DC SCORES and Young Playwrights’ Theater Partner to Bring Poet-Athletes’ Words to the Stage
This season’s top Slam teams will see their poems turned into new plays by a D.C. theater with 30 years of staging youth work.
DC SCORES and Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) are joining forces this fall poetry season to celebrate the voices and brilliance of young writers across D.C. Through this new partnership, winning poems from this season’s DC SCORES Poetry Slam will be developed into original theatrical works, giving poet-athletes the chance to see their words come to life on stage.
Every fall, more than 2,500 DC SCORES participants, known as poet-athletes, take part in the nonprofit’s poetry curriculum during out-of-school time. With their teammates and coaches, poet-athletes write original poems about the issues they care about most, from their families and neighborhoods to their hopes for the future.
The season builds to the DC SCORES Poetry Slams, the DMV’s largest youth spoken word events. There, poet-athletes take the stage to share their work with family, friends and community. This year’s Poetry Slams are the Middle School Slam on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and the Westside and Eastside Slams on Saturday, Nov. 14 – all taking place at Cramton Auditorium at Howard University.
The first-place winning teams from the Westside and Eastside elementary school Slams will then take their poems beyond the Slam stage. YPT will use them as the foundation for new plays and bring them to life with professional actors and production crews. YPT has staged youth-written work across the D.C. region for more than 30 years.
“Our poet-athletes write with so much honesty and heart. Partnering with YPT means their words will reach new audiences in a whole new way, and we can’t wait to see their poems come to life on stage,” Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez, Deputy Director of Programs.
“We are thrilled to work with an organization, like DC SCORES, to center the voices of young people and to share their stories on stage during Silence is Violence,” YPT Artistic Director Farah Lawal Harris.
The partnership brings together two D.C. organizations that have spent three decades building confidence and self-expression in young people. Both see young writers as artists, leaders and storytellers whose voices deserve to be heard.
About Young Playwrights’ Theater
Since 1995, Young Playwrights’ Theater has inspired young people to realize the power of their own voices. YPT believes everyone deserves high-quality theater education that centers their voices, and it provides inspiration, tools and opportunities for young and emerging artists to develop and share their stories. Through in-school and out-of-school theater and creative writing programs for young people ages 8 to 24, YPT builds confidence and showcases self-expression. Each year, YPT brings the work of young playwrights to life on stage with professional actors, directors and production crews. Learn more at youngplaywrightstheater.org.
