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Leeds Young
Authors (LYA) was founded as an approach to creative education
to promote Youth Voice and positive social dialogue through
the written and spoken word across race, class, gender, culture
and sexual orientation among High School age youths (ages 13-19),
primarily in the City of Leeds.
The overall goals are to explore the use of creative writing,
spoken word/ performance poetry and the competitive environment
of poetry slams to dispel the myths that poetry is an outmoded
form of literary and artistic expression.
The young writers work consistently throughout the year with
a view to participating in The Brave New Voices, International
Youth Poetry Slam and Literary Festival in the USA.
The young people who have put themselves forward for consideration
to compete in the poetry slam competition organised by LYA.
The event is organised with input from the Youth Mentors and
the other young writers. Independent representatives are invited
to judge the competition, and members of the public are invited
to attend.
Out of this process, the winner is guaranteed a place in the
LYA team to the USA. The rest of the team is chosen on merit.
The seven-day festival was held in Washington D.C and I joined
a team of film makers (Alex Ramseyer-Bache and Daniel Lucchesi)
to document the LYA team throughout the festival. |
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