NKU Video Team Produces Trailer For Documentary About Young Poets

A Charitable Words Scholars team of videographers from Northern Kentucky University has produced a superb trailer for an upcoming documentary about the “Louder Than A Bomb” youth poetry festival. The NKU College of Informatics student videographers have been immersed in the project since October, hearing the words and seeing the progress of the student poets as they prepare for final presentations April 18 at The Harriet Tubman Theatre in Cincinnati.

Click below to view the trailer:

The videographers will produce a documentary video for Wordplay, a Cincinnati nonprofit that provides free tutoring, literacy & creative writing programs for students K-12. WordPlay is working alongside The Taft Research Center at the University of Cincinnati and Elementz to manage 14 high school teams for the event. WordPlay’s six LTAB teams have met weekly for after-school practices since October.

LTAB is a youth poetry festival designed by the Young Chicago Authors in 2001 to be a platform that not only gives the youth a voice, but to give them a chance to share their stories. Since then, it has become the largest youth poetry festival in the world.

The competition will have two separate parts – an individual competition and a team competition. The teams will consist of four to eight students and two alternates.

LTAB was founded to be a public forum for disenfranchised teens to find the power of their own voice and form bridges across social divides, and Wordplay Executive Director Libby Hunter says that those goals are very closely aligned with that of Wordplay.

“I think LTAB Cincinnati has tremendous potential to bring out youth together at a time when they have experienced a great deal of trauma—gun violence, gang activity, rising childhood poverty rates, you name it,” Hunter said.

“Giving our teens common ground to learn about each other, embrace differences, dissipate stereotypes, and move forward into their lives as young adults with a stronger sense of acceptance and a more opened mind is one of the most important things we can possibly do.”

Hunter said that WordPlay is looking forward to making LTAB an ongoing experience in Cincinnati, and will continue to grow their after-school spoken word program and help build a sense of community among students who wouldn’t normally have the chance to interact.

The Northern Kentucky University College of Informatics team at Wordplay

NKU students Taylor Harris, Erin Mullins and Holland Rains are producing the documentary. NKU instructors Sara Drabik and Michele Day are the advisors engaged in the project.

Charitable Words is providing funding for the project as well as support from its network of volunteer advisors and connections to pro bono resources. Once the documentary is completed, it will be available to Wordplay for awareness and crowdfunding campaigns.

The project has received a $1,000 sponsorship from ArtsWave and is in need of more supporting producers. The credit roll at the end of the trailer video illustrates how sponsors and supporters will be recognized.

While major sponsorships are needed and deeply appreciated, a core value of Charitable Words is the power of collective impact and any level of support by friends means much. Charitable Words will match contributions up to $1,000 and all supporters will be appropriately recognized.

To join as a “producer of positive community impact, please click the link below or contact development director Tom Bishop at tom@npoforge.com

SPONSORSHIPS

Any support needed, deeply appreciated and will be appropriately recognized.

Small donations quickly add up for collective impact, supporting special assignments and learning and development opportunities. A fifty dollar freelance assignment at a nonprofit event has meaning to a student.

Thank you.

Charitable Words is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows your charitable donation to be tax-deductable.