Young Flint poets going to San Francisco

Raise It Up! Youth Arts and Awareness, which promotes engagement and empowerment through performing arts and community involvement, is sending a team of young poets to represent Flint at the 14th Annual Brave New Voices International Slam Festival in San Francisco July 20 to July 23.

The competition was first founded as the National Youth Poetry Slam in 1998. More than 750 young people from more than 50 cities attended last year.

This year it will include four days of workshops, performances, dialogue and a youth slam that will be aired on HBO. Competitors must be between 13 and 19 years old.

Raise It Up! Program Director Lyndava Williams said that the six Flint students, five competing and one alternate, could actually put the city on the map. She said their poetry reflects issues ranging from abortion and isolation to racism.

The team has trained five hours a week on their pieces, stage presence and performance with Raise It Up! since they were selected in early February after a series of local qualifying slams. Each student must compete in a slam in order to join a city team, according to the festival rules.

The Brave New Voices team organized and performed fundraisers to help cover the $10,000 cost for airfare, food and registration. Small poetry shows held at the Greater Flint Arts Council, Brown Sugar Cafe, UM-Flint, Odyssey House and other venues helped raise part of the expense. The rest was raised by grants and donations.

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