Teachers, Educators & Students! Urban Word NYC co-hosts the award-winning Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Teacher & Community Leader Training Institute this summer!
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GENERAL PERFORMANCE EVENT INFO:

"I didn't know anything about the spoken word scene, and when I came to the teen poetry slam, it opened up a new world to me. I felt like everyone was a family with each other even though we were strangers."
(Sevan Aydinian, 19)

Everything a young writer learns in the workshops culminates in the moment that poet sets foot on stage. For five years, Urban Word's all-youth open mics and poetry slams have given NYC's freshest voices the room and respect they deserve. Whether performers come out of our workshops, walk in off the street to kick a poem or spit a rhyme, or come ready to freestyle, open mics and poetry slams offer young people an ongoing forum for uncensored youth expression and a community of fellow writers and supporters.

Events like our monthly open mic series, reVERB, or our Teen Poetry Slams, draw packed houses and provide young writers with the opportunity to speak to teenagers and adults alike. Urban Word NYC frequently works in collaboration with other organizations, like the Brooklyn Public Library, the Bowery Poetry Club, and the Nuyorican Poets Café, to bring live spoken word poetry events to audiences of teenagers in all five boroughs on NYC.

THE OPEN MIC
Urban Word holds open mics monthly at venues around the city, including poetry clubs, libraries, and museums, hosted by local spoken word artists. Youth control the mic, whether venting or delivering painstakingly crafted poems. In this space, the connection between poet and audience, between youth and youth, becomes real and tangible. Everything discovered in the workshop comes together here as young people brave the stage to deliver their hearts — and receive the support and applause they deserve in return.

THE POETRY SLAM
The poetry slam adds a competitive element to the traditional poetry reading. At a slam, five judges each assign a score to each original poem performed without the aid of props, costumes, or musical accompaniment. Every fall, Urban Word NYC presents a monthly slam at the Bowery Poetry Club. Top-scoring poets from these slams pre-qualify for the semi-final round of the Annual Teen Poetry Slam held every February.
In the Urban Word NYC Annual Teen Poetry Slam, hundreds of teens representing every borough and most ethnicities come together throughout the month of March in celebration of youth spoken word, and to determine which five teens will form that year's NYC Teen Poetry Slam Team and compete at Brave New Voices, the National Teen Poetry Slam.
Valuing community over competition, Urban Word keeps the emphasis on the youth and their extraordinary talent even in the context of the slam. As the slams progress and individuals move closer to becoming part of team, momentum and exhilaration bind the young poets, their mentors, and audience members with the Urban Word community.
If you are interested in partnering with Urban Word NYC to produce a youth performance event in your community, please contact us directly at info@UrbanWordNYC.org, or 212.352.3495.