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xpressmagsf: Our summer 2013 issue is out!!!!! Pick up your...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:49:39 -0400

Our summer 2013 issue is out!!!!! Pick up your copy today! And don’t forget to check out our website for more stories at xpressmagazine.org #xpressmagazine #sfsu

We are honored to be featured in Xpress Magazine, a San Francisco State University student-run publication. We are proud to support this local effort of honest and compelling reporting. Read and share to get a comprehensive look at who we are and what we’ve been up to.

THANK YOU to every poet who poured their heart on stage this...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:48:07 -0400

THANK YOU to every poet who poured their heart on stage this past Saturday at the 17th Annual Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. We were all transformed by your truth and inspired by the example you set. The stories that were shared reminded us of the pain we carry but also of our resilience and collective strength. We held space for one another to speak, unmasked, and dared to love. Take time to reach out and continue the dialogue these poems provoke in us — they mark the beginning of a journey that stretches before us.

josevadi: think of the movements that started out of the trunk...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:42:00 -0400

josevadi:

think of the movements that started out of the trunk of a car and later filled skyscrapers.

there are few times you can stare at a building and fully know the slivers of history those four walls housed. simply put, this is where a lot of us learned to write. to perform. to push ourselves. to talk shit. to edit multimedia. to debate heavily and jump on the line dividing argument from rage. to apologize. to be ourselves. some of us are touring the country now. some are in graduate art programs. some have stopped writing and performing entirely.

i ended up walking passed the old Youth Speaks office on Folsom b/w 17th & 18th Streets yesterday afternoon after collecting audio/video footage from BAVC in Potrero Hill for a new collaboration I’m directing between Youth Speaks and The Center for Investigative Reporting called The Off/Page Project. i introduced the project last november and work on its creation/launch daily, including interviewing some of our young poets about the under reported socioeconomic/political issues most important to them.

in creating the Off/Page at the age of twenty-eight, my mind drifts back to getting off BART, walking down 16th, and writing poems into the evening on those shitty fold-out chairs in the middle of the Mission, learning about Paulo Freire’s pedagogical models and the poetry of Audre Lorde, amongst as diverse a slice of Bay Area youth as you could imagine. and mind-numbingly amazing mentors. Bamuthi alone blew enough minds to inspire, quite literally, a generation of writers, performers, directors, and educators.

and what if those walls didn’t exist? how many voices would be stuck in the throats of short-tempered, outlet-less youth? being there on Folsom was as much about writing poetry as it was talking shit, debating hip hop, and being really fucking loud. and for all that madness to be not just accepted, but to be housed - living and breathing - in a space where doors never close.

Here is a glimpse into Teen Poetry Slam 2013 at a preliminary...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:37:45 -0400

Here is a glimpse into Teen Poetry Slam 2013 at a preliminary bout in San Francisco at Mama Art Cafe on Saturday afternoon. Shout out to every poet who left their heart on the stage. Our deepest gratitude to every parent, mentor, guardian, friend and loved one who made this process possible. Go to www.youthspeaks.org for a full schedule of Teen Poetry Slam 2013 and be sure to check out our Semi-Final bouts and Grand Slam Finals! Follow us on Instagram at instagram.com/youthspeaks.

Teen Poetry Slam 2013 kicks off TODAY with preliminary bouts in...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:45:00 -0400

Teen Poetry Slam 2013 kicks off TODAY with preliminary bouts in San Francisco (5+7PM) at 826 Valencia and in Berkeley (7PM) at Subterranean Arthouse. Visit Youth Speaks for a full schedule and come out to support the Bay Area’s brave and brilliant young poets!

Restless

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:48:00 -0400

Restless
Li-Young Lee

I can hear in your voice
you were born in one country
and will die in another,

and where you live is where you’ll be buried,
and when you dream it’s where you were born.

and the moon never hangs in both skies
on the same night,

and that’s why you think the moon has a sister,
that’s why your day is hostage to your nights,

and that’s why you can’t sleep except by forgetting,
you can’t love except by remembering.

And that’s why you’re divided: yes and no,
I want to die. I want to live.
Never go away. Leave me alone.

I can hear by what you say
your first words must have been mother and father.

Even before your own name, mother.
Long before amen, father.

