“Poets look at the world in a completely different way than anybody else ever looks at the world, and I believe everybody should look at the world like a poet does.” As a high school student, Cassidy Howard experienced InsideOut front multiple angles. A [...]
InsideOut has been inviting guest artists to visit our sites and students for years. These programs expose young poets to new styles and a wide array of artists from different artistic and cultural backgrounds. Guest artists usually facilitate a stand alone workshop and/or open [...]
Mahogany Jones Writer-in-Residence Even before COVID-19, the spaces that InsideOut and Citywide Poets carves out of time are magical. With our experiences and creativity we get to shape alternate worlds where we are beautiful and powerful and unashamed and far from average. Recording and [...]
Catharine Batsios Writer-in-Residence I want every one of my students to have the weekly reminder that their thoughts are rich, robust, & their brains are unique, & always good enough. Catharine, a poet originally from Flint, Michigan, is a Writer-in-Residence and Citywide Poets Site [...]
2015-2020: Aja “Citywide Poets brought me to the realization that everybody is individual and important.” Aja performing her original work at InsideOut's Detroit Youth Poetry Grand Slam. (2019) Before I started Citywide Poets, I wasn’t doing poetry in secret, but I did [...]
2005-2010: Justin Rogers "Citywide Poets was pivotal in my social and professional life because it offered me a sense of direction and hope." When Writer-in-Residence Nandi Comer found me in 12th grade of high school, I was a very shy student trying to navigate [...]
Christiana Castillo Writer-in-Residence The poets I work with weekly have been writing poems about community care, self-care, self-love, joy, resilience, and refuge. During the Citywide Poets session, I believe we are using poems to heal and process our current world. Citywide Poets, InsideOut’s award-winning [...]
The power of young voices never ceases to amaze me. There is just something so magical about witnessing authentic self-expression, about seeing a young poet step into their truth. I simply get moved. That’s exactly what happened to me when I watched this video [...]
Benjamin Turner Writer-in-Residence "I was equally concerned with guiding them professionally in writing, as I was concerned with giving them the space to be their own professional guides. Then, by calling attention to that budding skill set, I feel like we were able to pinpoint and excavate [...]
