From July 17 through 21, 2012.
The Tigertail WordSpeak spoken word team will compete in Brave New Voices, the international youth poetry slam festival to be held in the San Francisco Bay area from July 17 to 21, 2012. For the eighth year in a row, the Tigertail WordSpeak team has been invited to compete in this prestigious festival, selected from among the nearly 100 teams who applied. The Olympics of spoken word, Brave New Voices includes over 500 youth poets from 50 cities across the U. S. as well as from as far away as England and Taiwan. The team will participate in workshops and readings with established poets and performers, in open mike events – and they will compete in the Brave New Voices Poetry Slam itself. The Miami team, which includes a diverse range of some of South Florida’s best young writers, was chosen from a field of more than 1000 teenagers from local high schools who participated in the WordSpeak and SpeakOut programs sponsored by the noted arts non-profit Tigertail Productions.
This year’s team is made up of five vibrant Miami-Dade youths: Maylin Enamorado from Miami Arts Charter; Brianna Woods from Miami Northwestern Senior High; Javana Dunnom, from North Miami Senior High; and Giovanni Garced and Samantha Turner, who graduated from North Miami Beach Senior High. Giovanni and Samantha return for a second year on the team, which made it all the way to the semi-finals at last year’s competition.
Tigertail Productions’ WordSpeak and SpeakOut programs are ongoing life-changing spoken word programs for 1000 inner city South Florida youth. WordSpeak events provide Miami students from 13 to 19 years of age the opportunity to use poetry as a vehicle of self-expression in an appealing medium that blends poetry, theater and hip hop culture. In WordSpeak, they develop their writing, speaking and performance skills and learn teamwork.
Each year WordSpeak brings in prominent writers from outside Florida for residencies that include school and community-based workshops, readings, and student competitions. In 2012 these visiting artists included Oakland, CA-based spoken word poet, writer, community organizer, arts educator and comedic powerhouse Josh Healey and nationally recognized performer and writer Lenelle Moïse.
Now in its 15th year, Brave New Voices will bring together young artists, outspoken activists, educators, poets and emerging leaders to the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in a celebration and demonstration of free speech, artistic empowerment, and youth voice. The festival creates forums for dialogue, provide workshops for open and free expression, and facilitate conversations formally and informally that foster artistic and personal growth. Brave New Voices pulls together young people from throughout the United States and abroad who celebrate and empower themselves through the written and spoken word. Brave New Voices reflects diversity as a value, crossing and challenging notions of ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic, and geographic divisions.
The coaches for Tigertail WordSpeak are director/performer/writer Teo Castellanos and poet/educator Angela Kardos. They will accompany the team at Brave New Voices. All attendees will stay in the dormitories at Clark Kerr Campus at the Univesity of California in Berkeley.
Tigertail Productions
842 NW 9th Court
Miami, FL 33136
305.324.4337
www.tigertail.org
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