LIGHT (Leaders Igniting Generational Healing & Transformation)  

Saint Louis,  MO 
United States
http://www.light4ph.org
  • Booth: 327


Welcome to LIGHT, where we center people first in health.

The Institute of Medicine defines public health as 'what society must do to keep people healthy.' We agree but have found that the field often uses tools that rarely put people first, tools that are not often accessible, tools that may not resonate, and tools that are often denied, missed, or ignored.

We know that no single strategy will work to put people first in public health. But listening matters. So does engagement. We are here to listen and learn; we are here to reach one another as we bridge the deep divide between the public and their health. We believe that the often-unheard stories, unspoken sentiments, and unshared portraits may help close the gap between the public and public health experts.

We created Leaders Igniting Generational Healing and Transformation (LIGHT) as a go-to literary journal in public health. We are a journal, bringing back the true meaning of a journal as a way to record personal experiences and stories through literary works. We are a logbook of illustrations and photographs, a digital and print commonplace that the public can use to creatively express themselves through narratives of their own health.

We are a space focused on connections we make, the creativity we possess, and the community we form as we journey together to blaze roads and light up paths that keep people healthy.

We are storytellers, writers, poets, editors, artists, and researchers committed to centering 'people' in public health through the power of stories that illuminate and make public health real and center the lived experience; the power of art, poetry, and letters by and from the public that share the truth about life that in turn can be used as voices of urgency, voices of inspiration to buttress calls for actions to keep people healthy; and the power of creativity that spark conversations, accelerate knowledge, and ignite action.

We are a community of leaders working together to generate healing and transformation. We are LIGHT.

 Show Specials

  • (Oct 03, 2023)
    We're excited to offer all conference attendees the opportunity to purchase LIGHT Issue 1 during the conference! Our magazine is packed with artwork, letters, stories, and poetry created and written for the public by the public, making it a uniquely curated piece. We value your presence and support and can't wait to meet, connect, and share our literary journal on public health dissemination with you! 

 Products

  • LIGHT Magazine - Issue 1
    LIGHT Issue 1 is focused on how we might reimagine public health as art, letters, stories, poetry, & whatever else the public felt was necessary to surprise us with. We encouraged the public to submit content through one or more creative outlets....

    • Simply naming something “light” does not describe or imply it, not when light means to shine, reflect, kindle, illuminate, or brighten things dark or those that dazzle. We are learning that naming is only one stage of the process. Transformation and sustainment are other more preferable stages. The prolific author, bell hooks, would describe this as the courage “to engage in resistance that will transform our current reality.” It is in this act, the power to transform reality, that we present our inaugural LIGHT issue. We are leaders igniting generational healing and transformation. We are committed to the power creativity, in all its forms, can have on our health and well-being. We are prepared to look back, to look forward, too, so as to see the public fully. This is an act of survival, an attempt to let the public speak, however, they choose, in ways that make sense to them. Only the public can give us a clue how we can begin to see, to name, to transform, and to sustain what matters most for their health… Our inaugural magazine is focused on how we might reimagine public health as art, letters, stories, poetry, and whatever else the public felt was necessary to surprise us with… We are all leaders igniting generational healing and transformation.
  • Open Call for Submissions
    LIGHT is calling for submissions via creative mediums in response to the question: How might we reimagine healing and transformation with cancer through art, letters, stories, and poetry?...

    • Perhaps it is you who has had cancer and are now in remission. It could be that it is your father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparent, child, or friend who has cancer and is living with it or has had cancer and has passed with it. Maybe it is you (or someone you know) who never took a simple test, like a pap smear, and you've discovered it when it is already too late. It could be that you are barely living with it; it could be that you're dying with it. Perhaps you are the one coping with cnacer, or maybe you are coping as a loved one or a friend, even a caregiver, of someone who has cancer.

    Creativity, like mediums such as art, letters, stories, and poetry, can be used to reimagine, transform, and process one's experience with cancer. It can be used to fuse the personal and the public, to ask unsettling questions that provoke thoughts or force us to dream. When a member of our team lost a family member to cervical cancer, she turned to poetry and the Cancer Journal from the late Audre Lorde for healing and transformation. Audre Lorde described her experience with coping with cancer as an opportunity to transform silence into language and action. The poet Lucille Clifton also described cancer as the dreaded word that leaves you staring at life with your own living eyes.

    But what do you call it? How might you reimagine healing and transformation from an experience with cancer?

    Shed light on your journey. We are calling on the fluidity of your imaginations and potency of your truth, from your poetic vision to any attempts at social justice, from the tender trees planted in gardens in memory of lives lost to the single-breath pieces that help all of us to inhale and exhale through any experience with cancer. Through your art, letter, story, or poem, those walking a similar path or in similar shoes can know they are not alone and begin the process of healing and transformation. 

    Submissions will be accepted via Submittable. There is no entry fee! Prize money (1st: $500, 2nd: $375, 3rd: $125) will be given to the top three contestants of each category.

Categories

Product Categories
  • Communications
  • International/Global Health
  • Research

    • Send Email

    Type your information and click "Send Email" to send an email to this exhibitor. To return to the previous screen without saving, click "Reset".

    Loading ...

    :
    :


    Legend
    Available Timeslot
    Scheduled Appointment
    Personal Appointments
    Appointment Request
    Blocked Timeslot
    Restricted Timeslot
    Cancelled
    Declined