Onesheet




Youth Speaks Presents:

Brave New Voices 2008

The 11th Annual International Youth Poetry Slam Festival

July 14-19, 2008 | Washington, D.C.

Youth Speaks, the nation’s leading spoken word performance, education and youth development organization, is proud to present the 11th annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. Convening over 450 of the top teenage poets and spoken word artists from across the country, Brave New Voices 2008 is a one-of-a-kind festival. Held in a different city each year, Brave New Voices (BNV) gives participants the opportunity to explore a new cultural landscape and region while helping to build sustainable programming locally. For the first time ever, the seven-day festival will be held in Washington, D.C., just 3 months before the presidential election. BNV directly addresses the youth perspective on local and national issues, using spoken word as a tool for civic engagement, arts education, and literacy development – and reflecting the changing demographics of the United States.

Brave New Voices 2008 features teen poetry slam champions from cities, rural, and suburban areas, from the Deep South, Native American reservations, Alaska, college towns – even from parts of Europe and Africa – and will reach an audience of over 10,000 throughout the week. These young writers are a diverse, creative, intelligent group of trendsetters and community leaders (65% of whom qualify for the free lunch program at their home schools). They come to BNV each year to attend world-class workshops and performances by renowned poets, writers and musicians, and to participate in the Olympic-style Youth Poetry Slam, building a national community of young, intelligent, and courageous artists.

CONFIRMED VENUES* for this year’s festival include the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the Mall, George Washington University, the Atlas Performing Arts Center, the 930 Club, and various venues along the U Street Corridor. The 2008 Grand Slam Finals takes place on Saturday, July 19th at the historic Lincoln Theater.

CONFIRMED PARTNERS* include the Ford Foundation, the Sundance Preserve, Simmons-Lathan Entertainment, HBO’s Def Poetry, the Common Ground Foundation, the US Green Building Council, The Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Washington D.C. Arts Commission, Voto Latino, Rock River Music, One Economy/24-7Townhall.org, League of Independent Voters, the National Youth Spoken Word Coalition, and the DC-area Local Presenting Partners: D.C. WritersCorps, the Creative Writing Alliance, and Sol y Soul.

Participating Teams Since 2004

San Francisco New York City Chicago Seattle Los Angeles
Watts Fontana, CA Mendocino Santa Fe Portland
Anchorage Phoenix Taos Chico Albuquerque
Navajo Nation Hopi Nation Taos Pueblo Nation Chimayo Austin
San Jose Madison Milwaukee Ann Arbor Detroit
Ypsilanti Plymouth, MI Kalamazoo Indianapolis Minneapolis/St. Paul
Cleveland Cincinnati Kansas City St. Louis New Orleans
Baton Rouge Chapel Hill Charlotte, NC Jacksonville Miami
Ft. Lauderdale Oakland Burlington, VT Hartford Newark
Jersey City Philadelphia Washington D.C. Baltimore Canandaigua
Leeds, England Mostar, Bosnia London, England Atlanta Savannah
Mexicalli Louisville Boston Worcester Amherst
Las Vegas Eugene Houston

As part of the 6-day festival, which features 23 events in 11 venues, there is a major Global Warming Spoken Word Program that takes part in partnership with the Robert Redford Center of the Sundance Preserve, the Grand Slam Finals of the International Youth Poetry Slam, a benefit concert, a town hall meeting on the State of the Union of Youth, many free writing and performance workshops, two complete days of organizational development training (from fundraising to curricula development) and a convening of the National Youth Spoken Word Coalition.

Brave New Voices / Youth Speaks Features include:

The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, MTV News, The Source, VIBE, NPR (various programs), ABC National News, CNN, BBC, The Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Youth Radio, San Francisco Examiner, On Wisconsin, About.com, Education Week, Austin Chronicle, among many others.

Sample Highlights of Brave New Voices 2005-2007

 

  • •In 2005, Grand Slam Finals of Brave New Voices sells out, attracting 3,200 to the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco.

     

  • •In 2006, Grand Slam Finals sells out the Apollo Theater (and features special guests Mos Def and Rosario Dawson).

     

  • •6,300 students from 26 Northern California, 18 New York City, and 9 San Jose high schools take field trips to attend the semi-final bouts 2005-2007.

     

  • •Event optioned for national television and film program; 432 hours of footage filmed.

     

  • •Spoken word artists, writers, musicians, work shop leaders and performers include Ben Harper, Danny Hoch, Saul Williams, Suheir Hammad, Beau Sia, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Aya de Leon, Luis Rodriguez, Sherman Alexie, Mos Def, Mayda deValle, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dave Eggers, Meshell Ndegeocello, Blackalicious, Zion-I, Marcus Shelby, Goapele, and dead prez.

     

  • •27 poets from the Brave New Voices Network featured on HBO’s Def Poetry.

     

  • •Youth Speaks’ publishing imprint, First Word Press, releases 9 individual author titles of young poets from Brave New Voices.

     

  • •Brave New Voices Tour kicks off on 20 college campuses in 2007.

     

Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Youth Speaks is the leading nonprofit presenter of spoken word performance, education and youth development programs in the country. With ongoing, comprehensive programs in the San Francisco Bay Area serving 45,000 youth locally, Youth Speaks facilitates safe spaces within and outside of public institutions where youth can critically analyze, write and voice their own experiences through this powerful medium to thousands of their peers. Due to the accessibility of spoken word, its provocative display of the testimonial voice, and a thriving need for programs, Youth Speaks has also opened organizational chapters in New York, Hawaii, Madison, and Seattle. Through its Brave New Voices network, Youth Speaks advises on and supports the development of articulate, socially conscious and courageous youth in over 45 communities through local organizations, supporting over 250,000 young writers 13-24 years old.

Contact: Hodari B. Davis | Director of National Initiatives | hdavis@youthspeaks.org | 415.255.9035 x 16 James Kass | Executive Director | jkass@youthspeaks.org | 415. 255.9035 x 10

www.youthspeaks.org


…because the next generation can speak for itself.

* confirmed partners & venues as of October 1, 2007
pdfBNV One Sheet (08).pdf703.26 KB