UW continues to stand at the forefront of the youth spoken word movement, and serve as the hub of NYC’s youth poetry community. We are the only organization in NYC that provides free, safe, and ongoing public opportunities for teen poets, writers, rapper, freestylers, and spoken word performers, as well as the real community required to nurture them. Over the years, Urban Word NYC has developed innovative partnerships and programs with a number of organizations. Recently, Urban Word’s relationship with The Hip-Hop Association has enabled them to collaborate in presenting the annual Hip-Hop Education Summit, as well as the H²Word program. Furthermore, we have an annual writing and performance program with The NY Knicks, as well as a college bound program that utilizes our strong relationship with CUNY’s College Now Program. Along with hundreds of New York City middle and high schools, Urban Word NYC collaborates with multiple other like-minded organizations around the city and the country, including the organizations that collaborate annually to implement Brave New Voices, the national teen poetry slam. At the local level, Urban Word NYC has collaborated with and will continue to work with community organizations such as New York Public Libraries and the Brooklyn Public Library, Belleview Hospital, Art Start and The Hip-Hop Project, City Lore Poetry Dialogues, Americans for the Arts, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Rush Philanthropic, Def Poetry Jam, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC Outward Bound Center, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Nuyorican Poets Café, The Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, Lower Eastside Girls Club, The Whitney Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Educational Alliance’s Pride Site I, Governess Films, The Door, El Puente, Covenant House, The Culture Project, St. Mark's Poetry Project, PASE, TASC, Live Out Loud, CUNY Grad Center, H2A, Harlem Live, The Schomburg Center, YWCA, SAYA, Brooklyn Parents for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, The Correctional Association, Friends of Island Academy, The Brooklyn Book Festival, African Services Committees, Youth Action Homes and Programs, The International Center for Tolerance Education, Dream Yard, GEMS, Lower East Side Girls Club, OPTIONS, Lincoln Center Insititute, The New York Times, Rural Migrant Ministry, Trinity Church, Random House, Disney, The Ave Magazine, Medger Evers College, The Natinoal Black Writers Conference, The New School Institute of Urban Education, NYU, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, The Bronx Museum, York College, The L.I.F.E. Institute, Good Shepherd Services for Girls, Nelson Avenue Family Residence, Urban Family Center, Urban Dove, ASPIRA, The Children’s Aid Society, Seneca Houses, Jennie A. Clarke Family Residence, YMCA (several sites), Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, Union Square Partnership, Brooklyn Academy of Music, WBAI, MNN/Youth Channel, New Youth Connection, Play by Play, Youth Outlook, Educational Video Center/YO TV, CASES (high schools for youth incarceration), the Prison Moratorium Project, Brooklyn Rail newspaper, The Fader magazine, Poets & Writers, Educational Alliance, PBS/P.O.V., Ya-Ya Network, and with mentors, community members, teachers, and colleagues in higher education committed to supporting and challenging youth-centered models for teaching and organizing.