Prairie Youth Poets Storm Toronto

The Creative City Centre will send it's third youth team to compete at Voices of Today  in Toronto, ON, August 20-24/19, and we need your help!

TEAM HISTORY

In 2015/16 the Creative City Centre started the big work of creating Spoken Word opportunities for youth: Regina Word Up Youth. We received an Artist In Communities grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board to support the work. We did not send a team

In 2016/17, we sent our very first team to compete at Voices of Today, a poetry festival for youth, by youth. It was life-changing. (Poets: Josh, Daniella, Austin, and Creed) We packed into a van and drove to Toronto. We did this with the generous support of our community, without grants. 

In 2017/18, we sent our second team to compete at Voices of Today. (Elia, Austin, and Charly) The support of our community was once again invaluable. We were able to fly and save days worth of travel time. Our team, despite challenges, brought our best work to Toronto and created lasting memories. 

In 2018/19, we hope to send our third team - this year, Daniella, Charly, Creed, Tai, and Lila - to Toronto. We continue to fundraise in a variety of ways:  special events, food sales, and accepting donations, and continue to look to more funding opportunities to create sustainable support for this program. Until we can receive stable support, we continue to rely on the generosity of our community. 




WHAT IS VOICES OF TODAY?

This year Voices of Today, in addition to the Poetry Slam team competitions between teams from all over Canada, they are focusing on multidisciplinary arts workshops and events that people can pop in and out of throughout the day, including things outside of the field of spoken word and poetry. The opportunities available to youth artists with benefit them in their lives today and tomorrow. Youth become connected to each other, their communities and the professional development they receive helps them to carve out a career in the arts.   

Voices of Today is really special. It is a festival for youth, by youth. The organizing committee are all under 25. Representation is important. Our youth see other youth achieving Big Things. It's inspiring and motivating. 

Voices of Today is the newest addition to the festivals run by SpoCan. (Other festivals are the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) and the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS). It is difficult for youth to go to these poetry festivals due to school schedules and the venues these festivals occupy are often not all-ages. Voices of Today was created to prioritize and to support youth voices. 

SO WHAT IS A POETRY SLAM? 

A poetry slam is a dialogue between audience and performer. It is a competitive event wherein spoken word artists share their work in a high-spirited, fast-paced environment to an often uproarious crowd. 

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? 

Ultimately, we have big picture goals and small morsels of time. 
 
But this is an exciting time for us -- we are witness to the significant, positive effects these experiences provide within our burgeoning youth community. Our future success is contingent on the support and consistency we can provide our youth. It’s important that we recognize this, and provide mentorship, opportunities, access to high quality programming, resources and artist representation.  

Through opportunities like a national youth poetry festival where these young people can network amongst like-minded peers, we demonstrate that success can look like community support.  
 
We want to help our youth to see the artists that look like them, or identify like them – that help the youth see a future in the arts because they recognize that there is a place for them, and that their voice’s and experiences are valid and more importantly, represented. 


 
MOVING FORWARD

Remarkably, the Creative City Centre has managed to maintain a high level of programming, quality content, and strong community spirit with a shoe string budget and very limited resources. Regina Word Up continues to be one of the CCC's longest running programs, due in large part to its dedicated people-base.  
 
Without the volunteer organizing forces on the Regina Word Up volunteer collective, the team members, families, friends and community funders and supporters, online contributers, and everyone else, this would never be possible. 
 
As effective as we can be with limited resources, we find ourselves a bit short to send our five youth team members and (mandatory supervisory) coach to Toronto from August 20-24.

 We are asking to cover the costs of return air-travel, accomodations, and a modest per diem to help cover communal food costs and incedentals.  

Please be part of our journey. 

We hope you visit Regina Word Up during our regular poetry season from September-June. Follow Regina Word Up  and the Creative City Centre on Facebook! There's often something for everyone!




Meet the Team:




Charly Bird is an Indigenous queer women from George Gordon First Nation. They use their voice and platform for those who have been silenced. Charly’s poetry seeks to expose others to her experiences and show the aftermath of it. Her poetry is an insight into a queer indigenous persons perspective on subjects that are uncomfortable but empathy is their point of poetry.

Daniella Mercedez is a university student in Regina obtaining her bachelor of music education with a minor in English. She is A first generation Chilean with a love for performance, art, politics, and making the most of life. She’s attended two national spoken competitions to date and hopes to attend many more.



Tai Reign is a Two-Spirited Indigenous person from Peepeekisis Cree Nation who has been writing poetry since they were a young child. They first discovered this art form as a therapuetic outlet and since they've realized how powerful words could be. They now use their words as a way to share their experiences, world view and make sense of the hardships they've experienced throughout their short life. Each piece is a different chapter in their story. Tai’s poetry is a peek into the life of a young queer indigenous person on the edge of bigotry and the future.



Lila Banionyte, is a young poet who is an immigrant from Lithuania. Her passion for writing has empowered her to bring awareness and emotion to social injustices. Lila’s empathetic spirit and deep understanding of the world around her gives her poetry a depth and emotion that listeners can connect with. 



Creed Horsefall has competed on the Regina Word Up Youth Poetry Slam Team in 2017 where he traveled to Toronto for Voices of Today, a youth poetry festival, and shared his poetry through school wide assemblies at his high school, Sheldon Collegiate. Creed writes about relationships and real life.