Youth & Poetry & Activism

Featured on the PBS NewsHour program The Poetry Series, three poets in Richmond, California teamed up with the Off/Page Project to bring a spotlight to deplorable public housing conditions in a video report “This is Home.” Off/Page Project combines efforts with The Center for Investigative Reporting and the literary non-profit Youth Speaks. Their collaborative work actively engages youth in civic issues through the use of a multi-media platform.

Other issues investigated by Off/Page Project include “Whispers from the Field,” about sexual abuse suffered by migrant women field laborers (written and performed by Monica Mendoza and available in English and Spanish); “Broken City Poets” focusing on Stockton, California – and what happens to the youth in a town declaring bankruptcy (“Poetry is a way to express myself without violence,” one young woman comments).