Meta-Four Houston
Who: A nonprofit organization that encourages self-expression and literacy among Houston’s youth through creative writing and performance. Meta-Four Houston grew out of the Young Houston Writers 2007 -2008 collaboration between the Houston Chronicle daily newspaper and three local arts non-profits – DiverseWorks, Voices Breaking Boundaries and Writers in the Schools – that formed to identify and support the nascent youth spoken-word community in our city.
In 2008, the project changed its name to Meta-Four Houston and established a fiscal agency relationship with DiverseWorks, which agreed to develop the program into an independent nonprofit organization. In 2009, Meta-Four Houston established partnerships with the University of Houston’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and the Houston Public Library System to conduct performance poetry workshops at the Library’s downtown central and neighborhood locations. In 2010, Meta-Four Houston co-hosted the Life Is Living: Houston eco sustainability and environmental justice festival at Emancipation Park, featuring a free concert by internationally-renowned Hip Hop artist Talib Kweli.
What: An after-school and weekend program using reading, writing, poetry and performance techniques to increase literacy, inculcate critical thinking, integrate technology, intersect cultures and inspire leadership.
How: Provide a safe, encouraging, after-school and weekend environment where teens of diverse backgrounds and economic circumstances explore and express their truths through workshops and a teen advisory council. Encourage and improve inter-generational communications within families through literary arts and performance. Supply public platforms for these developing leaders to speak truth to power through poetry slam competitions, school assemblies and digital and print media.
When: Year-round weekly workshops and monthly open-mic events with the most intense work coming in the spring and summer as youth poets and their adult coaches and mentors prepare to participate in the annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. The 2008 festival in Washington D.C. was filmed by HBO and aired as a seven-part documentary series in 2009. A follow-up documentary movie filmed at the 2010 festival in Los Angeles also aired on HBO and was nominated for a 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Program. Meta-Four has provided all-expenses-paid trips for youth to BNV 2008, 2009 (Chicago) and 2010. It will field a team at BNV 2011 in San Francisco.
Where: Programming started in Houston Independent School District high schools, beginning with Lee High School where nearly 80 percent of the students qualify for free/reduced lunches and the ethnic breakdown of students is 77 percent of the students are Hispanic, 13 percent African American, 6 percent Asian and 3 percent White. In its second year of operation, the organization expanded to the Houston Public Library’s Central location and Westbury High School. Westbury’s demographic mix is 49 percent African American, 43 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian and 4 percent White with 66 percent of the student body qualifying for free/reduced lunches. The project has expanded to additional library locations, independent schools and other school districts in the Houston area.
Why: The ability to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it is the hallmark of a true leader in all vocations and avocations. Through Meta-Four Houston, our city’s next generation of leaders discovers what matters most to them and how to express that purpose using the most powerful tools available – their own words and voices.
Contact: Shannon Buggs, Meta-Four Houston founder and project coordinator at metafourhouston@gmail.com or 713-503-7313.