RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts & Awareness

10/24/2017

Be a part of the "Wave"!

Free..You are welcome to stop by Woodside Church Thursday, October 26th at 6 pm. You may also register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/making-waves-the-healing-stories-of-flint-and-detroit-water-crisis-tickets-39196624158

07/22/2017

Flint's finest represented today at the 20th annual Brave New Voices.

07/11/2017

We are excited to share that RIU youth poet, Isan Francis was 1 of 25 teenagers selected from a nationwide pool as a Brave New Schools/ReThink High School Challenge Finalist. This puts Isan in the running to receive a $4000 scholarship and an opportunity to travel to LA for a live viewing and/or participation in the "XQ Super School Live" which airs on ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS in September!

07/08/2017

Today, RIU kicked off a year-long residency with Girls Court - a specialized prevention docket for teen girls who are on probation under the jurisdiction of the Genesee County Circuit Court and who - because of their circumstances - are considered vulnerable to sex-trafficking and predators.
The purpose of the residency is to use arts, dialogue, and women's bonding rituals, to promote girl solidarity and to empower and to provide all the girls with opportunities to hone their creative skills while learning how to disrupt systems of exclusion and oppression such as sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, classism, etc.

Today, we got off to a great start and can't wait to see what the year brings!

07/05/2017

Hey Family...it's that time of year again...time to send our immensely talented youth poetry team to San Francisco to represent Flint at the Brave New Voices Festival!

For seven years, we have sent Flint youth to not only compete at this event but to change the narrative about Flint on national stages in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and more.

What's more amazing is that we do this all through COMMUNITY support. It's not RAISE IT UP....but the people of our community who provide these kids with opportunities that have resulted in full-ride scholarships, features in Teen Vogue and PBS NewsHour and opportunities to share the stages with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Angela Davis, Janelle Monae, Jessie Williams and more. Harry Belafonte featured them at his first ever Many Rivers to Cross Music and Social Justice Festival last year.

The youth poets use their creative talents to promote social justice and to bring light to critical personal, social, and political issues impacting youth and their communities. This is extremely important work and the more we can support young people in engaging in the heavy work of social transformation, the more we plant the seeds for a more just and inclusive tomorrow.

Please consider making a donation today and please spread the word!

The RAISE IT UP! Youth Poetry Team is an immensely talented group of teens (ages 13-19) who use their poetry to explore and bring light to critical personal, social, and political issues impacting young people and their communities. This critically-acclaimed youth poetry team has beeb featured fe...

06/23/2017

Happening now: The 2017 Youth Poetry Team is performing in Pearce Hall at Coach Q's alma mater: Central Michigan University!

06/17/2017

Today at 1:30 p.m. the 2017 Raise It Up poetry team will perform at the Bethel United Methodist Church, 1309 N Ballenger HWY. Please come out and support these exceptional poets!

05/24/2017

RAISE IT UP!'s Razjea Bridges, Isan Francis, Danielle Horton, Kayla Shannon, and Alexis Harvey making magic in Teen Vogue!

05/21/2017

All they need is one mic.

2017 Youth Poetry Team poets Kayla Shannon and Lina Eltahir perform at the ABWA - Nu-Lite Chapter Honors Celebration, May 20, 2017.

05/19/2017

RAISE IT UP!, Paris Jackson, and Teen Vogue collaborated to remind people that the water crisis is still a critical issue and that justice for Flint still needs to happen. Check out the RIU Youth Poets "Pay for Your Poison" poem featuring Paris Jackson.

05/10/2017

Through a partnership launched by XQ, YouthSpeaks, and Brave New Voices, we're hosting ....a creative town hall where - through conversation, music and live performance - youth, artists, and educators talk about what high school is and re-imagine what it could be....

We'll also share details on how students between the ages of 13-24 can partner with RAISE IT UP to enter the Brave New Schools contest for a chance to win up to $4,000 in scholarships....JOIN US!

05/06/2017

RIU Poetry team members Lauryn and Jada (middle) perform a group piece with members of the Ann Arbor team at Louder Than A Bomb--Detroit.