Read articles on the WritersCorps:
April 21, 2001 – San Jose Mercury News, Words Help Paint a Picture of Freedom for Young Poets
January 11, 2001 – San Jose Mercury News, Poetry Comes Naturally to Young Street Survivor
June 28, 2000 – San Francisco Bay Guardian, Book Review of Smart Mouth
January 27, 2000 – The San Francisco Examiner, Taking Poetic License Seriously
June 2, 1999 – The San Francisco Examiner, SF Youth on the Write Path
May 17, 1999 – The Washington Post, Poetry at 30 Paces
April 1999 – Citysearch7.com, Poetry in the Margins: Youth on the Line
February 9, 1999 – The Christian Science Monitor, Teens Get Creative for Poetry Slam
'Lite'
MEDIA ARCHIVE
To access audio and video clips, download and install RealPlayer.
Audio excerpts from KQED–Forum, March 19, 1999:
"It Isn't Fair" (1 min. 14 sec.) by Asefa Subedar, 13 years old [from a painting The Bathers, by Georges Seurat]
"Love – What Is That?" (1 min. 8 sec.) by Sadaf Minapara, 13 years old
Video excerpts from The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, May 17, 1999:
"Finally, tonight, a war of words and poetry. Spencer Michels reports: ...16-year-old Aja Cayetano was the lead-off contestant in a competition among two teams of young, street-wise poets, held at a San Francisco bookstore. ... Aja's team was made up of women up to age 21, all affiliated with an agency that helps young women at risk. The other team was all young men from a detention home called Log Cabin, run by the San Francisco Probation Department. 15-year-old Djalma Majani Tillett is one of the team's stars. ..."
"Poetry has also become an important part of life for Aja Cayetano. Until recently, she was on the streets in San Francisco's Mission District, a gang member, often in trouble, who dropped out of school ... But about a year ago, with help from friends like Stephanie Dunlap, Aja began to turn her life around ... "
Stephanie: "I love that poem ... And like Aja was saying earlier, poetry isn't about being, having an English major ... it's not about ten years of school. It's about what comes from the heart, and it's about what you know. And so, if you have that in poetry, then you have everything."
"Maiana Minahal is one of seven teachers who spend 15 hours a week with at-risk youth working on writing and preparing for poetry slams. Over five years, about 4,000 youngsters enrolled in these classes. The WritersCorps claims two-thirds of them have improved their writing and performance skills.
[Maiana:] 'Poetry is about speaking the truth and ... a lot of the students that I've taught, they've been through a lot and because they're "at-risk," their stories don't get heard.'"
"The intense work the youngsters do in class culminates in energetic poetry slams which are held monthly. They take on the feel of a sporting event, with a rap band warming up the crowd and a disc jockey leading cheers. The poetry itself is hardly traditional. There's an air of young people discovering how to talk about themselves and the rough world around them in each poem. ... "
