Narrative Poetry Workshop for Queer Youth in Denton

Proposal: 

Two week summer workshop series for queer youth in Denton on how to utilize slam poetry/spoken word (specifically narrative slam poems) to tell their stories.

Goals: 

Utilize a queer friendly space to enable queer youth to feel empowered in telling their stories in an artistic manner while also demonstrating the importance of poetry and creative writing.

Importance: 

Queer kids face significant violence and discrimination both in and out of the classroom according to data from the 2015 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This has a direct impact on their mental health, as according to a study by the CDC, "Nearly one-third (29%) of LGB youth had attempted suicide at least once in the prior year compared to 6% of heterosexual youth." Trans youth face even more issues, as based on data gathered in 2017 by the CDC,"Transgender students are more likely than cisgender students to report violence victimization, substance use, and suicide risk, and although generally more likely to report sexual risk behaviors, were also more likely to report being tested for HIV."

These kids need to find a way to process and talk about what they are going through, and I believe poetry may provide an avenue for these students to do so. In multiple mental health treatment studies, there have been positive treatment outcomes in which poetic therapy was used (Mcardle, S. and Byrt, R). Poetry While this workshop series will not be a therapy session, it will hopefully encourage queer youth to explore, tell, and process their stories through storytelling and poetry.

Furthermore, this will help show this group of queer youth that there is a queer artistic community in Denton. Doing so will help foster a sense of community for them and show them that they are not alone.

Ideal Sponsors/Collaborators:

(Note, there is a lot of overlap between these two groups in terms of members, so both would hopefully work together to sponsor) 

• Spiderweb Salon, creative collective based in Denton, TX
• Invite (queer) poets from Spiderweb to share their poetry and experiences with students
• Outreach Denton, LGBTQIA+ outreach group based in Denton, TX
• Currently hosts a youth monthly outreach event during the school year, but ends the group during the summer. Ideally, I would like to fill this gap for queer youth by offering them this space instead. 

Timeline: 

1. Introduction class
• Ice breakers 
• Establishing expectations (student led and decided)
• What is poetry exercise using examples from Milk & Honey and Milk & Vine
2. How do we use poetry to tell stories?
3. Getting into Slam Poetry
• Watch example poetry slam performances & break them down
• Writing territories / brainstorming ideas for our own poems
4. Get Started Writing Our Own 
• Watch "Become a Slam Poet in Five Steps" TedX Talk by Gayle Danley
• Slam Poet performance & chat last thirty minutes
5.  Writing
• Work on writing poems
• Slam Poet performance & chat last thirty minutes
6. Writing
• Work on writing poems
• Slam Poet performance & chat last thirty minutes
7. Workshop
• Read Jack Ridl's "Repairing the House" and "The Poem and I Have a Little Conversation"
• Model appropriate/inappropriate workshop behaviors
• Workshop poems (1 hour )
8. Editing
• Work on writing poems
• Slam Poet performance & chat last thirty minutes
9. Editing & Performance Practice
• Work on writing poems
• Slam Poet performance & chat last thirty minutes
10. Perform poems 
• Ideally this would be open to the public and billed as a Spiderweb Salon event so as to help establish legitimacy of the student's works. 

Needs: 

• Space for the class with access to a projector and computer (or at least a projector with an HDMI cord as laptop can be supplied by teacher), 
• Writing materials
• Ideally computers for student use and access to a printer (this can be worked around, however)
• Venue for the performance