InsideOut News
Citywide Poets at Brave New Voices
After three months of rehearsal, a flight across the stretch of the country, and a week of competition and community in Los Angeles, the four person team of Joseph Verge, Andrew Barnhill, Myra Robertson, and Jasmine Broadnax showed the Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival what Detroit is all about. Now in its 13th year sponsored by Youth Speaks, BNV is the largest ongoing spoken word event in the world, with 600 youth from 50 cities in the US and abroad participating. According to coach Ben Alfaro, “the beautiful part of Brave New Voices in comparison to other national slams is that the slam is the least important event of the week. Our students engaged in workshops led by world-class artists, participated in serious dialogue about the state of arts and arts funding in our country, and befriended hundreds of their peers from Hawaii to England as they traveled the wide avenues of southern California from Glendale to Beverly Hills. The competition was steep, and only by a slim margin (literally tenths of a point) did we miss advancement by taking tough losses to Albuquerque and Denver, both of whom made it to the final stage. In the competition, we saw eight poems from Detroit that relied on their intimacy with the audience, holding them captive. Our youth recited poem after poem with an electricity that neither I nor Jamaal had seen before. It was truly a monumental performance in these young writers' careers. It was a gift to share with them and an experience to remember for our lifetimes.”
Created Jul. 28, 2010 Article #1663
