Citywide Poets (CWP)

CITYWIDE POETS (CWP) Our after school performance poetry troupe for teens received the 2009 COMING UP TALLER Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. CWP offers the mentorship of adult poets who possess strong publication and performance credentials. Youth perform at numerous venues, see their work in an anthology, take awards for their poetry, and compete to attend the Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam, held annually in various cities across the country.

CWP students feature at many venues including The Detroit Jazz Fest; Arts Beats & Eats, the Music Hall; 1515 Broadway; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Museum of African American History, Café con Leche, Wayne State University, the Byte This! poetry series and have opened for Nikki Giovanni, Quincy Troupe, Tyehimba Jess and many other fine poets.

DON’T MISS Citywide Poets as they open for Kareem Abdul-Jabaar at WSU’s annual MLK Day Tribute Luncheon at Orchestra Hall on Tuesday, January 18, 2011.

Citywide Agents

Thanks to a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, InsideOut founded the “Citywide Agents,” a group of CWP alumni dedicated to bringing poetry workshops and performances to a variety of communities. The Agents have led poetry workshops for teens in the River Rouge School District and the Ruth Ellis Center.

School Residency

Our core program places professional writers in schools to conduct creative writing workshops that engage students’ imaginations and introduce them to the pleasure and power of writing.

The residencies consist of 25 weekly sessions, allowing writers to become an integral part of students’ experiences. These year-long in-school residencies bring students together with practicing writers who serve as models of the creative life and help students to take themselves seriously as writers.

Publications celebrate and display students’ work in eye-catching, attractive magazines. They bring students’ work to the community at large, creating a sense of pride and interest in written expression of the highest quality. Graphic artists, designers, and other professionals have provided their professional services for the past several years at minimal or no cost.

InsideOut students have won writing awards in most major high school literary competitions including Michigan Youth Arts Festival; National Council of Teachers of English; Broadside Press; Albion College Poetry Contest; Lawrence Tech Writing Contest; NAACP Essay Contest; Detroit Auto Dealers Short Story Contest; Writers Voice, and more. In April 2001, members of Citywide Poets, InsideOut’s after-school poetry performance workshop, placed fourth out of 25 cities in the National Youth Poetry Slam.

InsideOut has residencies in the following schools for the 2010/2011 school year:

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

• Bagley Elementary School
• Clippert Academy
• Cody – APL
• Cody – ACT
• Detroit City High School
• Detroit International Academy for Young Women
• Douglass Academy for Young Men
• Gardner Elementary School
• Golightly Education Center
• Mann Elementary School
• Mark Twain Elementary School
• Noble Elementary School
• Southeastern High School
• Pershing High School
• Communication and Media Arts High School
• Stewart Elementary
• Marquette Elementary
• Western High School

OUT OF DISTRICT

• Henry Ford Academy
• University Prep.
• South Lake