Brave New Voices slam poetry competition

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By Hana Teherani-Ami
Brave New Voices is a Slam Poetry Contest which is part of a youth centered pedagogy called
"Youth Speaks." Youth Speaks believe that literacy is a need, not a want, and that literacy comes in various forms." They connect the roses and thorns about the 21st century to "poetry, spoken word, youth development and civic engagement."

In 2014, during the Brave New Voices competition, in the finals, two high school girls, Belissa Escobedo and Rhiannon McGavin, performed a slam poem about Rape jokes.

Both girls go to LA County High School for the Arts, and won 3rd in the world performing with the "Get Lit Player" team of Brave New Voices. They have performed with world famous celebrities, including John Legend, and esteemed activists.

I chose this video because slam poetry has recently become a lot more popular, and there is a slam poetry contest coming up at Lincoln.

Their Rape Joke poem called awareness to the stigma around rape and rape victims, and they presented new ideas or mentalities about the issue in ways that I had never thought of before.

Their hand gestures and changes in tone brought a lot of emotion to their presentation, which to be honest gave me the heebeegeebees. They also greatly expressed how our society talks about rape, and saying things like "we have to stop rape" or "rape is horrible" doesn't fix the issue. It just sympathizes the rape victims rather than calling attention to the real problem.
Photo credit?

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 5, 2019 at 8:30 AM

    love the topic and the way you explained everything!

    ReplyDelete

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