Finding my voice and a vision: Poetic representations as valid/valuable knowledge.

This paper addresses the self-discovery of the author, a graduate student, in recognizing her overlapping identities of researcher, artist, and activist and the role of poetry through all of them. The journey through the identities, inspired by Catherine Etmanski's (2006) artistic journey, brings an awareness of the ability of poetry to encourage praxis. The author uses poetry to share others' voices, then she begins to share her own voice through her poetry, and finally, she begins to create spaces for others to compose their own poetry or alternative ways of making meaning. Etmanski maintains that education is the key characteristic among all means of social change, and therefore, the author concludes that her poetry, personal or research-based, as a means to educate, should be used to encourage social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]