year I decided to no longer fear get the best of me, and to be more of advocate for Diversity, and culture. That’s the way I been since college. Lastly, Racism has no place in our society. We must not be afraid to speak out against it. What I did back then was stayed silent because I was living in fear of what could happen next to me. Those who are racist towards someone is a learned behavior, meaning they were not born to hate. We must put aside the fear and become learn to accept each other as equals. If we could do that with open minds, and hearts so much can be achieved together. Maybe what has happened this past week will open up a dialogue where we can to begin to heal, and learn to accept one another as equals? One can hope.
Story Submitted By Lisa S.
“Am I your first black friend?” I will never forget Drew Smith asking me this. The embarrassing truth was…yeah, he pretty much was, and it was obvious. I had been taught to be a kind, decent person and not to make judgements about people based on race, but I was clueless about how complicated, nuanced, and layered the topic of race was. Drew handled my ignorance so graciously, giving me room to learn and grow, and forgiving me when I messed up. And many others have done the same. I am still learning, and I am listening, in the hope that I can speak and act with empathy, set a positive example for others, and truly follow the commandment to “love one another.”
Story Submitted By Janice Creneti
I had lived most of my life before I understood the reality of white privilege. I had seen the reality of racism from a very early age as the neighborhood bully spat in my friend, Michael Ann’s face and snarled, “If I punched you, would you get a white eye?” At 8 years old, I was horrified and angry that someone could be so mean to another person. Michael Ann, on the other hand, seemed to let it roll off her back. Shortly after Trayvon Martin’s murder, I was having a conversation with 2 colleagues – both mothers of teen age sons, both African American. “Didn’t his parents ever have the talk with him?” Janet said. “What does the Birds and the Bees have to do with someone getting shot? I countered. Keisha looked at me at said patiently, “Different talk, Janice, different talk.” In my world the sex talk was the only talk there was. I didn’t know there was another world where parents talked to their sons about what to do WHEN they got pulled over by a cop, how to behave if they found themselves in a neighborhood not their own, confronted by someone that didn’t look like them, what they should and shouldn’t wear on their heads if they wanted to stay alive. I didn’t know because I’d never heard of that talk. My parents never had it with my brother because he’s white, because they are white. I looked at my colleagues and saw on their faces a pain I would never have to feel. I saw their shoulders slumped with a weight I would never have to carry – because I’m white. I thought again about the incident with Michael Ann and understood that the reason she seemed calmed, almost unaffected by the bully’s words was not because it didn’t bother her, but because, at the tender age of 8, she was already being trained to handle the racist insults that would be hurled at her for the rest of her life. And I realized it wasn’t enough for me to be horrified, to be angry. That alone wasn’t going to change things for people I loved. I realized I had a lot to do, a lot to learn to become a true ally. I had learned about the history of racism in our country, but was just beginning to examine my privilege. I voted in every election but needed to get active in protecting that right for others. I had done a lot of talking but not enough listening. So now I try to lead with listening, to examine my personal experiences and uncover my biases, to look for more ways to use the power that comes with my privilege. There’s a lot of work for me to do. But I’m committed to working on myself so I can do more work in the world.
Past Performer
Numerous Productions
Video Submitted By Zummo Family
Video Submitted By Jeovanny
Artwork Submitted By Fiely Matias
Artwork Submitted By Jeo
Poem Submitted By Jim Yerman
THREE WISHES
A genie offered him three wishes to change the world
Then asked, “What would your first wish be?”
The young man smiled at the genie then said,
“That’s an easy decision for me.”
“I wish for everyone…every person
every son
every daughter, father and mother
to be kind to the Earth
to be kind to the animals
and to be kind…to one another.
The genie said, “You still have two wishes…
what are you going to do?
The young man smiled, “I don’t think I’ll need them
as long as my first wish comes true”.
COMMUNITY SPONSORS
Listen live at: rad.prokro.com/public/wurklive
Interested in becoming a community sponsor? Email fran@powerstories.com.
Nothing Found
Sorry, no posts matched your criteria