Summer Institute on Social Justice and Applied Poetics

July 6^th – August 19^th 

To signup email signup@urbanwordnyc.org or call 212-352-3495

This institute is designed for young leaders, activists, poets, writers, emcees and scholars to engage the intersection between art, academics and activism.  Students will explore and assess ways that critical social dialogue, the poetry of resistance, and social activism can ignite and incite change in their communities. By examining social movements from the past, and uncovering the issues that directly affect our communities, students will develop theories, poems and responses that will affect social change for today.

Furthermore, the program of applied poetics begins and ends, not only with the production of poems, but with the poet finding, through the work of poetry, a context for poetry in the world. The program asks students to think about poetry not as stasis (a finished poem on the page), but as action—something that extends from the poet out into the community, and into the institutions that support the art in all its forms.

The institute is composed of 3 major parts, as well as a poetry-service-learning component that allows students to travel, perform, and become agents of inspiration and of change:

1: ¡Revoliterature! The Poetry of Resistance & Change:  This literature seminar will explore the writings of poets and activists who have used their art as a tool to create change.  Each week, Urban Word NYC mentors will select a poet that has synthesized the gap between art and activism, as well as lead students through writing exercises that will transform their own narratives into vehicles of liberation.  Poets studied include Gil Scott Heron, Carolyn Forche, Mary Karr and June Jordan.

Tuesdays July 6 – Aug. 17^th  ~ 3:00 – 5:00PM

Urban Word NYC 242 W. 27^th St [btw. 7 & 8 Aves]

2: Write the Power: Poetry & Social Justice Master Class & Performance Series:  This workshop will include lectures from well-known poets and writers who have used their art as an agent of change.  Students will have the rare opportunity to work with accomplished poets and MCs to explore the ways that these poets have infused their writings and world view to address and resist oppression and conservativism.  Each night, these poets will give a performance and lecture that illuminates the role of poetry in creating change. July 7: Hettie Jones, July 14: John Murillo, July 21: Patrick Rosal, July 28: Roger Sedarat, Aug 4: Cornelius Eady, Aug. 11: MC K~Swift, Aug. 18: Homeboy Sandman

Master Classes @ Urban Word NYC:

Wednesdays July 7^th – August 18^th  ~ 3:00 – 5:00PM

Performances TO FOLLOW @ Bowery Poetry Club 6:00-7:30PM

3: Applied Poetics: Making Poetry Work: Applied poetics is a poetics of urgency, relation and application.  This means that the study of poetry isn’t just about writing a well-crafted poem—it’s about how poets live through the poems they write.  Finding ample language in the diversity of shared vocabularies, our job is to bring charged words forward in all of their various usages, be they personal or political, abstract or confessional, performed or barely spoken. Workshops will explore how poetics have taken shape in the publishing world, touring, producing, hip-hop theater and as a tool for community and civic engagement. 

Thursdays July 8^th – Aug. 19^th  3:00-5:00PM

Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (btw Houston & Bleeker)

To signup email signup@urbanwordnyc.org or call 212-352-3495

Please note: Tuesday workshops are at Urban Word, Wednesdays at Urban Word and Bowery Poetry Club, and Thursdays at Bowery

Urban Word NYC (242 W. 27^th St. btw. 7&8 Ave)

Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery btw Houston & Bleeker)

Visit: www.urbanwordnyc.org for directions, all workshops always FREE for teens!