Project&, Cheryl Pope and Nathan Diamond are honored to be a part of the White House’s efforts to focus on National Youth Justice Awareness Month with programming that features panels, art performances and group discussions on the importance of the arts in building narratives, empowering communities, and furthering youth justice.
Cheryl Pope and the Chicago poets of JUST YELL/POETRY as SELF DEFENSE are teaming up with Nathan Diamond and poets from Washington D.C. to head to our nation’s capital. Along with Jane M. Saks of Project&, they will participate in the daylong event:
Justice and Opportunity: The Power of the Arts
A Focus on Juvenile Justice
The White House | October 14, 2015
Innovative visual artist and the 2015 recipient of a 3Arts Award, Cheryl Pope, and Nathan Diamond, Director of the Arts in the District of Columbia’s Public Schools, have designed a provoking program that brings forward the voices of youth today from Chicago and DC responding to issues of juvenile justice. Opening the day with a raw collaborative performance reminiscent of jazz improvisation, the Chicago and DC poets will share their experiences with urban violence and the judicial system. The voices of incarcerated youth will become entangled with these stories, providing a multi-vocal response to the issues of juvenile justice that impact the lives of young people across this country.
“When an adult slows down and genuinely listens to the voices of youth today,” Pope explains, “the experience is transformative.”
At the invitation of the White House, Project& President and Artistic Director, Jane M. Saks, will participate on a panel on the ability of art and culture to create necessary and difficult dialogues and have social impact.
“To be part of the White House’s efforts focused on Juvenile Justice and the Arts is a powerful opportunity to collaborate with Cheryl, Nathan and young, fierce artists using their own voices to express their own lives,” notes Saks. “Just Yell/Poetry as Self Defense illustrates the phenomenal power of the arts to ask the challenging questions and force us to listen, re-imagine ourselves and our world beyond what we have before.”