Finding Words for What Matters: Guest House at Embrace Your Voice
April 29, 2025 | The Lyceum, 201 South Washington Street, Alexandria, VA
On the evening of April 29, residents and staff of Friends of Guest House stepped into the Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria and did something that takes real courage: they spoke. At the annual “Embrace Your Voice” Poetry Share, co-sponsored by Doorways and Friends of Guest House in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the room became a sanctuary for the kind of truth-telling that words — and only words — can hold.
Embrace Your Voice is now in its eleventh year, a tradition rooted in the belief that speaking your story is an act of survival, solidarity, and strength. This year, as in years past, several Guest House residents and staff members took the microphone to share their original poetry. In a room of fellow survivors, advocates, and community members, their voices filled the space and left it changed.
A Space to Be Heard
Poems shared at Embrace Your Voice must be original works — each one the poet’s own. For the women of Guest House, that requirement is not a constraint; it is an invitation. Writing and performing an original poem means claiming ownership of your own narrative, perhaps for the first time. It means saying: this is my story, in my words, and I choose to share it.
That act carries particular weight for women who have experienced incarceration. The criminal justice system assigns labels. Poetry refuses them. What participants bring to the stage at Embrace Your Voice are not case numbers or charges; they are inner lives, rendered in language, offered freely to a community ready to receive them.
All Five Pillars, in One Room
Friends of Guest House builds its programming around the Five Pillars of Livability: the interconnected foundations that women need to thrive after incarceration. Embrace Your Voice is a rare event that touches every single one:
Healthcare
An estimated 90 percent of incarcerated women carry histories of trauma, and the healing work of Guest House addresses mental health from day one. Poetry, writing it, speaking it, and witnessing it, is a recognized form of trauma processing. Being in a room where that work is honored supports ongoing mental and emotional recovery.
Employment
Guest House’s Workforce and Life Skills Development Program prepares residents not just for jobs, but for sustained self-sufficiency. Standing before an audience and delivering original work builds the confidence, presence, and communication skills that serve women in every professional setting they enter.
Education
Composing an original poem is an act of literacy and self-expression. For residents who are continuing their education or returning to it, participation in events like Embrace Your Voice reinforces the value of their voices and perspectives in the classroom and beyond.
Housing
Stable housing gives women a foundation from which they can take risks, including the risk of being vulnerable in public. The Residential Program’s structure and safety make events like this one possible; women who are housed and supported are women who can show up for their own healing.
Reconnection
According to Guest House’s own framework, “building a strong, supportive community helps women to succeed post-incarceration.” Embrace Your Voice is that community made visible: partner organizations, staff, residents, and neighbors standing together, listening together, and affirming together that these women belong.
Thank You to Our Partners
Friends of Guest House is proud to co-host Embrace Your Voice alongside Doorways and the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center. The partnership reflects a shared commitment across our organizations: that survivors deserve to be heard, supported, and celebrated — not despite what they’ve been through, but because of who they are becoming.
To every resident and staff member who took the stage this year: thank you. You reminded everyone in that room why this work matters.