Street Poets programming consists of transformational poetry/music workshops designed specifically for system-impacted youth. These include those in LA County’s juvenile detention facilities, community centers, and underserved public school, and at our Street Poets office and via our Poetry in Motion Van. Weekly workshops are supplemented by workforce development and leadership training, and mentoring, open-mic events, poetry performances and poetry reading series, as well as youth-driven books, CD and DVD projects that amplify/illustrate the kind of fearless creative work that inspires young people. Annually, we reach approximately 750 system-impacted youth, ages 11-18 directly through our long and short-term workshops, and over hundreds more via one-time Street Poets performances at schools and in the community.

After 30 years of facilitating healing, transformational poetry, writing, and music production workshops; hosting inspirational community open mic events; and providing mentoring support and leadership retreats for youth and young adults in Los Angeles, Street Poets has put down permanent roots in the city it has served so well. Street Poets’ future arts/cultural center sits directly across the street from John Adams Middle School just south of downtown Los Angeles.

Slated to open in the summer of 2026, the future Street Poets’ permanent home, Street Poets Center for Community, Culture and Wellness, begins an exciting new chapter in our evolution as a culture-shaping, system-changing community-based organization.

This new space will anchor our arts-based outreach and community-building work here in LA. It will serve as a welcoming collaborative hub and convening space for the many arts and youth-serving organizations with whom we work, and as a multi-generational destination for poets of all ages.