#bnv2016

I’ve made a bed of bones of all the rappers I admire So that even when I’m sleeping, I can still find inspiration in their fall

2016 - Brave New Voices - Grand Slam Finals: Daveed Diggs

600 young people from across the world take center stage at the 19th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival for a week of workshops, poetry slam, performances, and civic engagement from July 12 – 16, 2016 in Washington, D.C. This year's festival theme takes it's inspiration from Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too" redefining what it means to be American in the 21st Century. Powered by Youth Speaks.

When I say “shoot,” you say, “shoot” Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot

Got a world wonderin’ when it’s all gonna burn Warnings are warm as the block is getting hot as a perm Get it straight My n*ggas ain't waitin' for turns It's time to take it Our place in the line ain't a concern

We trace our lines to the '80's where they threw out the razors Cuttin' the white on the table was for ballers and players Our parents, still in the hustle, burnt the rock into vapors So hard demeanors when '80's babies gas on you haters

An era defined by cracks and whether to slip into 'em We transfit it to the beat, then we eat the beats like communion Embody these wafers, waverin’ Wave at 'em with the rillo and stay so deep in the cup We drink blood and we call it moscato What up, gangsta

You really wanna bang yo set? When we rep gangs chained to tracks and swing raps like mallets? Its arm and hammers built the ground for which these crews fight And don't none of us own shit, so it's nothin' to lose, right?

You seein' this mobbin' on your television You can close your eyes, but you gonna have to listen Mouthpiece is a gun; the speech is the ammunition Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot

The cameras are rollin' and the lights flash The footage is golden when the nights clash Capture it quick; we livin' the life fast Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot

Yeah, real shit, n*gga Out here fingerin' the kill switch The bills kill to n*gga D.O.A. So when the repo came and sent me Cobain

I've made a bed of bones of all the rappers I admire So that even when I'm sleeping, I can still find inspiration in their fall Cause everybody fall off I'm at the fiscal cliff base-jumpin' with a sawed off Shoot all these fake fly suckas now; all's lost anyway So we can parlay with this molotov cocktail mixologist

Rock sales and bottom bitches Cock fights and n*gga riches Rock ice and tunnel vision Eyes front; focus forward

Feed the phenom your attention The game can change I will father invention Me and Ms. Necessity got a thang goin' on I keep fuckin' that chick to your new style is born

You seein' this mobbin' on your television You can close your eyes, but you gonna have to listen Mouthpiece is a gun; the speech is the ammunition Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot

What up The footage is golden and the lights flash The cameras are rolling and the nights clash Capture it quick; we livin' the life fast Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot / Shoot

And every Sunday morning we play dominoes with death Counting spots upon the table Slamming bones with baited breath Knowin' there's not enough to build a house The n*gga to your left has the fo-fo Waitin' for dem snake eyes to surface

Here surf sex, there's sleep aid to the infinite insomnia A whole generation awake, immune to marijuana Cause that's baseline and it's nice, but the angles are never right And we spangle the red and white With the stars of the blues we write

I've been howlin' wolf and sheepish grinning Look beneath the beating, bleeding, seething city See, we all been G'ing since we were teethin’ And while searching for the meanin' Misdemeanors of the fleeing folk Runnin' while holdin' still Cup of purple posture leanin'

And poets postulate posthumous The who, what, where, and why But the 'how' escapes us all Cause our souls are too old to cry So we bangin' the best we can And we doin' it lookin' fly And we celebrate independence By shootin' guns in the sky

Why Poetry Is The Best Medium For Kids Who Want To Change The World

Diggs started slamming at Berkeley High School in California after watching the documentary “Slam Nation” with his friends. “We just got really inspired,” he told HuffPost on Saturday night, the day after his departure from “Hamilton.” “So we got some friends together and tried to recreate that. We had a teacher donate a classroom after school and we just started doing it.”

BNV was a much smaller festival when Diggs was a kid, but the premise behind the event, which showcases the spoken word performances of students over the course of six days, is still the same: “It was an opportunity for us ― for kids who are often ignored and whose words are not valued ― to say whatever we wanted,” Diggs said. “In the best way possible. And have those words honored.”

Both [Danez] Smith and Diggs are quick to praise poetry as an effective medium for kids whose voices need to be heard. “What writing a poem really does ― and what figuring how to perform effectively really does ― is forces people to listen to you,” Diggs said. “It frames your thoughts in such a way that grabs people’s attentions and forces them to hear the things that you’re actually saying.”

“These are techniques that you can use forever,” he added. “Learning how to get a point across is pretty useful in any situation.”

Many of the BNV performances are available on YouTube, a platform Diggs suggests that interested kids use to find their way into the world of slam poetry. “Listen to everything and just start doing it,” he said.