NYC Votes’ Youth Poet Laureate Program (YPL) is excited to launch a new partnership with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Poet Linc program, together with Urban Word NYC. The YPL and Poet Linc programs encourage young New Yorkers to explore creative self-expression and civic engagement through spoken word poetry.
Tonight at 7:30 PM, Poet-Lincwill hold the first final Teen Poetry Slam in partnership with NYC Votes and Urban Word at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. The top two winners of this competition will advance to the YPL Final Slam, which will crown the city’s next Youth Poet Laureate this fall.
For the last six years, the YPL Program has encouraged young New Yorkers to become engaged in their communities through its positive voting messages in performances, speeches, voter registration drives, and neighborhood outreach.
“I am thrilled to see the YPL Program expanding to give more young New Yorkers the opportunity to learn about the importance of civic engagement,” said Onida Coward Mayers, director of voter assistance at the Campaign Finance Board. “Lincoln Center’s prestige will help propel the NYC Votes message to a wider audience, ensuring that our city’s youth use their voices to shape the future.”
“We are so proud to be a part of such an empowering youth program,” said Russell Granet, Executive Director of Lincoln Center Education. “Celebrating the voices of our city’s creative and thoughtful youth, giving them a place on our historic campus from which to speak their truth and teach us about the world they envision and their place in it, is not only an honor but an inspiration to all of us at Lincoln Center. We look forward to a promising future with the NYC Youth Poet Laureate program!”
“The Youth Poet Laureate program is a showcase of New York City’s diversity and we are ecstatic to have Lincoln Center as our partner,” said Michael Cirelli, Executive Director of Urban Word NYC.“YPL’s young poets, hailing from all backgrounds and parts of the city, use the power of their voice to express the importance of voting and civic engagement.”
NYC Votes is the nonpartisan voter engagement campaign of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) and its Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC). In addition to promoting voter registration, participation, and civic engagement in New York City through its many programs and partnerships, NYC Votes sponsors the city’s official Debate Program and produces the citywide Voter Guide.