Youth Word Up 2017

What a fabulous 6th year of the Off the Shelf Festival of Words project – The Youth Word Up! 19 young people performed (several for the first time ever) alongside headliner, Yorkshire poet, Toria Garbutt. Writing from the project was brought together in the 4th edition of the Youth Word Up publication with 30 young people taking part in the project. Thanks to Sheffield Youth Justice, Community Youth Teams, Cares teams, Sheffield Futures, and Sheffield Young Carers who supported this year’s project.

Incredible evening of young people giving voice to their souls through poetry and rap @otsfestival The Youth Word Up.

— Nicola Mayer (@nicolamayer) October 26, 2017

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 6th 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 Hive South Yorkshire, Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Community Youth Teams, Sheffield Youth Justice Service, Hive South Yorkshire, Vicky Morris and Arts Council England.
Photography courtesy of Caitlin Taff & Nik Perring
Click an image to view gallery >

More photos can be views here