Urban Word NYC

1. JOURNAL TO JOURNEY: a collection of four one-(wo)man shows!

Four young poets navigate a path through hurt and hope on a journey towards self. Equipped with pen and compass, and journal as road map, they discover life is full of moments that will carry you as far as you are willing to go.
Featuring the solo pieces:

*Walk by Carvens Lissaint
*The Runner by Amalie Kwassman
*Writing Wolf by Anthony McPherson
*Loops by Jasmine Nicole Mans
Monday, December 15, 7:30PM

@ Dance Theater Workshop
219 W 19th Street
between 7th & 8th avenue
New York, NY 10011
A/C/E/2/3 to 14th Street

FREE
FREE
FREE
Co-developed and directed by Queen GodIs
Choreographer: Nico Annan
Director Apprentices: Yafreici Peralta and Alexis Marie

2. URBAN WORD AT THE SCHOMBURG (OPEN MIC!!)

Urban Word NYC and the historic Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Present:

Urban Word At The Schomburg
Saturday December 20
1:30PM (SHARP!) to 3PM

@ The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd
corner of West 136th Street
New York, NY
3 train to 135th street

FREE
FREE
FREE

In Manhattan (4 weeks)

1. Transformers IV: you and your organic poem, you and your organic stage

Roger Bonair-Agard
Mondays, February 2-23, 4:30-6:30pm

This workshop will examine the work of Audre Lorde, Ross Gay, Rachel McKibbens, Terrance Hayes, and Carl Dennis. Using these contemporary poets’ works, the participants will craft poems of wildly divergent styles, and begin the “conversation” of learning the organic lives of these poems on the page and in the body; how the poem gets to represent both the fire of the voice and its most tightly honed craft, and then move towards the most available fire in the body, and its tightly honed craft.

2. High Wattage:Elements of Performing the Poem

Regie Cabico & Parker Pracjek
Wednesdays, February 4-25, 4:30-6:30pm

How do we make performance choices that heighten the poem’s life? How do we “live” the poem and not simply read the poem? The poem is your showstopper, your three minute solo play. We will explore the vocal & physical techniques for audiences to “see” the poem. From the professional slammer to the virginal journal poet, we will stretch your interpretation of your over-performed texts, and we will prepare you to kick your verses in the squint of the spotlight in a nurturing environment.  Bring a poem, no more than a page long, comfortable shoes & clothes, your body and a packet of your emotional colors.

****In Brooklyn  (8 weeks)

1. NEW Native Style - Brooklyn Stories

Trish Hicks
Tuesdays, February  3- March 31, 4-6pm

This workshop continues to explore different forms of creativity and how they inspire writing, mc-ing and spoken word poetry. Use film, photography, music, collage, and other forms of artistic expression to tell the unique story of your life. From Wild Style to freestyle, your own personal style is the raw material for making your voice heard! Bring it!

2. Spoken Word: Dynamics in Delivery

Darian Dauchan
Thursdays, February 5 - March 26, 4-6pm

We will explore rhyme scheme and cadence, and the musicality of spoken word, by listening to and viewing works by a diverse array of performance poets, while continuing to write new poems, and tackling our own material. We will experiment with vocal climax, pacing, and crescendo in order to break free of monotonous or one-note performances.

to sign up, email signup[at]urbanwordnyc.org or call 212-352-3495

NY Knicks & Urban Word NYC Present:

The 3rd Annual Pre-College Experience

* NYC’s Biggest FREE College Fair at Madison Sq. Garden
* 45+ Colleges and Universities
* $150,000+ in scholarships and prizes
* Open Poetry Audition—Bring a 1-minute poem for a chance to win
* Live Entertainment all day—Spoken Word, Hip-Hop, Step Teams, Celebrity DJs, B-Boys & B-Girls, Knicks appearances!
* Financial Aid workshops and more!

Saturday November 15th 10AM-5PM

@ the MADISON SQUARE GARDEN EXPO CENTER

For more details visit: www.knickspoetryslam.com

MANHATTAN WORDSHOPS
@ 242 W. 27th Street, between 7th and 8th Aves.

1. CREATIVELY COLLEGE BOUND - Erica Fabri
Mondays, September 22-December 8, 4:30-6:30pm

This program is geared towards HS juniors & seniors who want their creative critical voice to soar over the tedium of the college application process. Using spoken word and hip-hop as inspiration, we will write high-quality college application essays and explore numerous scholarship opportunities. This workshop will put you on track to get into college, and to GET MONEY.

2. WOMEN REBORN - DJ Reborn
Tuesdays, September 23-December 9, 4:30-6:30pm

In this workshop, critical artistic skills – turntabling, close reading, lyric analysis, collage building and creative writing– become the doorway to discovering women’s contribution to these mediums and our world. Acclaimed female DJ and poet, DJ Reborn facilitates this workshop for teen WOMEN.

3. WORD TO EVERYTHING I LOVE - Willie Perdomo
Wednesdays, September 24-December 10, 4:30-6:30pm

In this workshop, teens will explore personal voice, literary device and poetic forms in an uncensored, safe, student-centered environment. This workshop will be lead by award-winning poet Willie Perdomo, author of Where a Nickel Costs a Dime and Smoking Lovely, which won the 2004 PEN American Beyond Margins Award.

