Spoken Word
In the Spoken Word cohort, scholars bring their hearts, minds, and souls to their creative expression through poetry and are mentored in spoken word writing and performance. They develop skills in poetry through practice writing, readings about SEL in connection with art and activism, and healing-centered engagement exercises. All of these activities foster trust and confidence within our cohort so that the scholars can develop their writing with as much authenticity, vulnerability, and power as they’d like. Through spoken word, scholars get to explore issues impacting our community that they are passionate about changing, shedding light on some of the realities our youth are living and letting others know they’re not alone in these experiences. Our artists build their writing into published books and perform both personal and collaborative pieces at our events and opportunities in the community.
2024
The 2024 Spoken Word Cohort shared an overarching concern for the toxicity and violence that we see in our community, from gun violence, to peer pressure, to self harm and mental health issues. Scholars centered their lived experiences as the topics of their writing, while learning and growing in their own SEL and as confident poets. Scholars also learned to take up space with their voices unapologetically and without the pressure to be perfect, and how doing so can foster change and connection in our community.
2023
The 2023 Spoken Word Cohort included three scholars with a gifted and powerful rhythm together, all with a unique style and flow and yet still able to come together as one voice. This cohort largely discussed issues around DV, sexual harassment and abuse, mental health, and youth substance addiction, with performances at the Seattle Town Hall for DV Awareness Month and the Hop Hop 50th Anniversary at the UW. By incorporating staging, movement, tone, and synchronization into their group performances, scholars shared dynamic stories of the realities that women and young girls face with harassment, abuse, and shame. Scholars also created their own poetry books as their culminating projects.
2022
The 2022 Spoken Word Cohort dove into issues around addiction, homelessness, mental health, and healthy vs. unhealthy love in our community, sharing their work at Cafe Red’s open mics and The Good Foot’s events as well. Scholars explored their own identities and experiences both generally and in relation to these issues, using poetry as a tool for healthy processing and self-expression. For their final project, our cohort created their own poetry books and a cohort poetry book that included all of our work in collaboration with Design and Illustration who brought their cover art and book layouts to life.
