WORD UP! OPEN CALL
Are you a high school poet in the Birmingham area looking to express yourself creatively? Word Up! is a poetry competition held annually at Birmingham Public Library that gives students the chance to share their poetry and compete for over $5,000 in cash prizes, either individually or as a school team.
This year, the Flourish will be accepting students and schools from across the greater Birmingham area. Students/schools must apply by November 10th, and we’ll announce the selected poets on November 17th. Additionally, we’ll be offering workshops for students three times a week at the BPL Central Branch downtown, as well as online. Find more details below.
Years ago, our friends at Birmingham Public Library in partnership with Real Life Poets joined a national poetry initiative called Word Up! to encourage young people to find their own voice . The program ran for several years and introduced countless area students to the power their words can have on the community.
In 2020, The Flourish Alabama worked to bring the magic of Word Up back to Birmingham with the help of the Birmingham Public Library and support from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. We brought personalized Word Up! programming to students at four Birmingham City School high schools, teaching students the fundamentals of spoken word poetry. Students learned teamwork, semantics, history, public speaking skills, and so much more.
In 2021, we expanded the Word Up! program to all 7 BCS High Schools, with 5 competing in our annual Word Up! Festival in January 2022.
Help us bring Word Up! back in 2022. Donate below.