Film

On March 23, the nonprofit “Get Lit” screened thirty minutes of the documentary, “Our Words Collide.” The film showcased five poets from the Get Lit program. After, a mental health panel featured director Jordan Barrow, and two youth poets, Sam Luo, and Amari Turner.  Author and mental health activist Héctor Tobar led the discussion. The event showed the organization’s positive impacts on literacy and young people.

Author and educator Diane Luby Lane founded the Get Lit in 2006. The nonprofit increases literacy and empowered young people through poetry, visual media, and spoken word. They designed a curriculum for in-school and after school programs, which cumulated in three-day Classic Slam poetry competitions. Get Lit Players, the organization’s award-winning youth poetry troupe, collaborated with the White House, United Nations and musician John Legend. The organization inspires students to read and write.

To learn more about these initiatives, read the interview transcript with Diane Luby Lane below.

The Knockturnal: What was the vision behind the Get Lit non-profit?

Diane Luby Lane: I started Get Lit in 2006 because I wanted to bring poetry to kids in schools. 

When I lived in New York City I met an actress named Viveca Lindfors who turned my theater company into a place for poetry. She had us memorize an hour’s worth of material (I knew nothing about poetry, so I had to quickly self-educate myself) – that we would then perform guerrilla-poetry style in the street, in bars, the steps of museums. The only requirement was that they had to be dramatic poems that were easy to understand. For me, this became life-changing. 

Four years later I lived in San Francisco and met a man named James Kass, who is now the founder of Youth Speaks. He was just starting this organization (Youth Speaks) which focused on young people performing their own poems – “spoken word” – and watching them blew my mind. Within a few months, I was volunteering as the head of their drama department, and I loved it. 

I had written a book of original monologues for women that was published by Samuel French, so I already loved writing and short-form storytelling. But I wasn’t familiar with “spoken word” until I started working with Youth Speaks. 

Eventually, I pulled all of it together and started Get Lit. 

In 2001 I moved to Los Angeles and I introduced the Get Lit curriculum to students in schools, not knowing if they would like it, but the positive response was overwhelming, and I have never looked back.  

The Knockturnal: Can you tell us about the event that happened on Tuesday and why Get Lit put it together?

Diane Luby Lane: Mental health has always been an area that has been important to me.   The Get Lit curriculum allows students to learn ways to express what they are feeling, or going through, but more importantly, know they are not alone, and feel supported.  

Earlier this year, we received a significant grant from CALmhsa to help bring attention to and continue awareness around mental health. This allowed us to give our young poets another opportunity to be heard, and to continue the very important discussion of mental health.  So we partnered with Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) and created a symposium to talk about mental health.  The event included a discussion with “Our Words Collide” director Jordan Barrow, two youth poets, Sam Luo and Amari Turner, and was led by author and mental health activist, Héctor Tobar.  The evening included a 30-minute look at the film “Our Words Collide” and concluded with live performances from three of Get Lit’s youth poets Lila Abercrombie, Jessica Thompson, and Ashley Tahay.

We are incredibly grateful to CALmhsa for letting us get the message of spoken word and mental health out into the world.

The Knockturnal: Why do you think it is important to continue discussing Mental Health?

Diane Luby Lane: This work for young people is absolutely critical. Below are some alarming statistics illuminating this point. In his new book, Together, Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek H. Murthy, MD states that we need community if we are to survive it. 

“In The Atlantic’s “What Happened to American Childhood,” Kate Julian says “from 2007 to 2017, suicides among 10-to-24-year-olds rose 56 percent … “Suicides between ages 5 to 11 have almost doubled.” Writer Daniel Thompson in “Why American Teens Are So Sad” writes, “Almost every measure of mental health is getting worse… Since 2009, teen sadness and hopelessness have increased for every race; for straight and gay teens; for students in each year of high school; and in all 50 states.”

Young people are really struggling with mental health right now and creating outlets for feelings, and community through art is an essential healing tool. It absolutely saves lives. And even better – it makes lives! Through this deep work, people are forever changed, becoming not only survivors but thrivers.

The Knockturnal: Can you discuss the youth poets’ live performances?  Who were they? How were they selected?  

Diane Luby Lane: All of the performing poets distinguished themselves at the Classic Slam through their all-star performance poems. They are master storytellers and heartfelt human beings. 

The Knockturnal: What were the poems about? 

