Get Lit- Words Ignite: WHY I RISE virtual poetry competition - Students apply now: Free 2-week camp to anyone who submits!
*The event has already taken place on this date: Tue, 05/10/2022
Please help us keep this calendar up to date! If this activity is sold out, canceled, or otherwise needs alteration, email mindy@kidsoutandabout.com so we can update it immediately. If you have a question about the activity itself, please contact the organization administrator listed below.
GET LIT- WORDS IGNITE TO PARTNER WITH WHY I RISE TO HOLD A VIRTUAL POETRY COMPETITION IN SUPPORT OF MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH
-Youth Poets can submit now through May 10th at GetLit.org
The non-profit will also provide a FREE 2 week virtual and in-person summer camp for anyone who submits a poem to this year’s Get Lit- Why I Rise competition-
Get Lit- Words Ignite, the Los Angeles based non-profit that fuses classic and spoken word poetry to increase teen literacy on the page and in visual media, is committed to supporting youth and mental health. During the month of May (Mental Health Awareness month), Get Lit is holding a WHY I RISE spoken word and hip-hop competition in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health. The event is brought to a global audience by Vans and is open to young poets everywhere to apply. Six (6) winners will be awarded $1000, and Five (5) runner-up’s will receive $100.
In addition, anyone who applies to participate in this year’s competition will be eligible to attend a free 2-week immersive (in-person or virtual) summer camp, Get Lit will be hosting July 18-29th. The two-week camp will be held Monday- Friday from 10am -2pm both in-person and online during that time, and will help kids create, fine tune and finalize a poem, and will conclude with a final show.
IMPORTANT DATES
Now – May 10th- applications are being accepted via GetLit.org/WhyIRise. Students are encouraged to submit a 2-3 minute original mental health-related poem. For more information and guidelines, please visit GetLit.org/WhyIRise.
May 11th- 20th - Voting opens (Top 20 poems + 10 special merit poems move on to judges)
May 23rd, 2022
Top 30 poems announced and featured
May 26th, 2022
Judges select top 6 poems + 5 honorable mentions
The 2022 judges include Amanda Kloots (The Talk), Sarah Gilman (Last Man Standing, Daphne & Velma), Chen Chen (poet), Melissa Lozada-Oliva (poet), Mason Granger (poet and part of Get Lit).
Get Lit currently offers a curriculum for students that can be taught in classrooms. All Lesson Plans Are:
- Standards-aligned lesson plan(s) created for English and Drama classes.
- CASEL-aligned lesson plan(s) created for social emotional learning.
- Standards-aligned lesson plan(s) created to focus on culturally relevant conversations.
For more information on Get Lit, please visit: www.getlit.org.
ABOUT GET LIT
Get Lit - Words Ignite is a Los Angeles-based education nonprofit founded in 2006 by author and educator Diane Luby Lane, to increase literacy, empower youth, and energize communities through poetry and visual media. The organization aims to transform the lives of young people worldwide through classic and spoken word poetry. Through the use of specialized curriculums, the program engages young people by providing a creative outlet, community, and real-life work experience, transforming students into activists, scholars, and stars.
The only program of its kind in the nation, Get Lit has created a unique call-and-response model where students identify classic poems that resonate with their own stories, and write original responses, inspiring students to discover, develop, and amplify their voices while learning and exploring classic poetry from the past and present. At Get Lit, “a classic isn’t a classic because it’s old, a classic is a classic because it’s great.”
Get Lit annually reaches 50,000 youth ages 9 through young adulthood through its In-School and After-School programs. Instruction culminates in the three-day Classic Slam, the largest classic youth poetry competition in the country. Get Lit is also home to the Get Lit Players (GLPs), an award-winning youth poetry troupe who have collaborated with the United Nations, John Legend, the White House, and more, inspiring their peers to read, write, uplift their communities and participate in the arts.
85% of Get Lit’s students are from under-resourced areas; 92% are students of color. Get Lit reaches students, whether they are in the front row, in the back of the classroom, or online. Graduating students have gone on to successes including positions as Youth Poet Laureates of the U.S., staff writers on top television shows, United Nations Youth Ambassadors, Grammy-winning artists, and Fulbright Scholars. Get Lit was chosen as a 2020 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Best Practice Honoree, one of only 15 in the world. In addition, Diane Luby Lane’s book Get Lit Rising (Simon & Schuster) won the 2016 Nautilus Award for books that “bring hope, healing, wisdom, and joy.”
Premiering at the 2022 Santa Barbara film festival, the documentary OUR WORDS COLLIDE features 5 poets from the program and provides a timely view as to how transformative the Get Lit program can be for young people, especially during the past few years. The Anti-Defamation League awarded its ADL Stand Up Award to the film during the 2022 Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival. The ADL Stand Up Award is awarded to one film that exemplifies the impact storytelling can have on fostering mutual understanding and respect consistent with ADL’s mission to secure “justice and fair treatment to all."
In January, it was announced that Get Lit now partnered with the Writers Guild Foundation on a youth screenwriting program that will support a new generation of diverse storytellers to have 1:1 mentoring from some of today’s top film and tv writers. The two year program will allow participants to create a final script that can be pitched, optioned, produced, or used as a sample piece to acquire representation or employment.
27 Get Lit poets also co-wrote and co-starred in the film “Summertime” directed by Carlos López Estrada. The film premiered opening night at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and opened in theaters across the U.S. in 2021. The film is currently available on Amazon and other platforms, and a PG version is available for classrooms. Get Lit poets have performed at premier venues such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, The White House, and the United Nations.
In early 2022, Get Lit will officially launch Uni(verse), the world's first interactive poetry platform for the classroom, community, and beyond. Get Lit’s Uni(verse) will enable students throughout the US and internationally, to take Get Lit’s standards-aligned “Words Ignite” course online and to exchange ideas both within and outside of school. It will feature Get Lit’s interactive poetry Anthology, searchable by poet, theme, literary device, etc. Uni(verse) will build and strengthen communication, collaboration, empathy, and community throughout the world through the vehicle of poetry.
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*Times, dates, and prices of any activity posted to our calendars are subject to change. Please be sure to click through directly to the organization’s website to verify.