NYC Youth Poet Laureate Finals Scheduled for 12/17

December 8, 2016

NYC Votes is proud to announce that New York City's 8th annual Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) Grand Slam will be held on December 17, 2016 at The New York Public Library. NYC's YPL program is a voting-themed spoken word competition developed by NYC Votes, the nonpartisan voter engagement campaign of the NYC Campaign Finance Board, and Urban Word NYC. This year, 15 poets between the ages of 14 and 19 will compete for the honor of serving as the city's 2017 Youth Poet Laureate. 

Tickets are free and can be reserved here. The show will be livestreamed here. For group tickets, email Aisha Ahmad-Post at aishaahmadpost@nypl.org. 

  • What: Spoken Word Poetry Slam Competition to name the 2017 NYC Youth Poet Laureate
  • Who: Hosted by Angel Nafis and featuring young poets of NYC and a special performance by NYC's 2016 YPL Nkosi Nkululeko
  • When: Saturday, December 17 at 7:30 PM
  • Where: The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Shwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum

The host of this event, Angel Nafis, is the author of BlackGirl Mansion and co-coordinator of The Other Black Girl Collective, an internationally touring black feminist poetry duo. She is an Urban Word NYC mentor and the founder and curator of the Greenlight Bookstore Poetry Salon. In 2016, Nafis was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.

The goal of the YPL program is to excite young New Yorkers about civic engagement through creative self-expression. The 2017 Youth Poet Laureate will work with NYC Votes to reach young voters across the five boroughs, promoting voting and engagement at public events, through programming and peer-to-peer engagement. Through Urban Word NYC, the winner will receive a book deal and a platform to advocate for issues they are passionate about.

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.