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Finding Strength in a Verse Rheonna Thornton is giving women the power to use their voice — and words — in a way that is transformative. A connoisseur of language, Rheonna is celebrating the sixth anniversary of her Lipstick Wars Poetry Slam, which is a spoken word competition, but it’s about more than competitors showing their linguistic prowess. The idea for Lipstick Wars came from hearing negative comments from some male poets at other poetry slams. “There would be a lot of comments made by men who would say things like ‘oh great, another bitter [...]

“In the back of my mind was always my mother saying ‘writing is just a hobby…you can’t do that…you have to have a career,’ which is why I got an undergraduate degree at IUS, and have since earned five Master degrees. But I always came back to writing. I find myself in writing, says Author Felicia Mabuza Nikon, whose first novel is titled July in September. “I’m a female author who writes from a male perspective.” Ten words. That’s all writer and Louisvillian Felicia Mabuza Nixon had to utter upon our introduction at [...]