DC Youth Poetry Slam Team
Split This Rock is proud to sponsor the DC Youth Slam Team as part of our commitment to fostering the voices of DC youth. Focused on community organizing and authenticity in our art, the DC Youth Slam Team performs at national competitions such as Brave New Voices and in local shows with partnering community or school groups. The DC Youth Slam Team is co-sponsored by Busboys and Poets, The Fridge, and the Beltway Poetry Slam, hosting weekly writing workshops and monthly youth open mics and slams. Open to all high school students in the DC metropolitan area, the DC Youth Slam Team is bringing the Louder Than A Bomb High School Poetry Slam Festival to the district in spring 2012. Schools or students interested in being part of LTAB-DMV should email us at slam@splitthisrock.org. Slam team coaches and teaching artists, Pages Matam, YaYa Bey, and Jonathan B. Tucker, are available to perform, lead workshops, and help organize poetry slam teams with your school or community group. Current schools they work with include: Ballou Senior High, Bell Multicultural High, Capital City Public Charter School, Coolidge Senior High, and teams are starting soon at Eastern High, Dunbar High, and H.D. Woodson. DC Youth Slam Team 2012
Weekly Writing and Performance Workshops
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 JONATHAN B. TUCKER is a performance poet, facilitator, youth worker/advocate,
community organizer and coach of the DC Youth Slam Team. He uses performance
art to start conversations about social justice issues, focusing his efforts primarily
on engaging and supporting young artists and activists in the DC/MD/VA area. He
has led high school students on year-long journeys with Operation Understanding
DC, exploring cross-cultural dialogue and traveling down south to study the Civil
Rights Movement. He is currently a grantee with the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities’ Young Artists Program, using spoken word poetry as a vehicle for
peer education around HIV/AIDS with a group from Children’s Hospital called
Teens Against the Spread of AIDS. Jonathan also works with Teaching for Change
and regularly hosts open mics and slams at Busboys and Poets, BloomBars,
The Fridge, and other community art spaces in which he also teaches creative
writing and performance. |
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Find more details on the DC Youth Slam Team's Facebook page.Can't make it to a performance?
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HADAIYAH "YA-YA" BEY is an award winning poet living in the DC area. Originally
from Brooklyn, New York, Ya-Ya is an unassuming fire-baller who surprises her
listeners with her captivating stories of struggle and love. Very outspoken about
the ills of society and her Bajan heritage Ya-Ya lives the poems she performs. 
