ABOUT
Poetic Unity is a Brixton based charity that provides support and services for children and young people aged 10-30 years old across the UK. Our vision is to help young people find their voice, feel valued in society and to empower them to reach their highest potential. We use poetry as a tool to support young people's mental health, education, personal development, physical health, and community cohesion. Founded in 2015, we deliver hundreds of programmes and events every year for the community with 1,421 services provided to 40,000+ young people to date. We provide regular programmes focused on using poetry as a therapeutic tool for young people’s mental health. We have found that poetry is an effective outlet to help young people speak about their emotions in a safe environment. Although we support young people from all backgrounds, we particularly support young people from Black and Black Mixed backgrounds who are marginalised. Our team is Black led with lived experience of the young people we support and have over 10 years’ experience of working with young offenders, marginalised young people, and children at risk. Creativity is an important tool to assist the next generation and we will continue to equip young people from Brixton to the world.
Collaborations
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH POEMS
As part of the UK release of critically acclaimed movie Judas and the Black Messiah, Poetic Unity collaborated with Warner Bros, BFI and We Are Parable to create five poems in response to the Black Panthers 10 point programme. Watch in full below:
CLEANER AIR FOR LAMBETH AND SOUTHWARK
As part of a campaign to raise awareness of air pollution in Lambeth and Southwark, Poetic Unity collaborated with Purpose Foundation to create three poems allowing young people to voice their concerns and ideas for cleaner air to be a reality in the future. This led on to an event and open letter to local councils. Watch one of the poems created for this campaign below:
SPOKEN WORD THEATRE MONOLOGUES
As part of the Poetic Relief Project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, Poetic Unity collaborated with Theatre Peckham to create spoken word monologues with 10 young poets. These poets are part of Poetic Unity's Spoken Word Theatre Company and these poems were screened at a red carpet event to an audience of 100+ people. Watch in full below:
GIVING POWER TO YOUNG PEOPLE
Poetic Unity collaborated with Young Minds to create a workshop for a group of young people to ask what power means to them and how they would use power to improve the world. This is an ongoing project which will lead into a campaign of the young peoples choice centered around an issue they think is fundamental to challenge in society.
