Mission
The
National Youth Spoken Word
Coalition (NYSWC) develops the
capacity of youth spoken word organizations through resource
development, training opportunities, and field-wide advocacy.
We
carry out this mission by:
-
*Providing youth spoken
word organizations with tangible tools for development and
sustainability
-
*Setting the standards of
excellence for work within the youth spoken word field
-
*Mapping the opportunities
and needs that exist within the field
-
*Advocating for the value
of youth spoken word programs within the intersecting fields of
arts, literacy education, and social justice.
Who are
we?
NYSWC partner organizations are mutually invested in spoken word
poetry as a vehicle to develop the cultural, academic and civic
literacies of youth. Partner organizations reflect a diversity of
grassroots, small and mid-size organizations.
Current organizational partners include
Young Chicago Authors (Chicago, IL)*
WordPlay Teen Writing Project (Baton Rouge, LA)*
The
Minnesota Spoken Word Association (Minneapolis, MN)*
Texas Youth Word Collective (Austin, TX)
Office of Multicultural Initiatives/Youth Speaks Wisconsin (Madison,
WI)*
Urban Word NYC (New York, NY)*
Providence Poetry Slam (Providence, RI)
Youth Speaks (San Francisco, CA)*
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center/Youth Speaks Seattle
(Seattle, WA)
Youth Arts Collective (Ypsilanti, MI)*
(*members
of the executive steering committee)
Core
Values
-
-
*Collectivity
-
*Transparency
-
*Effectiveness
Background
The
annual Brave New Voices Teen
Poetry Slam Festival (a
program of the San Francisco based Youth Speaks, working with a new
partner organization each year) has served as a catalyst for
informal dialogue between numerous groups doing youth spoken word
programs in diverse settings throughout the country and the world.
The community that has emerged from the festival, identifying the
need to work collaboratively to build the field, came together in
Chicago in July 2006 for a planning summit. The outcome was the
birth of the National Youth Spoken Word Coalition.
The
first year of the coalition has been focused on the development of
basic coalition systems, strategic planning and the preparation for
the
2007 NYSWC Summit
to be held in San Jose, CA in July.