And you put one word in your left shoe,
one in your right, and you go walking.

And when you lie down you tuck them
under your pillow, where they give rise
to other words: childhood, fate, and rescue
Heaven, wine, return.

And even god and death are offspring.
Even world is begotten, even summer
a descendant. And the apple tree. Look and see

the entire lineage alive
in every leaf and branching
decision, snug inside each fast bud,

together in the flower, and again
in the pulp, mingling in the fragrance
of the first mouthful and the last.

I can tell by your silence you’ve seen the petals
immense in their vanishing.

Flying, they build your only dwelling.
Falling, they sow shadows at your feet.

And when you close your eyes
you can hear the ancient fountains
from which they derive,

rock and water ceaselessly declaring
the laws of coming and going.

A poem by Arielle John performed at College Unions Poetry Slam...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:23:09 -0400

A poem by Arielle John performed at College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) 2013

Register for Teen Poetry Slam 2013 TODAY at...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:31:59 -0400

Register for Teen Poetry Slam 2013 TODAY at http://youthspeaksslam13.eventbrite.com/ and share your story — the world is waiting to hear you.

“It’s easier to love myself in metaphor than factI...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:13:00 -0400

“It’s easier to love myself in metaphor than fact
I know when the slam is over
when I am alone
staring at self naked in mirror
I still will not be able to say I love you to the reflection
for now I am a love poem being written
calluses scrawling into valentines
laugh lines mouthing “I love yous”
a work in progress”

— Jade Cho, Oakland

Register for Teen Poetry Slam 2013 TODAY at http://youthspeaksslam13.eventbrite.com/ and share your story — the world is waiting to hear you.

A glimpse into the Unified District Poetry Slam preliminaries...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:57:00 -0500

A glimpse into the Unified District Poetry Slam preliminaries held at the San Francisco Public Library.

The event is a team slam, with each participating school having a team of 4-6 poets. The District Slam event is open to schools beyond San Francisco and Oakland: schools from across the East Bay, North Bay, and Peninsula are invited to send a team to the Greater Bay Slam preliminary bout! Spots are limited, and priority is given to schools with Youth Speaks residencies and/or SLAM clubs.

The top-scoring schools from each bout move on to perform for the title of UDPS Slam Champion!

Come to the UDPS Grand Slam Finals :: 5PM-7PM | Friday, March 1, 2013 @ San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium.

Young, Gifted and Black drop their “Black Love”...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:58:55 -0500

Young, Gifted and Black drop their “Black Love” trailer from their recent trip to Ghana. Peep the video and spread it far + wide…

Every year, Youth Speaks presents over 500 hours of free writing...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:53:40 -0500

Every year, Youth Speaks presents over 500 hours of free writing and performance workshops to hundreds of teenagers in locations across the Bay Area. A place for artistic and critical growth, the free writing and performance workshops focus on different aspects of writing, from fiction, playwriting, and poetry, to performance, desktop publishing, and poetry slam.Workshops are taught by leading poets, writers, spoken word artists, and cultural activists, and typically run in 5 to 10-week blocks. Each workshop is open to any teen 13 – 19 years old (unless otherwise noted). All workshops are free and no registration is necessary.

Visit http://www.youthspeaks.org for more information!

Photo

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:23:00 -0500

Every year, Youth Speaks gathers our communities together to...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:43:00 -0500

Every year, Youth Speaks gathers our communities together to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We cipher to make sense of the dream we are weaving together. We talk story to draw from the depths of this river the truths we need to fortify ourselves on this ongoing journey. We celebrate and sorrow together. We comfort each other. We rededicate ourselves to the upward climb.

This dream we are weaving together is more than slender promises. It is more than fanciful imagery. It is more than stentorian voices placed, picture perfect, before monuments. It cannot be well-polished platitudes, the fine silver and good china that we bring out before polite company. If it is, we are as good as dead already.

We need to talk about this dream we are weaving together—how it is frayed at the edges. How it is ribbed with scarlet. How it leaves stains on our fingers. We must talk about this river—how it is flecked with blood. How it keeps catching bodies. How its mouth is full of the dead.

