Venice-based Literary Arts Center to Provide $10,000 in Contest and Scholarship Money to Youth Poets

FROM: Send2Press Newswire

VENICE, Calif., Sept. 14, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Beyond Baroque, one of the nation’s leading independent Literary Arts Centers, has announced the Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Fund. The fund, named in honor of Beyond Baroque alumna and U.S. Presidential Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, will provide $10,000 to young poets of color.

“It’s been wonderful witnessing Amanda’s growth from her start in our Student Poets’ Program to the Inaugural Poet we see today, and we hope to continue uplifting fellow promising youth poets of color through this fund,” said the nonprofit’s executive director, Quentin Ring.

“We’re looking forward to ushering in new word warriors who can speak for not only themselves but also their respective communities and maybe one day, like Ms. Gorman, the world,” added Shonda Buchanan, Vice President of Beyond Baroque’s Board of Trustees.

The Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Fund includes a poetry contest and a scholarship for college-bound student poets of color. A total of $10,000 will be awarded for the 2021-2022 school year. The fund continues Beyond Baroque’s long history of nurturing some of Los Angeles’ most prominent poets, including Wanda Coleman, Amy Gerstler, and Amanda Gorman herself. As a teenager, Gorman began her development as a poet in the Beyond Baroque Student Poets’ Program, established by former Executive Director Richard Modiano. After completing the program, she was appointed the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, and then of the United States in 2017, by Beyond Baroque partner Urban Word. She later named Beyond Baroque as the place “where a young poet found the love of her life.” Read Rest of Article Here