ABOUT US

Cultivating community, culture & Compassion through poetry

Glassless Minds is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit that facilitates and fosters constructive emotional outlets and personal expression in an accepting and safe space for teenagers and young adults through a variety of mediums. While our heartbeat is poetry, we are open to all expressive arts. There is something truly magical and transformative about performing art in front of a group of strangers and friends with all our vulnerabilities and fears trying to hold us back. It is equally magical and therapeutic to listen to others bravely tell their stories and know that we are not alone.

Since 2010, Glassless Minds has been dedicated to building a community here in North County San Diego of like-minded poets, spectators, activists, educators, and other expressive artists.  Our staff is small and completely volunteer. We do this because we love it and have all personally experienced powerful healing and inspiration through Glassless Minds. We continue our work in cultivating community, culture, and compassion through open mic night events, publishing opportunities, virtual craft talks, poetry writing workshops facilitated by award winning authors, mentorship programming, and civic engagement events centered around local and current global disparities. Our events are offered free of charge and accessible to attendees and artists of all levels of experience. Furthermore, our programming collaborates closely with systematically impacted youth, LBGTQIA+ individuals, BIPOC communities, and individuals with disabilities (both visible and invisible), empowering their voices and fostering a sense of belonging through writing and performance. This approach enables writers and attendees from these communities to embrace their lived experiences as rich perspectives and cultural capital, contributing to a narrative centered on joy and healing rather than emphasizing deficits.

The Glassless Minds Community Impact

For the past 15 years, Glassless Minds has influenced countless lives.  Encouraging individuals to express themselves in a supportive and accepting environment allows them to become comfortable with their own voice, feelings, and aspirations without fear of rejection.  By inspiring confidence within themselves, we provide our community with a lifelong appreciation of who they are as people which they take with them and apply to multiple facets of their life.

By providing a safe space for teens and adults to express themselves, we've helped:

  • build confidence through public speaking and community building

  • deal with mental illness through personal narrative, storytelling, and community

  • create lifelong friendships, even a marriage or two;)

  •  direct people toward social and mental services near by

  • inspire people to explore their creativity

  • teach folks writing and performance techniques from professionals

  • provide volunteer leadership opportunities for teens

Our HISTORY

Glassless Minds was founded in 2010 with the purpose to nurture a community of poets and creatives who lacked access to traditional publishing resources and opportunities outside of academia. With some imagination, recycled paper, and spray paint, all bound together with floss, local poets and artists put together a poetry chapbook which was distributed throughout San Diego, California. While distributing the chapbook, founder Rolland Tizuela stumbled into a local poetry open mic night in North Park that changed his life. After an inspiring evening, he was motivated to replicate a similar space for healing, art, and expression, a place where historically underserved youth can feel welcomed and safe to share their stories and poetry in North County San Diego. Glassless Minds held its first open mic night at the Earth and Cultural Roots Center in Oceanside. As the community grew over the years, so did our mission and transition into becoming an official 501c3 non-profit in 2019 to better serve and support our community.