PAST: POETRY: "Brave New Voices" Youth Poetry Slam Festival! WED, July 16th - SAT, July 19th, All events are FREE! Some require RSVP

Youth Speaks Presents  The 11th Annual  BRAVE NEW VOICES International Youth Poetry Slam Festival Washington, D.C. July 15 - 19, 2008 500 Poets from 40 Cities across 4 countries Ignite Washington, D.C. with Words!   All events are FREE! Presented in Partnership with HBO's Def Poetry, DC WritersCorps, Sol & Soul, the Creative Writing Alliance, and Hip-Hop Theater Festival   Highlighted Events include:

Wednesday, July 16th A Full Day of Poetry and Spoken Word Workshops for Youth at  George Washington University 10:00am-2:00pm Brave New Voices' Green Mic  The Kennedy Center, 6:00pm 2700 F St, NW The Best Young Spoken Word Artists in the Country Talk About Global Warming. Sponsored by The Redford Center at The Sundance Preserve and the US Green Building Council   Thursday July 17th Quarter-Finals of the International Youth Poetry Slam  Atlas Performing Arts Center 1333 H St. NE, Washington, DC 20002 10:00am - 6:00pm  Friday July 18th Hear The Children Left Behind: Young People Speak Out on Education LAFAYETTE PARK (across from the White House) 3:00pm-6:00pm Semi-Finals of the International Youth Poetry Slam The Smithsonian (2 Locations):  American Art Museum-The McEvoy Auditorium  Asian American Art Museum-Freer Auditorium Special Emcees Beau Sia and Rafael Casal  11:00am - 1:00pm    Teacher's Conference The Smithsonian Asian American Art Museum 1:00pm-3:00pm FREE when registering at: bnvteacherconference@youthspeaks.org   SPACE IS LIMITED   Saturday, July 19th The Grand Slam Finals of the International Youth Poetry Slam The Lincoln Theater  7:00pm 1215 U St., NW   Live Filming for HBO's documentary on Brave New Voices! Come See the Final Teams of The Poetry Slam with Special Guests. FREE TICKETS CAN BE REQUESTED BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO: bravenewvoices@broadwayvideo.com with full name, email and how many tickets you need up to 4 ticket per request. If tickets are available you will receive confirmation back.   For complete Information About the Poetry Slam, Workshops, and Teachers Programs, http://www.youthspeaks.org/BNVFESTIVAL.html    Convening over 450 of the top teenage poets and spoken word artists from across the country, Brave New Voices 2008 is a one-of-a-kind festival. Held in a different city each year, Brave New Voices (BNV) gives participants the opportunity to explore a new cultural landscape and region while helping to build sustainable programming locally. For the first time ever, the seven-day festival will be held in Washington, D.C., just 3 months before the presidential election. BNV directly addresses the youth perspective on local and national issues, using spoken word as a tool for civic engagement, arts education, and literacy development - and reflecting the changing demographics of the United States. Brave New Voices 2008 features teen poetry slam champions from cities, rural, and suburban areas, from the Deep South, Native American reservations, Alaska, college towns - even from parts of Europe and Africa - and will reach an audience of over 10,000 throughout the week. These young writers are a diverse, creative, intelligent group of trendsetters and community leaders (65% of whom qualify for the free lunch program at their home schools). They come to BNV each year to attend world-class workshops and performances by renowned poets, writers and musicians, and to participate in the Olympic-style Youth Poetry Slam, building a national community of young, intelligent, and courageous artists. _______________________________________________