URBAN WORD NYC – Feat. Nate Marshall

Spoken Word is all about expression. Expression is an art that Nate Marshall has damn near mastered. Nate Marshall is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He  is the star of the award-winning full-length documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” and featured in HBO’s “Brave New Voices.” He attends my alma mater, Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN where he studies English and African-American Studies. Nate’s work is in a number of publications including, The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux, The Vanderbilt Review, and on Chicago Public Radio. He was a 2010 finalist for the Guild Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. He is also a rapper who has released two albums with the group Daily Lyrical Product and recently released his first solo EP, “The Langston Huge Project.” “Unconditional Like” is his second chapbook of poetry. Click here to check it out.

 

Urban Word NYC believes that self-expression is crucial for our teenagers. This grassroots non-profit has been at the forefront of the youth spoken word, poetry and hip-hop movements in New York City since 1999. Urban Word NYC focuses on creative writing, journalism, college prep, literature and hip-hop and provides safe and uncensored writing workshops to teens year round at no cost. Have you heard of the Annual NYC Teen Poetry Slam and the NY Knicks Poetry Slam? Yeah, well Urban Word NYC hosts those along with other local and national youth slams, festivals, reading series, open mics, and more. UW works directly with 15,000 teens per year in New York City alone. This group is doing great things. Check out their website by clicking here and please give to a good cause!

 

Last night’s event was an open mic hosted by Urban Word on a monthly basis in Brooklyn’s own Grand Army Plaza library. The connection between Nate Marshall and Urban Word?

 

 

 

 

Well, if you haven’t guessed already, Nate was last night’s featured artist. We welcomed Nate to our beautiful city of Brooklyn, NY and he shared his art with a room full of artists.

 

 

 

 

Props to Nate Marshall. He had a book in his hand, undoubtedly some of his published work, and he read from it very fluently and comfortably.

 

 

 

 

 

I was also able to catch Tanya Marie on stage; however, there was a lot more talent in the room last night. Shout out to Reynold Martin of Urban Word and Brittany aka Blue.