The Youth Word Up 2016

Hive working in partnership with Off the Shelf Festival of Words

Hive delivered poetry and spoken word workshops with young people out in the community and with the Community Young Teams (CYT) and the Youth Offending Service (YJS). A selection of work from the project was made into a publication and the young people performed at a special event at the Off the Shelf Festival of Words 2016 alongside well-known slam poet, Joelle Taylor, and other young writers from Hive.

About the Youth Word Up

As part of his guest curation of Off the Shelf in 2012, poet, novelist and activist, Benjamin Zephaniah, created The Youth Word Up – a project designed to give young people a chance to have their voices heard alongside an established poet.

Now in its fifth year, the Youth Word Up is an ongoing success with young people writing poetry and performing it alongside top poets at yearly events during the Festival. In 2013, a Youth Word Up, audio-visual installation of young people’s spoken poetry was showcased in Sheffield’s Winter Gardens. And in 2014, 2015, and again at the 2015 festival, a booklet of work by young people was produced from the project.

The Youth Word Up is an Off the Shelf Festival of Words Project funded by Arts Council – Grants for the Arts
Supported by Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Community Youth Teams, Sheffield Youth Justice Service, Hive South Yorkshire, Vicky Morris and Arts Council England.

Click an image to view slideshow >