Beyond the Battlefield: Military People in the Arts
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With a budget of less than a thousand dollars a year, raise awareness about military people’s contributions to the Arts while increasing understanding between military members, their families and civilian communities.
MilSpeak Foundation, Inc. (501c3), strives to raise awareness about creative works by military people to a more visible and influential position in American culture.
Innovations in publishing, marketing, and distribution have led to major accomplishments in creating awareness and building community: Fourteen MilSpeak Creative Writing Seminars (MCWS) have been held at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, South Carolina.
MCWS participants learn to write a true story about their military experience and learn to communicate the inside story to the outside world in a positive way. Participants are invited to share their writing with other military people by publishing their work at the foundation’s website Writers Gallery, and by publishing in MilSpeak Memo.
MilSpeak Books, the foundation’s nonprofit press, has produced 12 creative works written by military people. MilSpeak Books publishes only creative works by military people and was founded in recognition that the significant contribution of military people to American literature is often overlooked.
Through the foundation’s Sied Books program, more than 2000 downloads of MilSpeak Books titles have been gifted to deployed military members, wounded warriors, disabled veterans, and their family members. MilSpeak Memo (the foundation’s literary magazine) preserves through writing and art the history of the everyday of military life. Seven volumes of MilSpeak Memo have been published since January 2009. Memo is available free online to all readers at the foundation website.
MilSpeak Foundation is maturing into an organization that creates community among military people in the arts, and thus provides support, mentorship, and networking for a community whose contributions to American Arts are often overlooked and undervalued. Just knowing that another military person has successfully navigated the Odyssean obstacles of military life can build enough hope for someone who wants to give up to continue. Sometimes solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems are found in the writing and art these military freely share with each other, and in conversations generated by sharing in the Arts.
Perhaps most significant in the battle to erase military stereotyping in the Arts and to raise awareness of military people’s contributions to American Arts and Letters, MilSpeak Foundation has nominated twelve works by military people for the Pushcart Prize, one MilSpeak Books title has earned the digital publishing seal of approval – the QED, and, Korean War Veteran Tom Sheehan, author of more than 200 cowboy stories, several collections of poetry, and other works, has had his short fiction collection, The Westering, nominated by MilSpeak Books for the National Book Award.
There is more to applaud for this little organization that keeps on giving. With less than $1000 a year, MilSpeak Foundation is making dreams come true for military people in the Arts.
More About This Charity
Region
West
Category
Most Effective Awareness Campaign by a Charity
Name
MilSpeak Foundation, Inc.
Mission
MilSpeak Foundation, Inc. exists to raise awareness about creative works by military people to a more visible and influential position in American culture, seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for creative works by military people by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging creativity among military people, and introduces military people to stress management through Arts participation.
Impact
- This Achievement raised $1,000 in the past year
- This Achievement helped 150,000 people in the past year
- 2000 books given away, millions of opinions about military people changed
Works In
United States
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