David Dephy is going to the Moon.
David, an Employment & Community Service Coordinator with Employment and Business Services-Brooklyn, is a prolific writer, with eight novels and fifteen published poetry collections to his name. Now, David’s poem, “A Sense of Purpose,” is heading to outer space as part of the Lunar Codex project.
“I wrote this poem directly on my desk at AHRC, when I realized its message—a message of hope, a message of freedom and responsibility,” David said. “This poem is all about us, all about our experiences, how we see ourselves in the future and for the future.”
According to the New York Times, “The Lunar Codex is a digitized (or miniaturized) collection of contemporary art, poetry, magazines, music, film, podcasts, and books by 30,000 artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers in 157 countries. It’s the brainchild of Samuel Peralta, a semi-retired physicist and author in Canada with a love of the arts and sciences.” The collection will start heading to the Moon later this year aboard a series of unmanned rockets.
David credited his friend, the Israeli poet Lali Michaeli, with suggesting that he submit “A Sense of Purpose” to the Lunar Codex.
“30 days after submission I received a call from NASA and Joyce Brinkman [an editor at Brick Street Poetry] said to me that I am going to the moon. ‘Wow,’ I replied, ‘that’s wonderful. I am deeply honored. I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon, my friend!’”
“A Perfect Job for a Writer Like Me”
David is a trilingual artist. He is originally from Georgia, a country in the Caucasus Mountains. During the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, David joined with other volunteers to set up a headquarters of civil solidarity with his slogan “Stop Russia.” Sadly, he was exiled from his native land in 2017 following years of political strife and was granted political asylum in the United States. His family joined him the following year.
After being inspired by Joshua Corwin, a poet with autism he had previously collaborated with, David said “I found a perfect job for a writer like me at AHRC. I love pleasing people. I love to be with them, to talk with them, write with them, paint with them.”
He loves the feeling of helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities find meaningful employment of their choosing. “I found brilliant people. All of them are just brilliant. These people are messengers and hope-givers. They give comfort. They give hope. And that’s the mission of poetry, I think. I always believed that AHRC is like poetry itself because we are dealing with real people, with real feelings.”
“Despite languages, despite the cultural differences, we are one. Maybe we are not the same, but we are. That’s AHRC.”
David’s next poetry reading will be on Oct 6, 2023, at 7 p.m. at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association in Huntington Station, Long Island. AHRC NYC congratulates David on his artistic accomplishments and is grateful for his dedication to improving the employment prospects of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