4. WORKING TOWARD R{u}{a}PTURE – Aracelis Girmay
Thursdays, September 25-December 11, 4:30-6:30pm

Working toward rupture, working toward rapture will be a gathering ground for writers who are interested in honing their work by experimenting with notions of the ecstatic. We will read about Garcia Lorca’s notion of duende while playing with elements of improvisation that can be used to strengthen the craft of certain poems. Writers should be ready to take risks, & to explore various art mediums & techniques in the poetry. One of the goals here is to write poems that somehow possess the bodies of the poets & the poems–possess these bodies with the world.

BROOKLYN WORDSHOPS
@ St. John’s Recreational Center, 1251 Prospect Place
between Schenectady & Troy Ave

1. REELS & RHYMES - Frank Lopez
Mondays, September 22-December 8, 4-6pm
Reels and Rhymes workshop blends screenings of films and documentaries with creative writing and open mics to initiate awareness and dialogue about social issues affecting today’s youth.

2. NEW NATIVE STYLE - BROOKLYN STORES - Trish Hicks
Tuesdays, September 23-December 9, 4:00-6:00pm

This workshop explores different forms of creativity and how they inspire writing, mc-ing and spoken word poetry. Use film, photography, music, collage, and other forms of artistic expression to tell the unique story of your life. From Wild Style to freestyle, your own personal style is the raw material for making your voice heard! Bring it!

3. CREATIVELY COLLEGE BOUND - Erica Fabri
Wednesdays, September 24-December 10, 6:00-8:00pm

This program is geared towards HS juniors & seniors who want their creative critical voice to soar over the tedium of the college application process. Using spoken word and hip-hop as inspiration, we will write high-quality college application essays and explore numerous scholarship opportunities. This workshop will put you on track to get into college, and to GET MONEY.

**To signup for these FREE wordshops, email signup@urbanwordnyc.org or call 212.352.3495 and leave your full name, age, #, email, and the wordshop(s) you or the person you’re calling on behalf of to sign up for.

Jared Paul @ The Bowery
Wednesday August 13 - 7:30PM
Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery, NYC (btw Bleecker & Houston)
$5 General Admission

Jared Paul is a social worker, journalist, and organizer from Providence, Rhode Island. Known for thoroughly researched work, poignant presentation, and dedication to craft, Jared is widely recognized as one of the top spoken word artists in the country. Accomplishments include founding and coaching the Providence National Youth Poetry Slam Team, two nation wide tours with world-renowned poet and Epitaph Recording artist Sage Francis, and advancing to the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals in both 2006 and 2007.

Summer Institute on Social Justice and Applied Poetics
July 8th – August 14th
Presented by Urban Word NYC and Bowery Arts & Science

1: ¡Revoliterature! The Poetry of Resistance & Change

This literature seminar will explore the writings of poets and activists who have used their art as a tool to create change.  Each week, Urban Word NYC mentors will select a poet that has synthesized the gap between art and activism, as well as lead students through writing exercises that will transform their own narratives into vehicles of liberation.  Poets studied include José Martí, Martín Espada, Aimé Cesairé, Gabeba Baderoon, Nathalie Handal, Suheir Hammad, Ethridge Knight, and Sonia Sanchez.

Urban Word NYC: Tuesdays July 8 – Aug. 12th 4:30 – 6:30PM

242 W. 27th St [btw. 7 & 8 Ave]

2: Write the Power: Poetry & Social Justice Master Class & Performance Series

This workshop will include lectures from well-known poets and writers who have used their art as an agent of change.  Students will have the rare opportunity to work with Amiri Baraka, Sapphire, Beau Sia, Sapphire and others to explore the ways that these poets have infused their writings and world view to address and resist oppression and conservativism.  Each night, these poets will give a performance and lecture that illuminates the role of poetry in creating change.

Master Classes @ Urban Word NYC: Wednesdays July 9th – August 13th 4:30 – 6:30PM

Performances @ Bowery Poetry Club: Wednesdays July 9th w/ Beau Sia, July 16th w/ Aracelis Girmay, July 23rd w/ Amiri Baraka, July 30th w/ Cornelius Eddy, August 6th w/ Sapphire, August 13th w/ Jared Paul . All shows 7:30 – 9PM

3: Applied Poetics: Making Poetry Work

Applied poetics is a poetics of urgency, relation and application.  This means that the study of poetry isn’t just about writing a well-crafted poem—it’s about how poets live through the poems they write.  Finding ample language in the diversity of shared vocabularies, our job is to bring charged words forward in all of their various usages, be they personal or political, abstract or confessional, performed or barely spoken.

Bowery Poetry Club: Thursdays July 10th – August 14th July 25th & Aug. 1st 4:30-6:30PM

308 Bowery in Manhattan (btw Houston & Bleeker)

Email shaun@urbanwordnyc.org to signup or call 212.352.3495 and please leave your full name, email, phone # and the workshop(s) you’re interested in signing up for. Word!

