Arts & Entertainment

Urban Word Puts NY Teens on a Healing Stage

By Tanisha Priya Ahmed
Spectrum staff

Urban Word NYC offers more than just a safe space for teens, it also hosts open mics.

A diversity of teen performers at those open mics hold forth about their sexual experiences, sexual harassment and racism, among other topics.

Jeffrey LeGrande, a Harlem 18-year-old and St. John’s University student, hosts the weekly open mic night at Urban Word NYC. Of all the poets LeGrande has heard, a young boy left the biggest impression on him.

“The boy is seven years old,” LeGrande said. But his poem explored “how it is to be black. It affected me … He was so young and talking about something powerful.”

Rarely does someone so young hit the stage at Urban Word NYC, which mainly is reserved for 13- to 18-year-olds.

Partly as result of his work with Urban Word NYC, LeGrande won a $40,000 scholarship to St. John’s.