Founded in 1999, Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club has grown into the largest after school program of its kind, perhaps in the world.
About Us
Our two main mottos are, “Poetically sharing stories since 1999” and “Respect the mic!” The former speaks of one of our main missions: to celebrate student voices and stories. The latter speaks to our ethos of making the sharing of those stories sacred. Bob McBride, Steve Gevinson and Sue Bridge gave us the latitude and support to develop such a strong school-based program. Emily Hooper Lansana and avery r. young were the first to help shape our collaborative performance approach. Then, thanks to the inspiration and tutelage of Malika’s Kitchen (UK) founders Malika Booker and Roger Robinson (and later Jacob Sam-La Rose and Nick Makoha), we honed in on developing writing craft and a strong sense of community. From the beginning, we’ve wanted to be a place of belonging and a safe refuge for students, particularly BIPOC students.
Our club typically meets Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for two hours per meeting culminating in three showcases per school year for sold out crowds of over 350 people. Over the years, we’ve averaged about sixty students per showcase. In the lead up, we teach writing craft, create writing prompts, do team-building activities, pick groups with captains, edit/revise, work on performance techniques and have fun. With Patricia Smith as a model, we’ve always focused on “page before stage.” In addition to promoting student voice and self-expression, we develop leadership skills. Several alumni have gone on to create and/or lead spoken word programming at their respective universities.
We are perhaps the largest school-based program in the world. As you’ll see from our accomplishments page, we’ve had remarkable success over the years. That success comes as a result of the support of our school leadership, board of education, colleagues and guest writers since 1999. Those writers include Patricia Smith, Tyehimba Jess, Adrian Matejka, avery r. young, Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, Tim Seibles, Terrance Hayes, Kwame Dawes, Kyle Dargan, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, Raymond Antrobus, Rachel Long, Caleb Femi, Aisling Fahey, Respect the Mic co-editors Franny Choi and Hanif Abdurraqib and, for a dozen visits, A Van Jordan. We’ve been able to serve well over a thousand students and I’ve been helped along the way by dozens of teachers and alumni, with special shout outs to the late Rich Zabransky, Jim Hunter, Dan “Sully” Sullivan, Christina Santana, Langston Kerman, Milton McKinney, Sierra Kidd, David Gilmer, Adam Levin, Christian Robinson, Gianna Baker, Isaiah Mākar, Asia Calcagno, Grace Fondow, Noelle Berry, Vann Harris and Patrick Chrisp.
We hope that you take inspiration from the powerful words found on this website and in Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School.
- Peter Kahn, Spoken Word Club Founder
“Shumpert’s game benefited from his work on another stage. He was active in his high school’s Spoken Word poetry club…. Shumpert… said those performances taught him things he uses on the court. ‘You learn to work with people, learn that different people have different strengths,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to find everybody’s strengths and bring them out.”
What We've Achieved
Two National Student Poets (Natalie Richardson and RC Davis) and one National Youth Poet Laureate (Kara Jackson)
Winner (Hannah Srajer) and several runners-up/honorable mentions for Princeton University’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize
Several prize-winners for the Academy of American Poets’ University and College Poetry Prizes
The eight youngest winners of the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Prize
Multiple recipeints of the 4-year full-tuition First Wave scholarship (for Hip-Hop and poetry) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison
Gold medalists, gold key recipients and national award winners in the Scholastic Awards in Art & Writing
Eight alumni in Respect the Mic who have gone on to earn an MFA
Multiple winners of the Sarah Mook 9th through 12th grade poetry contest
Our program has been featured in the award-winning documentary, Louder Than a Bomb, and the Steve James docu-series, America to Me
Three winners of Louder Than a Bomb’s prize for best written poem, and my more!