The Founder's Note
Joy-Jayne Bassey
Poet-artist | Founder
Poet-artist | Founder
Listening is my first form of language.
As a little girl, I remember sitting in a circle, listening to an elder share stories.
Those stories became a torch in my young mind—guiding, questioning, illuminating.
Through them, I learned how to see.
How to imagine life beyond my own immediate viewpoint. How to feel my way around the world.
Those stories became a torch in my young mind—guiding, questioning, illuminating.
Through them, I learned how to see.
How to imagine life beyond my own immediate viewpoint. How to feel my way around the world.
As I grew older, I began to wonder:
What happens when we listen across languages?
What happens when we gather around the fire of poetry—not to perform, but to witness?
What happens when we listen across languages?
What happens when we gather around the fire of poetry—not to perform, but to witness?
These questions became a longing.
A longing for poetry that doesn’t just speak, but lives.
For a gathering that allows us to understand the world through the lens of verse.
For conversations that are slow, soulful, and wide enough to hold contradiction and beauty side by side.
A longing for poetry that doesn’t just speak, but lives.
For a gathering that allows us to understand the world through the lens of verse.
For conversations that are slow, soulful, and wide enough to hold contradiction and beauty side by side.
This is that space.
MuseVerse Circle is a return to the circle I sat in as a child, but now the voices come from many directions, the stories shaped by culture, inheritance, cadence, and reclamation.
MuseVerse Circle is a return to the circle I sat in as a child, but now the voices come from many directions, the stories shaped by culture, inheritance, cadence, and reclamation.
Here, we hold space not just for poems, but for people. For voices rooted in tradition.
For words shaped by place and for the unspoken things that still wish to be heard.
For words shaped by place and for the unspoken things that still wish to be heard.
Thank you for being here.
You are part of the circle now.
You are part of the circle now.