Eleven teens gather together after school Thursday for WordUP, a weekly
WordPlay program for
Aiken New Tech High School students in which they engage, encourage and share with one another while learning and exploring various forms of creative expression.
Since September, students’ focus has been on the art of spoken word as they prepare for
Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB), the world’s largest youth poetry slam competition, which made its way to Cincinnati this year for the first time thanks to the collaborative efforts of Northside-based
WordPlay, Over-the-Rhine-based
Elementz and the University of Cincinnati’s
Taft Research Center.
More than 53 percent of Cincinnati children and 71,000 adults live in poverty, according to LTAB Cincy’s website, with the city ranking as the 28th most gentrified in the U.S.
“Our youth are disenfranchised and disillusioned. They have been made to feel impotent, their voice has been quashed,” organizers say. “But they have a story to tell.”
Four teams (DePaul Cristo Rey, Seven Hills, Walnut Hills and School for Creative & Performing Arts/Hughes STEM) and eight individuals — like WordUP senior Lacy “Asylum” Robinson, who won the individual competition’s semifinals — will tell their stories Saturday evening in the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s Harriet Tubman Theater as they compete for $3,000 worth of prizes and a recording opportunity at Elementz Studio.
A confidence builder
Asylum’s story is one of overcoming obstacles, and his work serves as a testament to others that they’re never alone in life and there are people — like himself — who can identify and are willing to listen and be supportive.
“He’s been writing since he was a kid, but a lot of his poetry comes from his lifestyle, what he’s been through,” says spoken word artist and performer Desirae “The Silent Poet” Hosley, who serves as LTAB Cincy coordinator for WordUP, Seven Hills and DePaul Cristo Rey. “He’s not afraid to tell his story. That’s the thing with poetry slams, because the best pieces are the ones that are more heartfelt — the ones you know are more honest — and to let that honesty show through the poetry is huge.”
And when that honesty does show through, it inspires confidence.
“To be able to stand in front of all these people and say what you feel, no matter how big of a pain you suffer, no matter how great of a poem you don’t think it is, it’s going to be great, because you say it,” Hosley says. “It’s your words, and you’re taking what you love and you’re putting it on the mic, and no one can take that away from you. No one can say, ‘You can’t say that’ or ‘It’s wrong.’ You can say it no matter what, and that’s the big take-back from it.”
Asylum, also a rapper, didn’t start to grow in his own confidence as a performer until he stepped outside of his comfort zone and started sharing his work.
“My cousin is the person who inspired me to rap, and I remember when I started writing these songs, I’d take them to him and only him, and I’d never want to perform for other people,” Asylum says. “And he’d just look at it and say, ‘I’m not telling you anything ’til you rap it for me,’ and I’d say, ‘I’m not going to do that,’ and he’d say, ‘Then I’m not going to tell you what I think.’ So that’s how I started getting over that, performing for him and his friends.”
To face their fear of the stage, memorize their work and practice their delivery, students have received coaching from LTAB coordinators and coaches, participated in monthly open mic sessions and received feedback from teachers, tutors and peers.
“It’s been impressive to see the transition of how comfortable they are with each other, with us, and how that’s kind of a byproduct of poetry,” says Elese Daniel, WordUP program coordinator and LTAB coach. “By establishing better friendships, better bonds between people they see sometimes just once a week — not a lot — it’s that consistency in their lives that’s important and has helped them feel more confident in conveying their thoughts and feelings.”
Voices that matter
When the students perform and are able to share their work with others, it’s validation that their thoughts matter.
“History — history — or is this his story?” asks Tyrese Adams as she practices the opening lines of her piece she’ll perform to open Saturday’s competition. “They cover up so much, might as well be our story.”
Adams, who attends Aiken and participates in WordUP, says she’s passionate about questioning “stuff that I know is wrong.”
So she writes about it, and by sharing with others she’s using her talent of creative expression to prompt questioning and a critical awareness of the way society operates.
“Stuff should be questioned. If they didn’t, things would be so boring,” says
Abiyah, an established local hip hop and spoken word artist who sat in on WordUP’s session last week to offer perspective to the students as the competition draws near. “It can affect social change, too. Others might have the same perspective and not know how to articulate their thoughts about it.”
By valuing the innermost thoughts and questions of young people, we’re required to take a step back and acknowledge the fact that “kids are watching,” Hosley says.
“We may see them as just children, but they are our youth — they are our future — they have words, they listen, they pay attention,” she says. “You have people that strive to be strong at the end of the day. At the end of all this, they want the strength to keep moving forward, and I think there were parents who I don’t think even had a clue or knew anything about that.”
It takes guts to stand in front of a large crowd and express one’s self to others, and the competitors say they’re nervous. But they’re confident, and they’re invested in their stories.
“I think nerves mean you care,” Daniel tells WordUP participants. “You’re invested. You want to do well. It’s like, ‘I’m going to, and I’m pumped to, and I don’t want to mess it up.’”
Louder Than a Bomb's Cincinnati finals begin at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s Harriet Tubman Theater downtown. General admission tickets are free and can be reserved
here.