Diane Luby Lane: Poems at the Classic Slam ranged from issues of identity, family, race, personal power and agency, body issues, love… They run the whole gamut of human issues and feelings.  

The Knockturnal: Anything more you would like to add?

Diane Luby Lane: Youth experts from the Search Institute, in their report “Relationships First: Creating Connections That Help Young People Thrive” write: “After decades of forming hypotheses, conducting surveys, crafting and rewriting definitions, analyzing data, and writing journal articles, Search Institute researchers and practitioners have arrived at a surprisingly simple conclusion: nothing—nothing—has more impact in the life of a child than positive relationships.” 

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says, “Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis. We are called to build a movement to mend the social fabric of our nation. It will take all of us -”  

Schools don’t do enough to cultivate in children the skills that are at the heart of the caring friendships that prevent and mitigate loneliness, including the capacity to ask questions and listen, to check for understanding when listening or communicating, to identify feelings in oneself and others, and to respond sensitively to difficult feelings in others. Nonprofits and educational providers like Get Lit can step in here to help! We must recognize caring for others as one of the most important features of being alive. It will benefit our children, ourselves, and our world.

The Knockturnal: Please tell us about the film “Our Words Collide.”

Diane Luby Lane: From Directors Jordan W. Barrow and Matt Edwards, and Executive Producer Rosario Dawson, “Our Words Collide” is a feature documentary following the lives of five teenage spoken word poets in Los Angeles. A coming-of-age story, the film documents the poets as they navigate their final year of high school, exploring many of the challenges facing young people today – including identity and expression, transitioning into adulthood, and overcoming mental health issues. 

The film highlights the poets of the Get Lit program – a non-profit organization in Los Angeles educating and empowering young people through poetry. 

The film seamlessly blends authentic verité scenes and intimate footage, self-shot by the poets. Complimented by stylized poetry performances and animation, the film creates a rich tapestry of mixed mediums that bring the poet’s stories to life. 

Commencing production in September 2019 and concluding in April 2021, the film also captures an intimate glimpse into the lives of young people during the global pandemic. For many of these high schoolers, their senior year was very different than the one they’d always imagined.

While the film is an exploration of how poetry has impacted the lives of these young people, it’s ultimately a coming-of-age story. It’s a film about young people finding their voices and having the courage to share their message – one that feels very relevant, and relatable, in today’s world.

The Knockturnal: How did the documentary “Our Words Collide” come to Get Lit and can you give us some information on the film?

Diane Luby Lane: One of the film’s Directors, Jordan Barrow, worked with me on another project he was doing for March For Our Lives.  He fell in love with the poets at Get Lit and their profound ability to convey stories through poetry. He wanted to dive deeper and so reached out to follow 5 poets for one year. We didn’t know that Covid 19 was about to happen – and so this movie became about the lifeline of writing poems to help process overwhelming feelings of despair. Over the course of one year, we follow how this art form impacted five diverse youths and how each used poetry to uplift themselves and the entire world around them.  

The Knockturnal: How did Get Lit select the documentary’s featured poets? 

Diane Luby Lane: Jordan and Matt Edwards (the film’s other Director) met with many youths participating through Get Lit and selected the poets themselves for this process. 

The Knockturnal: What do you hope viewers will get from the documentary?

Diane Luby Lane: I hope that they learn about Get Lit and the power of this art form to absolutely save lives! And how fun it is too! The global community of spoken word poets is the most loving and rich and deep and fun in the world! 

The Knockturnal: In the documentary, what were the topics of the poems?

Diane Luby Lane: They range so many emotions – homelessness, childhood abuse, body issues, sexuality, excellence and achievement, Covid panic, isolation,  poverty, anxiety, creativity… 

The Knockturnal: Does Get Lit have any upcoming events or initiatives that you would like to talk about?

Diane Luby Lane: Get Lit offers Curriculum and Community. 

Get Lit curricula has been approved by the University of California to satisfy “A-G” standards for English, Fine Arts, General Electives, and Ethnic Studies and includes wrap-around services like the entrance to the Classic Slam, in-school assemblies, mentor visits, Professional Development for teachers, and access to our online anthology and Uni(verse) which is our hybrid learning system. Our goal is to bring spoken word poetry to any school that’s interested from anywhere in the world so that youth can share their stories, create community at school, and connect more deeply with others. This work is grassroots and global, and it’s needed now more than ever before.