Brethren, sistren—it must be said. NO GUNS. It must be cried out in the streets that we are willing to turn our swords are ploughshares. It must be hollered from the rooftops that we are down to fashion our nines into scythes. It must be announced that we are willing to lay down our weapons first. Even the OGs who keep watch over our blocks keep their guns on safety, praying that they never have to bust a shot.

Brethren, sistren—this is not about the right to bear arms. This is not about the 2nd amendment or the National Rifle Association. This is not about waistbands, dresser drawers, glove compartments or the pieces that are tucked in them. This is about our love affair with the rhetoric of bloodshed. This is about how we have grown up waving our hands in the air in the mimicry of gunshot. This is about how our speech and walk and tough talk are seasoned with the language of fallen bodies. This is about dismantling a culture of violence. This is about our survival.

We are not here to argue about the value of deterrents. We are not here to squabble amongst ourselves about the wisdom of self-defense tactics. We are not here to disqualify anyone. We are here to admit guilt. We are here to empty ourselves of mental clip and spiritual strap. We are here to demilitarize our intellects. We are here to wail. The burden of the bodies on our backs smothers our potential wings. We cannot bust a gat right now—we are carrying caskets.

This is for Sandy Hook and the South Side of Chicago. This is for Syria and East Oakland. This is for Sunnydale and Sudan. This is for the body you carry in secret, the violence we hide from view. This is for the mourning you do in private. This is for you—the part you cannot name. The part of you labeled madman. The piece of you called insane; the section of your self that is a school, riddled with bullets.

We are here together, victim and aggressor united in uneasy bodies. We have been called criminal, madmen, insane, marked for death. And we have been called victim, mark, target, easy prey. We have been called too brown, too woman, too other, too foreign, too much a physical reminder of a legacy of blood. We know the grip of the handle and the whistle of the flying bullet. We are both sides of the police tape.

There is someone, somewhere, tonight, that you have not made peace with. There is a small space that is hidden from public view, where you must dismantle your pride. There is an interaction that no one can name, but wherein you must divest yourself of your unfair advantage. There is a vengeance you have sworn that you must lay down to rest.

We will argue until the end of days about who is the worst, the most unfit, the oppressor. But love is not the inheritance of such as these. It is those who are willing, first, to lay down their weapons that will make the streetlamps bend and bow, make the empire crumble and weep.

Denizen Kane

Building off of the success of Youth Speaks in-school and...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:33:17 -0500

Building off of the success of Youth Speaks in-school and after-school workshops, assemblies, open mic’s and the Teen Poetry Slam, the District Poetry Slam is an exciting opportunity for high school’s students to perform, dialogue, and speak their minds with high school youth throughout the district and the entire Bay Area.

We are currently looking for judges, sign up now! :: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C4DA9AB2BAB9-beajudge

A photo collage capturing the beauty and power that bloomed on...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:58:00 -0500

A photo collage capturing the beauty and power that bloomed on stage last Monday at the 16th Annual Bringing The Noise For Dr. Martin Luther KIng Jr.

(L to R: Donte Clark, Denizen Kane, YGB Gold).

A glimpse into our green room pre-show rituals on the evening of...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:56:33 -0500

A glimpse into our green room pre-show rituals on the evening of 16th Annual Bringing The Noise For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Visit our Youth Speaks YouTube channel to watch the powerful performances we had the honor of experiencing last Monday, January 21.

Just a normal day at a Youth Speaks Free Writing and Performance...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:46:11 -0500

Just a normal day at a Youth Speaks Free Writing and Performance Workshop in Berkeley every Tuesday from 4-5:30 PM.

Check out the Winter Writing Workshop Schedule here.

David Kelly, General Counsel for the Golden State Warriors,...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:36:59 -0500

David Kelly, General Counsel for the Golden State Warriors, presented a $10,000 check to Youth Speaks at 826 Valencia in San Francisco during our last Under-21 Open Mic. After sharing a few poems, David engaged our Youth Advisory Board, SPOKES, in a conversation about where your art can take you professionally.

Cook up some poems with Dennis Kim, Isa Nakazawa, and Do D.A.T....

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:11:56 -0500

Cook up some poems with Dennis Kim, Isa Nakazawa, and Do D.A.T. every Tuesday and Wednesday.

Get the schedule here: http://youthspeaks.org/arts-in-education/writing-performance-workshops/