The Healing Words Project was created by poet, photographer, and teaching artist Kate Van Doren — an award-winning artist whose practice sits at the intersection of image, language, and testimony. Kate has spent decades building spaces where people use poetry and story to process grief, reclaim identity, and speak what has long gone unspoken. Her work has been recognized nationally, and the Healing Words Project stands as one of the most intimate and powerful expressions of her vision: that language, honestly held, can transform both the one who speaks and the one who listens.
Lady Zen was invited to be part of this project — a recognition of the depth, honesty, and singular voice they bring to everything they create. To be chosen by Kate Van Doren is to be seen in full: not just as a performer, but as someone whose life carries something essential and worth bearing witness to.
In the Healing Words Project, Lady Zen's voice moves through biography, survival, longing, and liberation — one of the most unguarded and profound expressions of their artistry on record.
"To be part of Kate Van Doren's Healing Words is to be recognized not just as a performer, but as someone whose life and art have something essential to say."
