Writers & Books and Rochester Spoken Word are again co-sponsoring an event on Thursday June 7,
2018 titled, Listening to the Future: An Evening of Prose and Poetry from Area High School Students.
This is a spoken word event for high-school-age writers who would like the opportunity to read their
work aloud to an audience. The goal is to get young writers to feel comfortable sharing their work live
and to further encourage them to continue writing. Last year’s event was such a success, we’ve
decided to repeat it annually.
The event will take place in the Performance Space at Writers & Books and will be free to the public.
We will have 12 readers, and each reader will have up to 8 minutes to read a single completed or
partial piece of their own writing. At the conclusion of the readings, the readers will be brought
together on stage for a short Q&A session.
We are looking for teachers and mentors to identify students who they feel would be a good fit for this
event. If a student would like to participate, the teacher/mentor can nominate the student by
submitting the form located at www.rocspoke.org/lttf-reader-form. Our goal is to select students
from a variety of schools throughout the county. Deadline for submissions is end-of-day on May
18, 2018. All persons submitting nominations will be notified via email of the selected students on May
22, 2018.
Selected students will need to provide additional information, such as: title of piece, length in minutes,
type (poetry/prose), and tone (humorous, sad, introspective, etc.), as well a s a short bio. Specific
information will be requested upon selection of students.
Additionally, we’re holding a design contest for this year’s T-shirt logo. The winner will receive a T-
shirt with their logo, a $25 Amazon gift certificate, and a one-year student membership to RoCo
(Rochester Contemporary Art Center). For contest rules and to submit an entry, please visit
www.rocspoke.org/lttf-logo-form.
Your school/organization’s participation in this event is greatly appreciated. We ask that you please
pass this request along to any staff members who are best positioned to nominate a student, as well
as Art Department faculty and any students who may be interested in participating in the logo contest.
For further information, please contact:
Scott Seifritz, Founder, Rochester Spoken Word, 585-820-7017, scott@rocspoke.org
Sally Bittner Bonn, Director of Youth Education, Writers & Books, 585-473-2590 x109,
sallyb@wab.org
To Nominate a Student, visit: www.rocspoke.org/lttf-reader-form.
For Logo Contest Information, visit: www.rocspoke.org/lttf-logo-form.