Brave New Voices Festival: Storytelling in the 21st Century

Nothing creates a culture of empathy better than authentic storytelling spaces; we have grown what was once a modest idea to a widely-celebrated festival that makes visible 21st Century voices. The Brave New Voices Festival (BNV) is where young people from across the demographic and geographic spectrum come to share their stories with each other, and with the general public at large. Because they come from multiple communities, these poets reflect multiple perspectives in their storytelling. We strive for large viewing audiences so that their stories - often silent and invisible - can be heard. Our design experience engages audiences and performers in unique and powerful ways, creating a shared learning environment. We carefully engage with multiple communities in order to broaden the festival’s scope and scale. BNV is facilitated in order to promote the ability to use art as a catalyst for both personal and communal discovery, creating access to the possibility of new narratives to define our future.

Youth Speaks has helped change the face of poetry, making it accessible to a population that transcends cultural, social, geographic, and economic backgrounds. Through the Brave New Voices Festival, we’ve taken poetry from an accessory to a driver of social change. Before each show, a Youth Speaks mentor reminds the young people that they are not just doing this for themselves, but also for the next generation. In this space they have the opportunity to inspire the future poets who may be silently struggling to tell the very stories that may profoundly shift our future.

The 2017 Brave New Voices Festival in SF provides a unique fieldbuilding opportunity in a city that is increasingly losing its most diverse artistic populations due to the rising cost of living. By hosting BNV 2017 in the Bay Area we are leveraging years of fostered relationships to drive new media attention towards young people who are often silenced and ignored. A successful collaboration at BNV can lead to an increased appreciation for other arts organizations, opening opportunities for future collaborations between partner organizations and participants.

The Festival engages youth to create opportunities for this new generation of leaders to emerge engaged, thoughtful, articulate, knowledgeable, and unafraid to speak. Without the voices of young people, we cannot understand nor recognize the complex and nuanced ways in which practice and policy impacts young people. We talk about the future, without the future in the conversation. This is where Youth Speaks comes in.

Vision

Powering the Brave New Voices of America

Ultimately our goal is to build out our digital platform in order to create a space in the media landscape that is non-commercially driven and youth-led, driving conversations that lead to transformational social change. We will highlight the voices of young people from across the country - inviting the future to the table, and authentically amplifying the voice of 21st century America.

Youth Speaks

Brave New Voices Festival: Storytelling in the 21st Century

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Gabriel Cortez