Journal 2 Journey

Developed in partnership with Urban Word, Journal 2 Journey (J2J) is a pre-professional, creative youth development program designed to expose youth to the world of devised theater with a focus on Youth Leadership Development, Tiered Mentorship, Artistic Rigor and Social Justice. J2J is designed to inspire young artists to imagine the possibilities of writing that expand beyond traditional forms, styles, and genres while providing a platform that celebrates young voices. Previous participants have gone on to pursue successful careers as stage actors, playwrights, and designers.

Through an application process, six youth participants, ages 16 to 21, are selected to participate in a paid 12-week intensive, where they will work collaboratively with professional theater artists to refine their wiring skills and devise a professional one-act theatrical production. J2J youth participants explore themes of the American experience and identity. Upon completion of the program, our artists will receive a stipend and will conclude the program with a live public performance.

J2J aims to provide a platform to:

Develop theater artists who are birthed from an Urban Arts and Spoken Word tradition
Foster tiered mentorship through past participating youth assuming various roles on staff to continue their career growth
Collaboration amongst leading organizations who invest in the future of the field by sharing resources and cultivating diverse leaders

2024

En Route

December 18-19, 7pm
Hi-ARTS Studio

Youth Participants

Fathmah Ahmad is a Pakistani poet, podcaster, filmmaker and henna artist who is based in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. She graduated from John Dewey High School in which she was the founder and president of Muslim Student’s Association and Mindfulness Club, along with playing lacrosse and basketball for the school's teams. Fathmah is known for her screenwriting work, participation in multiple theater productions and involvement as a leader in organizations such as the Possibility Project, a theater production centering youth social issues.

Jada Grey

Delaney Jocelyn is a 19-year-old poet who attends New York University. Throughout her journey as a poet, poetry has served as a coping mechanism and a way for her to connect with others and God. She seeks to demonstrate these healing abilities of creativity through her poetry by developing her own major in Educational Poetic Therapy.

Rix Zioueche (any except she/her) is a 17-year-old trans, queer, and neurodivergent theater artist and playwright. As current Drama Senior at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, he has dedicated his time and passion towards the theater arts by participating in various productions as a performer, dramaturg, and stagehand, as well as writing and developing dramatic works. Some known credits are Frank Sinatra's productions of Clue: On Stage (2024), Titanic: The Musical (2024), Carrie: The Musical (2023), and the Schubert Festival (2023, 2024). They are deeply passionate about theater making as a tool for social change, and believe in the importance of storytelling, especially with the increasing prevalence of censorship in current times. Zir fascinated by the history of prejudice, its continuities through time, and how it can be used to better understand current issues. His life goal is to create theater that uplifts marginalized voices and serves a key role in radical social/political progress.

Mya Metivier

Myleah Solis

Artist Facilitators

Ungrateful Black Artist (UGBA - 'oog ba') (pronoun inclusive) is a queer poet, rapper, playwright, actor, and activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. His essays and poetry can be found in The Rumpus, The Root, Afropunk, Black Youth Project, The Grio, THEM and elsewhere. UGBA is the founder/host of CEREMONIES—a Brooklyn based monthly Black-Queer artist showcase held in honor of Essex Hemphill. UGBA is also the founder of "Dark-Skin Support Group" a virtual support network for dark-skin Black Americans in need of a space to discuss the realities of colorism. In the summer of 2018, UGBA debuted his one-man show NEPTUNE as the headliner for Dixon Place's annual “Hot Festival.” Following rave reviews and sold-out performances, NEPTUNE was then restaged as the 2019 kick-off event for Brooklyn Museum’s acclaimed “1st Saturday'' series. In 2020, UGBA was named a “Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know '' by Time Out NY. He was the script assistant to the Pulitzer Prize winning, 5 time Tony nominated Broadway show "Fat Ham." He is an alumnus of the Public Theater’s #BARS program. He is a former member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group 2020-2023 cohort. A 2023 Broadway Advocacy Coalition "Activism" Fellow. He is a 2022 MAP Grant recipient, a 2020-2021 BAM Resident, former Senior Editor at RaceBaitr.com, former Artistic Director at NY Writers Coalition, and current member of the 2024 Nuyorican Poetry Slam Team.

