Local Houston poet, Marlon “Marley” Lizama has been named the community recipient of the John P. McGovern Award for the Promotion of Public Health. The John P. McGovern Award Lecture Series in Health Promotion was established in 1996 by Dr. McGovern to acknowledge the important role that health promotion programs play in public health, to improve health, and prevent disease in the community. Lizama was chosen for this award in part for his work creating a performance poetry curriculum for the “We Can Do More” project, which is an initiative by the UT Prevention Research Center to reduce teen pregnancy in communities across Houston/Harris County by providing young people and adults with information, resources, skills, and opportunities. Lizama is currently the Artist-in-Residence in the Iconoclast program hosted by St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston and has been the featured poet at the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American Studies College Career Days. Moving to the Magnolia neighborhood of Houston from Puerto Rico at the age of 9, Lizama is also an artist and break dancer who focuses on the cultural aspect of writing and the arts. For the John P. McGovern Award reception he presented “The Art of Storytelling: Working with At-Risk Youth to Find Their Voice through Writing and Performance Poetry.”
During the lecture, Lizama recounted experiences he had during high school where he repeatedly heard iterations of: “you don’t have anything, and you’re not going to be much.” Knowing only his immediate environment, this motivated him to write the stories he heard from his family and community while growing up in a single parent household. He says that, “writing poetry empowered him and saved him from his reality.” Now, Lizama uses these experiences as teachable moments; according to Lizama, “the struggle is what connects” himself to his students.
Lizama is currently developing and implementing a writing program for youth from all over Houston, including youth in inner-city schools and at-risk youth in the Harris County Juvenile Justice System. With the help of fellow educators, he developed a “How to Teach High-Level Creative Writing to At-Risk Youth” curriculum. With the mindset of, “how are we failing our youth,” Lizama spoke of the tools that he uses to connect to at-risk youth: connection, consistency, trust, and growth. Using his background as a methodology to reach at-risk youth, he strives to create work that speaks to underserved communities that can lead to youth developing higher self-esteem, feeling better about themselves, and creating a positive environment. This, in turn, can help empower them and prepare them to better deal with those challenges facing them in life. In the last year, Lizama served over 1,200 at-risk students through his work in the community. In order to give these students a voice, Lizama is publishing an anthology of poetry created by the youth.
Through competitions, performances, poetry shows, and the U.S. Department of State, Lizama has traveled to more than 40 countries. His work and ultimate mission is to use the arts as a tool to change the perspective, environment, and lives of those who encounter difficulties growing up. Marlon recently published his first book, Cue the Writer: Cheers to the Notion of Love, Hate, God, and Revolution, which is a collection of short stories and poetry from a young immigrant’s perspective. His website is http://www.marlonlizamapoetry.org.