Hip-Hop Spoken Word Video Contest

In celebration of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Washington City Paper has launched a Hip-Hop Spoken Word Video Contest

Submit your own spoken word video!

One winner is selected for a grand prize that includes 2 tickets to Janet Jackson’s ROCK WITCHU concert in Washington DC, a one year subscription to Fader Magazine, an original painting from Trust Your Struggle Collective, and a handmade bag from Mad Imports.

Contest details can be found online at:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=35850

Our youtube.com group is located at: http://www.youtube.com/group/wcpspokenword

To enter the contest simply join our group and upload your video. 10 finalists will be selected and featured on washingtoncitypaper.com from August 4- August 12th and readers will have an opportunity to vote for a winner. The winner will be announced on August 13th.

International Youth Poetry Slam Festival - Washington, DC

The 11th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival is being held this year in Washington DC on July 15 - 19. The event will feature 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!

As part of the 6-day festival, there is a major Global Warming Spoken Word Program, 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, and more. This is not to be missed! Go out and support our local slam teams from Prince George’s County and DC.

For more information and tickets to the finals (if available), check out the Brave New Voices site.

Spoken Word Workshops with Lyrikal Storm

Find your voice and share your creativity! Learn to perform your lyrics, poetry or stories with the help of Lyrikal Storm. This is your chance, people — trust me, you don’t want to miss this!

A series of FREE workshops is being offered at the Hillcrest Heights Library in July. The finale will be presented open mic-style as part of Cafe Groove.

For more details and to register, call the Library at 301-630-4900 or stop in. Ages 15-18.

The group originated at Parkdale High School. Check them out here…

Slam Poetry

I hope everyone had a nice holiday, time off from school, or whatever. I know I’ve been a little slack with the blog, but I was at a conference in NYC where I got to hear a lot of teen authors speak. While I was there, I also saw a group of students from an organization called Urban Word who performed slam poetry - which was way cool. Here is a performance from one of the annual Urban Word NYC Teen Poetry Slams:

Jaylene

I know we have a lot of teens in the county who are talented and interested in expressing themselves in a similar way. I am going to work on putting together some poetry programs and hope to see many of you come out and show your stuff!