{"id":17593,"date":"2016-05-05T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/regional\/hamilton-youth-poets\/"},"modified":"2023-01-10T16:22:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T16:22:51","slug":"hamilton-youth-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/hamilton\/hamilton-youth-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton Youth Poets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ltab2015-02816\"What’s all the hype about HYP?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The art of spoken word is an ancient tradition that predates the written word. In the 1950s and 1960s, the concept of poetry as a spoken art form was revived, most notably by the Beat poets and the literary-poetry scene of New York\u2019s Greenwich Village. And this tradition continues today with the Hamilton Youth Poets (HYP).<\/p>\n

Created in 2012, HYP provides a platform for new young voices to muse about their city through poetry, journalism and hip-hop says Nea Reid, HYP artistic director. \u201cHYP gives Hamilton\u2019s youth an opportunity to develop their creative skills and have their voices heard. It\u2019s a brave and positive space to express ideas, stories, experiences or simply a new concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

HYP supports youth who want to engage in the literary arts, develop their voice, and bring it all together at poetry slams -\u2013 competitions in which poets perform original work alone or in teams before an audience, which serves as judge. Slams feature a broad range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches to writing and performance. The poet\u2019s work is judged as much on the manner and enthusiasm of its performance as its content or style. Just as Beat poets were heavily influenced by jazz music, slam poets embrace urban rhythms like hip-hop for inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams come together and talk about their lives, where they\u2019re from, their social situations and the world around them.\u201d says Nea. \u201cThey connect with people that they never would have met. And that creates bridges, community and social activism. Our festival audiences are always surprised at how prolific, creative and smart our youth are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poetry slam has revitalized interest in poetry and performance, sparked by construction worker and American poet Marc Smith\u2019s 1984 reading series at a Chicago jazz club. This generation of poets seems just as politicized as their Beat predecessors, drawing upon racial, economic, and gender injustices as well as social and political issues for subject matter. They\u2019re speaking out and speaking up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI draw on commonalities of our human experience,\u201d says HYP poet Eddie Lartey. \u201cI\u2019m able to get up on stage and talk about love, struggle, beauty and hopefully connect to someone in the audience \u2013 someone who is feeling what I\u2019m feeling. For me, this is the most important thing about poetry and performance \u2013 it\u2019s that emotional connection to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HypBomb14-03060\"<\/p>\n

Nea lauds the support HYP has received from the community, especially from Hamilton Community Foundation. \u201cTheir support has allowed us to pursue high-calibre year-round programming, to grow and to embrace more young Hamilton poets.\u201d It has also helped HYP\u2019s small but passionate team of young artists conduct workshops at schools across Hamilton. HYP\u2019s mentorship program not only provides the opportunity for participants to enhance their writing, organizing and leadership skills, but also it is also supporting youth employment as workshop leaders are paid for their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave a workshop with 700 young people just before the March break,\u201d says Nea. \u201cWe talk about what happens when you become part of a collective of writers \u2013 how you develop literary skills, public speaking abilities and leadership qualities needed to take you further in life. We explain how slams work, the impact of HYP\u2019s mentorship program, and how they\u2019ll gain experience as arts organizers.\u201d<\/p>\n

HYP uses a pedagogy that puts young people at the centre of their own learning experience. HYP empowers students, some of whom have felt disenfranchised by the educational system, to pursue their academic ambitions.<\/p>\n

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For youth poet Victoria Daniels, HYP has helped her develop a skill set to graduate high school and get accepted into her program of choice at Mohawk College. \u201cHYP and the slams have given me a purpose and people to connect with. It\u2019s so beautiful to see people who have struggled share their experience through poetry. Poetry is as much therapy as it is creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s annual festival, Louder Than a Bomb Canada, brings together writers, emcees, poets and teams founded in schools and community centres. As the nation\u2019s largest youth poetry festival\u2013 2,200 people attended the event last year \u2013 it offers an opportunity for young people to come together, to speak and be heard. The festival runs from May 6 to 14 at various locations across Hamilton (www.hamiltonyouthpoets.org) and the finals take place on May 14 at Theatre Aquarius.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur stories matter,” says Eddie. \u201cThey enrich the stories of our neighbourhoods, our communities and our city as a whole. They\u2019re part of a much bigger conversation. And Louder Than a Bomb Canada is going to be an exciting and validating experience for poets and audience members alike.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s all the hype about HYP? The art of spoken word is an ancient tradition that predates the written word. In the 1950s and 1960s, the concept of poetry as a spoken art form was revived, most...","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":17595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8065],"tags":[2841,2842,2137,2293,2843,2844,2845],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/HamSlam-01167.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17594,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17593\/revisions\/17594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}