First, we offered workshops in all five boroughs.

Students registered for free workshops to explore connections between climate change, social justice, and the arts, taught by experts in climate issues and expert poets and performers.

Second, students were coached before an audition and rehearsals.

Select students received multiple opportunities for in-depth performance coaching and mentoring by expert poets and performers.

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

They participated in a live rehearsal followed by additional coaching, prior to auditioning before a panel of judges on May 13 and May 15, 2019.

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

Photo: Sari Goodfriend

Semi-finalists and finalists received intensive additional coaching and rehearsal before both the audition and the performance.

Finally, fourteen finalists performed their original work on the stage of the Apollo Theatre.

Click each photo to meet and read the poems of each of the fourteen finalists who took the stage.