Youth Speaks

Bay area programs - every time a thought is put into words, it is a creative act (thus the term, language arts). The same way a student recognizes and is able to practice visual arts by learning images, drawing, painting, and/or sculpting, a person's language skills expand the more s/he communicates ideas, problems, feelings, and solutions. Our local programming sits at the core of Youth Speaks. Programs such as our after school workshops, in-school residencies, uncer 21 open mic, bringing the noise for martin luther king jr., teen poetry slam, unified district poetry clam, oakland poet laureate, queeriosity and mc olympics, fully embody our unique pedagogy which combines arts education, Youth development, performance and civic engagement. We believe that our strength as a national leader is intrinsically connected to the depth and excellence of our core local programs and pedagogy. Youth Speaks is also actively creating professional development training opportunities and pathways as part of bay area program. We developed the first sound institute in collaboration with the university of san francisco school of education, to bring together artists and secondary educators from across the bay area and beyond to provide insight into our pedagogy, our philosophical underpinnings of our Youth development, and our arts development practices.

Theater program - Youth Speaks theater program is committed to producing literary performance in the verse of our time. Aesthetically urban, pedagogically freirean, our theater program derives personal performed narratives out of interdisciplinary collaboration. Though its methodology includes dance, music, and film, the company's emphasis is spoken storytelling.we support the creation of verse-based work that is spoken through the body, illustrated by visual and sonic scores, and in communication with the important social issues and movements of the immediate moment. Youth Speaks theater program is also centrally focused on supporting the next generation of theater artists, technical personnel and leaders, including writers, directors, performers and producers, through our emerging artists fellowship. Emerging artists fellows are alumni of Youth Speaks Youth programs and the brave new voices network.

National & field building programs - (1) brave new voices -- youthspeaks first founded the brave new voices (or "bnv") festival as thenational Youth poetry slam in 1998, after the success of the local workin the bay area. The first slam had four teams; we now have 55competing teams and five to ten non-competing teams join us each year.bnv is about bringing together young poets from across the globe sothat they can create new pathways toward artistic growth, civicengagement, and Youth development. Bnv takes place in a different cityeach year, and reaches up to 200,000 people each festival. Beginning infy14, the program was expanded to include the bnv network initiative, acomprehensive multi-year initiative to support programs andorganizations in the field of arts education and Youth development through grants, consulting services, fellowships, and other resources,from within the existing bnv network and beyond, to become stronger,more sustainable, and more impactful organizations. (2) the biggerpicture is a collaboration between Youth Speaks, and the university ofcalifornia, san francisco center for vulnerable populations designed tocombat the rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes by empowering Youth tochange the conversation about the disease, and work to change thesocial, cultural and environmental factors that have led to its spread,in the bay area and throughout California. We aim to inspire youngpeople to challenge and name the institutional, environmental andsocial causes of type 2 diabetes. It is our hope that by raising theirvoice, taking action and joining the conversation, they will inevitablyalter the trajectory of the disease, and provide Youth with a virtualplatform, and real life performance opportunities for their stories tobe heard. (3) life is living is a collaborative community-based projectthat tests ideas about engaging Youth, presenting public art, fosteringliteracy and storytelling, developing arts audiences, establishingnon-traditional partnerships, transforming the environmental justicemovement, and catalyzing community-building.