Performance Writing & Spoken Word Intensive for High School Students

Program length: 1 week
Program dates:
June 19, 2021 to June 25, 2021
Tuition: $1,625
Age range: Students currently in grades 9-12
Priority deadline: 
January 14, 2021
Start Your Application

The Performance Writing and Spoken Word Intensive explores the power of both the written and performed word. Students get friendly with the time-honored poetic devices of the ancients, as well as the rip-the-roof-off rhetoric of rap. Students create original poems and spoken word pieces in several different styles, learning effective communication through voice and body language. This is an excellent class for slam teams about to enter competition or for any student who wants to learn to write and rock the mic. Come with an open mind, a willing spirit, the ability to laugh, and a pair of good drum sticks (not joking… bring drumsticks).

Portfolio Requirements

Submit an audio or, preferably, video recording of you performing one or more original poems. If you are unable to submit audio-visual work, submit at least three page-based poems that demonstrate sonic sensibilities that we hear as we read. (Note: interpret "poem" broadly—that doesn't mean it has to be traditionally lineated.)

Faculty

Regie Gibson

Faculty, Interlochen Performance Writing and Spoken Word Institute

Faculty, Emerson College; Professor of English, Clark University; Poet-in-Residence and Head Instructor of Poets in the Schools Program, Mass Poetry; Instructor, Grub Street Independent Writer's Center; Artistic Director, Shakespeare Time-Traveling Speakeasy, Shakespeare to Hiphop