The Word is a transformative literary arts program powered by an intergenerational cooperative of diverse, justice-minded spoken word artists. The Word builds community by growing radically inclusive writing and performance programs grounded in poetry, rap, and song. Through its many partnerships, The Word brings a creative life force into social action groups, movements, and institutions – expanding our collective capacity to re-imagine ourselves and our world.
WHAT WE DO
The Word 2023: Expanding Youth Experiences
BEYOND
This year The Word is taking things beyond the walls of New Haven schools. We are creating a Youth Slam Team to represent CT. The Slam Team will be traveling to Brave New Voices (BNV https://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/) , an international conference held in various locations. This year BNV will be held in San Francisco July 18-23rd. This is the first year The Word has participated in BNV. It is a chance for the youth to travel, meet and network with peers from across the world, participate in workshops with world famous Teaching Artists they might not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise and the chance to perform to an international audience.
Youth Slam Team Selection: Hosting a traditional poetry slam on April 7th 5:30-8 pm at Stetson Library in New Haven. The top 6 poets will be attending BNV and represent CT as the Slam Team. 1st place CT Youth Grand Slam Champion 2023. The top 4 students win monetary prizes. Anyone under 18 in CT is eligible to compete in the Poetry Slam.
EXPANDING WRITING LIBERATION
The Word expanded workshops to include hybrid format and a was day added leading up to the Youth Slam. To make the workshops more accessible they were offered on Wednesdays via zoom for the month of March and April. This workshop was held to assist students to prep for the slam competition. The regular workshops at Neighborhood Music School continue to meet every Thursday evening and can be offered hybrid format if anyone is interest please let us know and we will set up a zoom! The last writing liberation workshop for the 22/23 school year is June 29!
STRETCHING OUR REACH
The Word has not only worked with new schools within New Haven this year such as MBA but we are holding workshops outside of New Haven! We held our first workshop at Hotchkiss school and have pop up events at Amity Regional Middle School!