Duck into the Lower East Side’s Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe on any given night and you’ll find the tiny space filled to the brim with folks enjoying slam poetry, comedy, live hip-hop or Latin jazz. This summer, if you happen to show up on the last Saturday of the month you’ll find something pretty amazing: some of NYC’s most talented teens—poets, freestylers, and other performers—speaking their minds on the Nuyorican’s legendary stage. This is the Knicks Poetry Slam, put on by the Knicks and Liberty as well as Urban Word NYC, a nonprofit that believes that teenagers “can and must speak for themselves,” and empowers them to do just that through “safe and uncensored” workshops and performance opportunities.

Beyond their inspiring mission and wealth of programming, Urban Word is impressive in the way they’ve partnered with other organizations, performance venues, companies and schools to provide incredible opportunities to the youth they serve. In addition to their relationship with the Knicks, they recently partnered with the Hip-Hop Association to preset the Hip-Hop Education Summit and work closely with CUNY’s College Now Program. Through this spirit of collaboration Urban Word has created a network which is at the forefront of the youth spoken word community.

For a taste of what Urban Word is doing in the community check out this video advertising the Teen Poetry Slam from earlier this year…