A DECADE+ OF STORYTELLING POWERED BY THE BEST WRITERS ON THE PLANET

WE DON'T DO IT ALL, BUT WE DO IT ALL "FOR GOOD"

BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Part Time / No Benefits

They flicker like millions of candles.

To remind me I have a pulse; while I play in- this brick monopoly.

 

Roll twice

Clean up on aisle “6”.

 

So I do it, so my son Dante can feel the hell with 7.50 an hour.

Mopping swirls of vomit from green drips of snot we call kids.

“Wax floors know no clarity.

 

Pass go, don’t collect 200

Breaking stale bread and grape juice at our last supper.

Laying on steel Tempur-Pedics sending cold drips of stress

down my back.

 

Power lines write out the 23rd psalms at night Saying “thou

anoint my head with oil”.

 

Praying I can wrap one of those lines around my neck to feel

some surge of power in my life.

 

Entering soup kitchens filled with dried bodies

watching those murmuring tales of the past.

Gracious hands serve you but in their minds it’s judgment day.

 

I saw some children play hopscotch on the boardwalk.

Others planted a garden with a Phoenix’s ashes.

 

While I lay on the deck

all I wanted was a get out of jail free card.

Jana Gipson
Jana Gipson
Jana Gipson is a Tampa native she is a proud Alumni Howard W. Blake Magnet High School and received a Master of Certification in Creative Writing. She has written and published numerous poems that highlight current events, the African-American experience, and her personal challenges and triumphs. Jana served as Sports Reporter for UnSigned PrepsAll Sports Community Service and received the MLK award and Lee Roy Selmon Scholarship. She has performed some of her original works at local venues. She is currently working on a new project, She is Sound, which will feature artists from all mediums and bring awareness to mental health issues. You can follow Jana on Facebook.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


10 CONVERSATIONS

RECIPIENT OF THE 2024 "MOST COMPREHENSIVE LIFE & CULTURE MULTIMEDIA DIGEST" AWARD

WE ARE NOW FEATURED ON

EXPLORE 360° NATION

ENJOY OUR FREE EVENTS

OUR COMMUNITIES