The Good Listening Project Turns Health Care Workers’ Stories into Poems “Poetry is the how of what we do,” says co-founder Kay McKean. “Listening is the why of what we do.
“The word tender
comes to mind,” says
Tamara Wellons, who manages the artist in residence program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax. In a space on the second floor, near the elevators and escalator, a person sits at a table with a typewriter and an open chair across from her. Two signs read “Listener Poet” and “Tell Us Your Story.” Anyone is welcome to sit and tell their story, Wellons continues. “A caregiver, staff member, or patient: on site, it can be a security guard. It can be anyone in the space who wants to sit down and be with the listener poets.”