Synergy Events – United States

Poetry Out Loud San Antonio (POLSA)
Poetry Out Loud is a national program, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, in which high school students learn to read, understand, and recite well-known works of poetry. Performance competitions are held at school, city, state, and national levels, whereby students can win cash and scholarships, and schools can win money for their libraries. All participating students are winners, improving many important literacy, communication, and analytical skills, and developing the confidence vital to success throughout life. For more information on the national program, go to www.poetryoutloud.org. Participation in the program is free. If you are a school in the greater San Antonio area, please contact us.

Poetry Out Loud San Antonio (POLSA) extends these benefits and many more to the youth AND adults of San Antonio. Synergy (the official Poetry Out Loud partner for San Antonio) works closely with schools to enable them to successfully participate in the national program, providing written materials, workshops, performances, coaching, judging, and other forms of assistance. In addition, Synergy coordinates a parallel local program involving the creation and performance of the students’ own writing. Furthermore, Synergy works to create synergy among adult individuals and organizations, so that the benefits of these poetry programs can be extended to all members of the community through public performances, workshops, and other events. We encourage other arts organizations to work with us in linking their own programs to POLSA efforts. As San Antonio is responsible for much of its own funding in administering the program locally, we invite sponsors to help make these benefits possible for our community.

Synergy Events – Cyprus

Local advisory committee for the Cyprus International Poetry Festival:

• Beverly Monestier - poet/writer
  
• Lisa Majaj – director/committee co-chair
  
• Maria Thoma - committee co-chair, former recipient of Cyprus State Prize for young writers, poet/editor
  
• Eric Hellicar - long time educator, poet
  
• Gurgenc Korkmazel – poet, Turkish Cypriot community
  
• Niki Marangou - awarded poet/writer, owner of Kochlias Bookstore
  
• Nora Nadjarian – poet, Armenian Cypriot community
  
• Jenan Selchuk – poet, Turkish Cypriot community
  
• Stephanos Stephanides - Chairman of Humanities Dept., U. of Cyprus, poet, translator
  
• Spurgeon Thompson - poet, former General Editor of Cadences: A Journal of Literature and the Arts in Cyprus
  
• Mehmet Yashin - awarded poet/novelist

* Synergy memberships: $20/calendar yr. includes discounts on courses, a chance to submit work to our website and be invited to perform at special events, and the right to have the Synergy network promote your work and publications for you even when you can't be present, here and abroad. Membership fees and tax deductible donations will help us bring a diversity of guests to the community, provide our offerings to those who otherwise cannot afford them, and offer more free performances and events to better our community. Support literacy. Support peace. It begins with us.

Meanwhile, if you would like to schedule a Synergy Foundation event for your organization, please contact us at synergyfoundation@hotmail.com or call (210) 824-5379