Poet-linc: Poetry Slam

Poet-Linc Volume Two is the second book to document the unique slam poetry contest created by Lincoln Center to celebrate the original poetry composed by talented teens from New York City. Collated as part of a ground-breaking series in partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and non-profits serving New York¹s five boroughs, the second season sees each new "slam poet" find their own voice, aided in their journey by an array of professional poets, teaching artists, judges and performance professionals. This year, an open call for submissions from teens in all five boroughs was released online, gathering more than 150 submissions centered around the theme "I have a voice". Just over 30 teens were selected by anonymous rating by members of a selection committee of poetry, civic, education, and performance professionals. Teens then underwent 4 weeks of brand new preparatory workshops, readying them for a series of verbal showdowns. Three semi-final competitions led to a Grand Slam Championship battle during early spring of 2014. Producing partnership non-profits including important, progressive organizations, Urban Word NYC and NYC Votes, New York City Campaign Finance Board. Community collaborators included prominent non-profits and education organizations such as Curtis High School, El Puente, Girls Write Now, Global Writes, SAYA! (South Asian Youth Action). Through the work of partners and teens themselves the intense and exhilarating series is one of significant social and cultural recognition. The event’s associated publication contains more than 60 poems from the contestants in the series, alongside work from established poets and personal interviews with the teens on the medium, the initiative, and the process. The poems themselves portray a varied and illuminating survey into the attuned teenage mind, exploring, and often inverting, themes of race, love, lust, family and class in the playful, sardonic and relentless ebb and flow of the Poetry Slam itself.