About Us

Youth Speaks Seattle is the area's premier non-profit organization for youth poetry and spoken word. We work to create avenues for youth voices by providing creative writing instruction and performance opportunities for young people in the greater Seattle area.

Since our inception, we have worked to develop excellent educational and community-building events, including writing and performance workshops, young writers' groups, a 5-year-running open microphones series, and other community performances for schools and organizations across the city.

We are a diverse, intergenerational, progressive and anti-racist organization committed to advancing the potential of poetry to positively impact young people's lives. Using a peer-to-peer educational model, we have taught poetry, creative writing, and performing arts classes to students at nearly every public high school in Seattle, as well as numerous colleges, including the University of Washington.

We currently facilitate workshops at local schools, youth treatment centers and shelters and are continuously working with teachers, administrators, parents, and other youth advocates to promote youth literacy and arts education using the written and spoken word.