Get your Festival pass at the Bill Bordy Theater at the Union Bank Building! All attendees of the Write Here | Write Now | Speak Loud! Teen Spoken Word Festival, both teen participants and audience members, must check in at Union Bank to receive their Festival pass. The Bill Bordy Theater in the Union Bank Building is located at 216 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116. After you check in, you will be able to enter the Festival.
Cool down time throughout the festival for those who need it.
There will be two cooldown spaces in the Walker Building, a "chill spot" in the Lion's Den and a silent cooldown room in Walker Classroom 206. Enterthe Walker Building via the Boylston Pl Alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116.
There will also be cooldown satellite spaces adjacent to major Festival events with social workers available for mental health support.
The Last Chance Slam is a young poet's (age 13 - 19) final opportunity to compete for a spot in the Individual Slam Finals on Sunday, March 16th. Poets looking to compete can sign-up on the day of and the slam is first come, first served. Slam sign-up opens at 11:40 AM. The slam will consist of 2 rounds. Therefore, be sure to come with at least two poems that fall within the 3 min and 30 second time limit. Only the 1st place winner of this slam will advance to the Individual Slam Finals.
Even if you're not competing, come check out some excellent poetry from poets and peers alike! We will also have a banner signing during this time, hopefully outside if weather cooperates! The banner signing will be available until 3:30 PM.
The Last Chance Slam will take place at the Lion's Den in the Walker building; enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116, and walk up the stairs, or take the elevator up, one floor.
Note for Competing Poets: The top five poets (ages 13-19) from Sunday's Individual Slam Finals will form the Mass Poetry Youth Slam Team and will meet, write, and perform poems throughout Massachusetts, and hope to send the team to the Brave New Voices Festival in July. If you don't think you can commit to being on this team (attending weekly team meetings in Boston and competing through the summer) we ask that you not compete in the Last Chance Slam and instead participate as an audience member.
Defined as a poem that explores the speaker's identity and self-perception, self-portraits are a popular type of ekphrasis poem. In this workshop, we will discuss the history of this form, read modern self-portraits, and explore what makes them tick.
Please Note:Adding an event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in a workshop. Capacity for workshop spaces is limited and fills up on a first come first serve basis. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a workshop is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
This workshop will take place in Walker (classroom TBA). Enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116.
This workshop will take place in Walker (classroom TBA). Enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116.
Workshop Description
The human experience is bizarre and can be most likely so when we aren’t even awake. In this workshop, we will surrender our rational wits to our dreams, nightmares, and unconscious imagination to create a new piece of art. The Poetics of Dreaming and Collage leans into surrealist traditions to push artists to embrace the unusual, the strange, and irrational. Participants are invited to learn about the methodologies and artistic techniques of surrealist visual artists and poets of surrealism. Juxtapose the images of your dreams with the messages of your poems to create otherworldly compositions. Workshop participants will create poems that represent their own personal dreamscape through creative writing and collage.
Please Note:Adding an event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in a workshop. Capacity for workshop spaces is limited and fills up on a first come first serve basis. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a workshop is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
Please Note:Adding an event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in a workshop. Capacity for workshop spaces is limited and fills up on a first come first serve basis. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a workshop is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
This workshop will take place in the Walker Building, Room 503. Enter the Walker Building via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116, and take the elevator up to the 5th floor.
Workshop Description Youth will have the opportunity to explore the world of Hip Hop music and find themselves in the rhythmic cadences of poetry in motion. They'll learn the break down and parts of an instrumental to fill with rhymes and melodies and the likes thereof. The Workshop will conclude with a cypher that we create as a group
This workshop will take place in Walker (classroom TBA). Enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116.
Workshop Description This workshop utilizes various games and exercises stemming from the world of theater to explore new methodologies of "warming up" our bodies and our voices prior to a slam, performance, or reading. How do we ensure our instrument (ourselves) is in top shape and ready to bring all we have to offer for every performance? How do we identify and listen to the boundaries of our bodies? Performers with all levels of mobility, ability, or theatrical experience welcomed and encouraged to attend!
Please Note:Adding an event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in a workshop. Capacity for workshop spaces is limited and fills up on a first come first serve basis. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a workshop is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
This workshop will take place in Walker (classroom TBA). Enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116.
Workshop Description
In this interactive workshop, participants will be in safe space to learn about the process of submitting their work to journals, magazines, competitions, and other literary-based institutions. Participants will learn tools to help them with the submission process, how to format their poems for submissions, ask any questions without fear of judgement, and hopefully learn that "rejection" does not equate to the value of your work. By the end of the session, participants should feel less scared about the submission process and feel more comfortable in their own agency when looking to submit their work.
Please Note:Adding an event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in a workshop. Capacity for workshop spaces is limited and fills up on a first come first serve basis. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a workshop is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
After Sunday’s workshops, we will have a poetry open mic with ice cream!
The theme for this year's festival is Sweet Resistance! With so much happening in the world right now, it can feel overwhelming. This open mic is here to inspire you—to remind you that your voice matters and that poetry is a powerful way to stand up for yourself and the things you care about. Resistance takes many forms. Sometimes, it looks like sharing a bowl of ice cream with friends while swapping poems about the world around you. However you express it, your voice is needed, and we can't wait to hear it!
Teens can come, grab some ice cream, and share some poems. This open mic is a non-competitive opportunity to share your work, and is the last opportunity to share poems during the weekend before the Individual Slam Finals! If you just want to listen, come basque in the work of your peers! An open mic would not be an open mic without a supportive audience to snap, clap, cry and deeply sigh. We'll have a first come, first served sign up list for those who'd like to read, and a guest host to guide the experience. Any teen, both slam competitors and non-competitor youth Festival participants, is welcome to participate.
This open mic will take place in the Lion's Den; enter the Walker building via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116, and walk up the stairs, or take the elevator up, one floor.
Please Note:Adding this event to your personal sched does not guarantee you a spot in the open mic. Capacity for open mics are limited. We recommend arriving as early as possible. In the case a the is filled to capacity, please check out some of our other great Festival programming.
Time to eat and recharge over dinner. This is an opportunity for Festival participants to get dinner on their own (not provided by Mass Poetry). Space to eat dinner will be in The Lion's Den on the first floor of Walker. Enter via the Boylston Pl alley entrance, located at 25 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116, and walk up the stairs, or take the elevator up, one floor.
Welcome to the Write Here | Write Now | Speak Loud! Individual Slam Finals! On Sunday evening, our Individual Slam Finals will decide which five poets will go on to form the Mass Poetry Youth Slam Team. The team will meet, write, and perform poems throughout Massachusetts, and we hope to send the team to the Brave New Voices (BNV) Festival, put on by Youth Speaks, in July. Our team will be led by Crystal Valentine and Anthony Febo.
Preliminary rounds for this competition will be held in various locations leading up to the festival in February and March; competing teens in the Finals will have already competed in Preliminary Bouts to earn their spot at tonight’s Finals, and one teen will have earned their spot at the Festival's Last Chance Slam earlier on Sunday. All ages are welcome to attend the slam as supportive and excited audience members. Doors for the Finals open at 6:00 PM, and the event will begin at 6:30 PM. This vibrant event will feature a headliner performance from the one-and-only Hanif Abdurraqib and will be DJ'ed by DJ TROY Frost. There will be a satellite registration + check-in adjacent to the theater.
This event will take place at the Semel Theater in the Tufte Performance and Production Center, located at 10 Boylston Pl, Boston, MA 02116. Enter via the Bolyston St Pl Alley entrance and take the elevator to the third floor.
