History
Get Lit – Words Ignite was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles by Diane Luby Lane to increase literacy, empower youth, and energize communities through poetry. The inspiration for Get Lit began with a solo show that Ms. Lane toured with internationally celebrated poet and advocate Jimmy Santiago Baca in venues ranging from high schools and universities to prisons. Teachers and teens responded with enthusiastic requests for poetry in their classrooms. Lane then developed a curriculum through which she saw the most reluctant youth, some on the brink of dropping out, transform into poets, leaders, and scholars. To sustain this transformative work, Lane founded Get Lit first as a project of Community Partners, then in 2009 the organization incorporated as a 501(c)(3). Through her vision, Get Lit has become a respected and innovative leader in arts and education with a reputation for integrity in program implementation and effectiveness. In 2023 the Library of Congress recognized Get Lit as a Literacy Best Practice Honoree, one of only 15 in the world. In addition, in 2023, they were named “Outstanding Nonprofit Organization” by the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Greater Los Angeles Chapter. In 2024 Get Lit was one of 300 organizations that received $1M+ gift from Mackenzie Scott's Yield Foundation.Activities
Every year since 2012, Get Lit has hosted a 3-day Classic Slam poetry competition for students to compete by performing classic poems alongside their own spoken word responses. In 2020 and 2021 the Classic Slam was online. In 2020, 240 students competed and it was watched by 34,630 people via livestream. The event was covered by KCRW's radio program, "Greater L.A."and LAUSD's Teachers Gone Virtual podcast. In 2016 Diane Luby Lane and 19 Get Lit Poets created the book Get Lit Rising, published by Beyond Words & Simon and Schuster, that won the Nautilus Award for books that uplift the world. In 2018, the Get Lit Players were designated Peace Day Ambassadors by the United Nations and performed their poetry for world leaders at the U.N. 73rd General Assembly as part of the global movement "United Voices for Peace." The poetry and art magazine" they created for this event was distributed to 15,000 youth throughout the U.S. through a partnership with TOMS Shoes. In March 2018, Get Lit poets' pre-recorded videos were broadcast nationally for the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., opening for presenters including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emma Gonzales. Get Lit's youth poets have performed at premier venues such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, and The White House. Second only to Amanda Gorman, Get Lit youth are the most watched poets on the internet with over 350 million views combined. 27 Get Lit Poets wrote and starred in the feature film Summertime, directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, which premiered at Sundance in 2020. It was released to theaters across the United States, summer 2021. Through a partnership with the California State Library, in 2020-21 Get Lit published 120 books by youth poets with The Los Angeles Press, Alegria Magazine (Latinx writers), and Stone Soup Community Press. In 2020 and 2021 in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and We Rise LA, Get Lit launched Why I Rise, an onlinepoetry contest to share stories, cultivate community, and destigmatize mental health. In 2020, 253 videos were submitted. There were 105,000 views and 33,000 votes cast. Participants came from across the United States as well as Kenya,Tanzania, Nigeria, Canada, Pakistan, India, Philippines, the UK, Qatar, India, Botswana, Malaysia, Belgium, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait, and more. 1n 2021 Get Lit created video campaigns promoting voting and knowledge of civics for the social justice organization Sankofa, founded by Gina Belafonte. In 2022, the documentary film "Our Words Collide" featuring five poets from the Get Lit program premiered at theSee also
* Arts in education * Poetry slam * Spoken wordReferences
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