2012 Grand Slam Finals of the Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam April 27, 2012

The 2012 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam takes place during the month of April, which is also National Poetry Month, and features three back-to-back weekends of slams beginning on April 13. The seven preliminary bouts will be held at various community venues in Oakland and San Francisco such as the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, The David Brower Center, The New Parish and 826 Valencia. The winners of those preliminary slams will participate in four semi-finals, resulting in 16 finalists that will battle it out in the Grand Slam Finals on Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m. at the 3,000-seat Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco.

The six winners of the Grand Slam Finals will go on to represent the Bay Area in the Youth Speaks Brave New Voices Festival, July 17-21 in San Francisco, where teams from all over the world are invited to participate in a week-long, intensive series of workshops, poetry slams and get-togethers where they can exchange art and viewpoints and their mentors can exchange pedagogy and best practices.
The Grand Slam Finals of the Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam on April 27 will also be the venue for the announcement of the new 2012 Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Youth Speaks is also a leading partner in the first annual Oakland and San Francisco Youth Poet Laureate program, which launches April 1.
The Grand Slam Finals historically sell out with a standing-room-only capacity crowd. Proceeds from benefit Youth Speaks' Bay Area youth education programs and aid in subsidizing after-school and in-school poetry workshops for more than 15,000 teenagers across the greater Bay Area.

Official Website: http://youthspeaks.org