2013-363 Arts - Sacrificial Poets Spring 2013 Art Grant Agreement $1,500

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Sacrificial Poets will build upon our successful model of poetry club outreach in addition ' to our newly proposed new elements to engage, activate, and cultivate a stronger generation of local youth writers. Program Narrative In 2009 George Yamazawa, a high school student at Jordan High and member of the Sacrificial Poets youth poetry slam team, organized the first ever intramural poetry slam competition between Jordan and Hillside high schools in Durham. The event,known as"Word Rivalry", expanded over the next three years,including new teams of youth poets from Chapel Hill High, Carrboro High,the Durham Performance Learning Center, and Northern Durham High School. During the 2012-2013 school year,with the support of The Strowd Roses Foundation and the Orange County Arts Commission, Sacrificial Poets has more than doubled youth participation and engagement at Word Rivalry. Clubs have consistently grown across the Triangle and on May 25th,2013 12 high schools will be represented at the poetry festival. Youth outreach is dramatically up across Orange County and youth participation in spoken word poetry is consistently increasing as a result of increased efforts and community support. This year Sacrificial Poets' goal is to create an even stronger and more robust outreach program that will provide a series of writing and performance workshops at area high schools in Chapel Hill, Carrboro,Durham,Raleigh, and Cary to develop the spoken word poetry clubs at each school, and prepare teams to compete in the 2014 Word Rivalry and Fellowship Festival (WRFF). The festival will again be a daylong event in which teams representing 10+area high schools will share their art and stories,witness performances from nationally renowned spoken word poets, and compete in the Word Rivalry inter-high school poetry slam. Over the course of the program,participants will learn how to craft and perform original works of poetry and storytelling that explore their identity and experience, and which utilize powerful figurative language and performance techniques. The festival is also designed to bring youth from diverse races, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds,genders, and neighborhoods together to learn about and from each other through the power of their own stories and voices. We strongly believe that interaction between high schools must go beyond just sports, and give students the opportunity to build relationships among themselves through recreation,fellowship, group learning, and creativity. The program will feature workshops that will be run by highly experienced facilitators from Sacrificial Poets, along with special guest-facilitated workshops throughout the program that bring in renowned artists and local community leaders. Workshops will take place at the respective schools during lunch or after school hours. The Word Rivalry and Fellowship Festival will be held at a venue in Chapel Hill or Carrboro,with an expected attendance of over 100 people. The Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate program,the Chapel Hill High Arts Academy, and the Street Scene Teen Center have all agreed to help recruit youth for the workshops and publicize for the festival. These partnerships will help bring a diverse and talented group of youth to the workshop series, and build on the dynamic youth advocacy and empowerment movements flourishing in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. In the past,poetry club and Word Rivalry participants have been extremely diverse, and historically youth of color have composed over 50%of total participants. Comparable numbers are projected for this year. Sacrificial Poets makes diversity a priority in our recruitment and seeks to engage with youth from all backgrounds.