Three days before I left for Guatemala back in September, I got a phone call from Lynne Sabio. Lynne is the widow of Mario Sabio, the great activist and founder of the Free Speech Movement at UC-Berkeley in the 1960s that laid the foundation for the anti-war movemment, women’s movement, and many other…

I don’t have much time right now to write — I’m busy getting ready to welcome over 500 of the world’s best young writers to the Bay to do their thing. Yes, my friends, it’s time for Brave New Voices. This is the culmination of the Youth Speaks program year,…

Is it physically possible to overdose on poetry? Over the last three weeks, I’ve heard over 250 poets in 8 preliminary slams, 4 semi-final slams, last-minute workshops before the slam, street-side ciphers after the slam — shit, I hear metaphors and similes in my dreams every night. Dreams, I say….

Wow. Every summer I go to Brave New Voices, the International Youth Poetry Slam Festival that I help organize with Youth Speaks. And every summer I leave more amazed than the year before. Not necessarily because the poetry is better (although this year I loved the renewed emphasis on WRITING,…

It’s true. This Saturday is the 14th annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Finals…and it’s gonna be beautiful. I’ve seen almost all of the finalist poets, and this year’s crew is NO JOKE. Serious writers, amazing performers. If you come, you will laugh. Hard. You will cry. Hard. This show…