Urban Word NYC & the NY Knicks present SUMMER SLAM 2008:

NY Knicks & Liberty partner with the award-winning youth poetry organization, Urban Word NYC, to provide teens with a platform for their voices to be heard this summer! On the last Saturday of June, July & August teen poets, emcees and scholars are invited to slam their way to a number of prizes including laptops, cash scholarships, Knicks & Liberty tickets, concert tickets, iTunes gift cards, and many more.

Summer Slam
Saturday June 28, July 26 & August 30
3PM Nuyorican Poets Cafe (236 East 3rd St. btwn Ave B & C)
for more info & to register visit www.knickspoetryslam.com

Urban Word NYC + Dance Theatre Workshop Presents

Break the Mirror, Break the Image, Break the Mic

Two young and extremely talented poets from Urban Word NYC leave the mic behind as they perform their first solo shows:

The Insides Ain’t Pink Enough and Diary of a Young Black Girl

Featuring Marne Bruckner (UW Slam Team ‘07) & Alexis Marie (UW Slam Team ‘08)

Directed by Tamilla Woodard, with choreography by Nicco Annan

June 17th at 7:30pm
$5 tickets @ the door
Dance Theatre Workshop
219 W. 19th street
between 7th & 8th avenue

SPRING WORKSHOPS!

MANHATTAN!!

Spoken INC
Tahani Salah & Tara Betts
Mondays, March 17-May 26
You asked for it! You wanted help putting together a collection of work? Well Urban Word NYC has answered your calls. We’ll cover basic bookmaking concepts, layout, short writing exercises and editing so participants can create their own chapbooks with individualized artistry. We will have opportunities for you to be published in anthologies and online contests. This workshop will also include multiple special guests from slam champions to rock stars of the writing world that will talk about their experiences in publishing.

Next Level Lit
Erica Fabri
Tuesdays, March 18-May 27
We will examine the works of poets whose words are beyond the boundaries of the typical high school textbook and discuss the lives of writers who have used their craft to make inspirational movements and changes in society. Next Level Lit is the follow-up course for Creatively College Bound and open to all teens ages 13-19.

Word to Everything I Love
Willie Perdomo
Wednesdays, March 19-May 28
In this workshop, teens will explore personal voice, literary device and poetic forms in an uncensored, safe, student-centered environment. This workshop will be lead by award-winning poet Willie Perdomo, author of Where a Nickel Costs a Dime and Smoking Lovely, which won the 2004 PEN American Beyond Margins Award.

Women Reborn through Popular Music, Media and Culture
DJ Reborn
Thursdays, March 20-May 29
This workshop hopes to define and critically examine the ever-evolving idea of womanhood and its expression through various artistic mediums. By encouraging and educating young women through djing, lyric analysis, collage art and writing, we will unearth the history of women’s contributions to these mediums while implementing skills to empower young women not only in the arts but in the art of everyday life. Acclaimed female DJ and poet, DJ Reborn facilitates this workshop for teen WOMEN.

To sign up email shaun@urbanwordnyc.org or call 212-352-3495

Urban Word NYC
242 W. 27th Street, btw 7th & 8th Ave
1 Train to 28th St. or C/E to 23rd St.

*****************************
BROOKLYN!!
Urban Word Brooklyn Free Spring Workshops @ Crown Heights Live!

Who’s The Man?
Roger Bonair-Agard
Mondays, March 17-May 26
Facilitated by celebrated poet Roger Bonair-Agard, this workshop is exclusively for teenaged young men. This will be a safe space for each and every XY chromosomal being to tell it like it is. Through critical media analysis, creative writing and performance exercises, concepts of masculinity and femininity, as well, will be deconstructed, thoroughly examined and beautifully re-imagined.

Women Reborn
Trish Hicks
Tuesdays, March 18-May 27
In this workshop, critical artistic skills – close reading, lyric analysis, collage building, creative writing and turntabling – become the doorway to discovering women’s contribution to these mediums and our world. Acclaimed writer and educator-activist, Trish Hicks, facilitates this workshop for teen WOMEN.

Next Level Lit
Erica Fabri
Thursdays, March 20-May 29
We will examine the works of poets whose words are beyond
the boundaries of the typical high school textbook and discuss the lives of writers
who have used their craft to make inspirational movements and changes in society.
Next Level Lit is the follow-up course for Creatively College Bound and open to all
teens ages 13-19.

To sign up email marc@urbanwordnyc.org or call 212-352-3495

1251 Prospect Place
between Schenectady & Troy
BROOKLYN!
A/C or 4 train to Utica Ave

Thanks for making the 10th Annual Teen Poetry Slam on March 1st a HUGE success. The poets - amazing. The audience - gigantic. Afrika Bambataa and Russell Simmons on the same stage in the same night? Crazy.

Now, a particular cameraperson didn’t technically didn’t have um, “permission” to film, but if you weren’t there, or even if you were but can’t get enough of the performances, we’re sure a lil’ clever youtubery will help you come up with something…