Monday, June 20, 2011

Poetry Slam Fundraiser

The Upwords Poetry and the OneWord CT Youth Team held a successful fundraising event on June 19th from 3-5 pm at Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater for OneWord CT -  Connecticut's Youth Slam Poetry Team.  

There was poetry, bake sales and raffles galore.

HELP US SEND THE CONNECTICUT YOUTH SLAM POETRY TEAM TO BRAVE NEW VOICES IN SAN FRANCISCO.

The team will travel to San Francisco, California this July for the 14th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival (http://www.bravenewvoices.org/).

Six high school students from throughout Connecticut have competed and won positions on the OneWord CT / Youth Poetry Slam Team 2011. Approximately 75 young wordsmiths from all over Connecticut performed their original spoken word poetry in three separately judged competitions over the past two months the top six poets who make up the 2011 team need your help getting to the BRAVE NEW VOICES FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Created in 1998, Brave New Voices / Youth Poetry Slam & Festival has quickly become the largest youth poetry festival in the world. This unique event brings together more than 600 youth and 100 nonprofit organizers from up to 50 different U.S. cities annually to build a broad-based national movement of youth spoken word, civic engagement and youth development programs.

Held in a different city each year, Brave New Voices presents the voices of 21st century America in all their verve and diversity. The festival focuses on arts education and performance, local program development, national movement organizing and the highlighting of a new generation of performing artists, audiences and literary opportunity.


Members of the 2011 OneWord CT team include: Evan Knoll (Lorraine D. Foster Day School, Middletown), Mikaela Adams and Ian Macdonald (Rockville High School, Vernon), Maggie Kearney (Newton High School, Sandy Hook), Trey Vaz (Windham High School, Willimantic) and Nick Zanca (New Canaan High School, New Canaan).

OneWord CT is organized by UpWords Poetry which was founded in 1998 by Elizabeth Thomas a widely published poet, performer, teacher and advocate of the arts. Ms. Thomas along with high school English teachers Lee Keylock, Newtown HS and Laura Maiocco, Sheehan HS in Wallingford, CT serve as volunteer coaches for the Connecticut team.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The fundraiser was yesterday afternoon. It was a wonderful event and we were so glad that we were able to attend. If you have a chance you should see these talented young poets at one of the other events they will be performing at.

Anonymous said...

Great job to the event organizers and the poetry team! It was a great afternoon full of talent, yummy treats and great raffle items.