Youth Speaks Writing Workshop

50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive,San Francisco CA 94118

24 September, 2022

Description

In the I Live Here writing workshop, participants will examine location, activity, and self, building towards an incremental understanding of the context in which they live. Drawing from a communally constructed word palette, students will produce a descriptive poem about a moment in which they felt truly alive. This workshop is used to encourage continued practice with fundamental Youth Speaks concepts and tools – “No Wrong Answers,” “The Standard is Yourself,” the word palette, the free write. Best for children 6+. Workshop Leader Gabriel Cortez is a Black biracial poet, educator, and organizer of Panamanian descent. His work has appeared in The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Rumpus, and The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4. He is a VONA fellow, #BARS workshop alum, Palette Poetry Emerging Poet winner, and recipient of the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize. Gabriel is a member of the artist collective, Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through spoken word poetry. Gabriel works as Programs Director at Youth Speaks, one of the world’s leading presenters of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs. For more on Gabriel, visit gabrielmcortez.com About Youth Speaks Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Youth Speaks is a leading presenter of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs. Trailblazers of local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, and more, Youth Speaks offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs and provides numerous opportunities for youth to be published and heard. Youth Speaks has worked with hundreds of thousands of youth and has helped create partner programs in 47 cities across the United States.