Gabriel Ramirez, author of the chapbook IF PIT BULLS HAD A GOD, IT’D BE A PIT BULL (The Head & The Hand Press) and the children’s book “We’re Community” is a Queer Afro-Caribbean writer, performer and educator. A 2023 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit Journal and the 2024-2025 CantoMundo Poetry Coalition Fellow. Gabriel has received fellowships from the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, The Conversation Literary Arts Festival, CantoMundo, Miami Book Fair, a graduate fellow at The Watering Hole, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. Gabriel has performed on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre, United Nations, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theatre, The National Museum of Romanian Literature, and other venues & universities around the nation. Gabriel was featured in Huffington Post, VIBE Magazine, Blavity, Upworthy, The Flama, and Remezcla. You can find their work in various spaces, including YouTube, and in publications like Poetry Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Adroit Journal, Split This Rock’s The Quarry, BOMB, and others as well as Bettering American Poetry Anthology (Bettering Books 2017) What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press 2019), The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Press 2020), and Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (Library of America 2024). Learn more about Gabriel Ramirez @RamirezPoet and RamirezPoet.com.

Maya Moon is a Brooklyn raised and based spoken word poet and entrepreneur. Often accompanying jazz musicians during her years at Bard College Maya's work is distinctly lyrical and soulful. With both an upbringing in the theater and the slam poetry scene (thanks to Urban Word NYC!), Maya is a lover of all performance art and the ways it deeply connects our different human experiences.

Katherine George is an Afro-Latina multi-hyphenate artist and educator from the Bronx, NY by way of the Dominican Republic. Recent acting credits include: the West Coast premiere of Bees & Honey (Marin Theater Company), Clyde's (Denver Center for Performing Arts), Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Lenfest Center for the Arts), The Cooking Project (NYTW), Locked Up B*tches (Flea Theater), and The Unusual Tale of Mary and Joseph’s Baby (NYC Fringe Festival). She co-stars in the film Crabs in Barrel which was the winner of HBO’s 2021 Latinx Short Film competition. She is an Urban Word and J2J Alum, who represented New York in national and international slam competitions on the youth, collegiate, and professional adult levels. She was a proud member of the first all-female slam team representing the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. As a vocalist, she has traveled around the country and most recently served as a background vocalist for Jennifer Lopez at her NBC Fourth of July performance and Live Spotify Studio Session. She is a proud member of the Dominican Artist Collective. MFA: Columbia University.

Kristina Gramlich, Stage Manager

2023 Highlights

2023 Participants

Lucki Islam
Stephanie Pacheco
Fathmah
Nickolas Vaccaro

2023 Facilitators

Karl Michael Iglesias
Osh Ashruf

Rebel Verses Performances Image Credit by Javaugh Collins

Partnership

Urban Word, Founding Program Partner

Urban Word champions youth voice through the transformative power of the written and spoken word, providing platforms for literacy, self-expression, social impact, and leadership through free creative writing, college prep workshops, and performance opportunities. Urban Word provides young, creative voices, often those who are marginalized, the tools, training, and platforms to rewrite the narratives that shape their lives and their communities.

As one of the oldest and most comprehensive youth literary arts organizations in the United States, Urban Word is the founder of the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, a renowned program that celebrates youth for their excellence as writers and their civic engagement. This year is a continuation of the Fall 2022 theme of the NYC Youth Poet Laureate Federal Hall Fellowship as supported by the National Parks Conservancy.

urbanword.org

Urban Word is supported by the National Parks Conservancy in support of the Federal Hall Fellowship Program.