2018 alumna Audri Svay – who has been Theopoet in Residence at the Chuch of the Brethren Annual Conference and the Sing Me Home festival – discusses the power of language to form identity. 

What words do you use to describe yourself to others? What labels do others place on you? Words have the power to affect who we are, where we belong, and what we are capable of. The right words can alter perceptions; the wrong words can damage lives. Words shape our identities. Theopoetics (the intersection of mystery, metaphor, and meaning) helps to make sense of who we are and how we harness language to create and to confine.