Support Power Poetry
Power Poetry is a program of the To Be Heard Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers youth through mastery of literacy — reading, writing, public speaking, and active listening.
Your gift keeps the world’s largest online poetry community for youth free, funds scholarship slams, and supports hands-on writing programs in classrooms.
A boots-on-the-ground program started in 2002, Power Writers has directly served more than 1,000 high school students. Over 90% graduated high school and 85% went on to college — attending schools like Brandeis, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Wheaton, Hampshire, Lafayette, and Hunter, with graduate study at the University of Arizona and Princeton.
Along the way, students have won nearly $3 million in scholarships, including 11 Posse Scholarships and a Peabody Award.
Launched in the spring of 2012, Power Poetry is the world’s largest mobile and online poetry community for youth. Young writers share their work globally, participate in scholarship slams, and use our writing tips, poetry glossary, and resource guides — all free.
Over a quarter million registered poets and poems from all 50 states and 175 countries, with over 200k monthly active users.
Both programs build language mastery through creative expression and self-awareness. For details about growth plans and budgets, contact [email protected].
On April 20, 2016, Roland Legiardi-Laura — documentary filmmaker, poet, educator, and founder of Power Poetry — passed away after a protracted battle with cancer. He founded the To Be Heard Foundation to carry on the work he began with Power Writers and Power Poetry.
Roland was a writer-in-residence at University Heights High School and the long-time director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where the slam poetry phenomenon originated. In 2010 he co-directed and produced TO BE HEARD, an award-winning documentary for PBS, and his film Azul — a study of Nicaragua’s people and history through their poetry — won nine international film awards. He founded Words to Go and P.O.E.T., America’s first traveling troupes of performance poets, and with Joe Ubiles and Amy Sultan co-created the model for the Power Writers Program.
Your support keeps that promise for the next generation of poets.
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