Get Lit

“Get Lit” is a common expression for getting stoned or wasted. And for many of the students that come into this program this is a tempting and sometimes unavoidable option. It’s a way to escape; cope with complication; and a substitute for self-expression. Working with thousands of children, I have seen firsthand that getting literature into their lives gets them lit in a different way. Creating opportunities. Changing their self-worth. Altering the course of their destiny. Literature gives them a tool. They get inspired. They get informed. They get ignited. They “Get Lit.” Lit up in a way that illuminates their paths, their relationships, and their lives. It has been a privilege to witness these transformations and I’m honored to share this process with you so that you can take your students on this kind of journey too.

Get Lit is dedicated to bringing the power of poetic expression to at-risk teens through a standards-based curriculum fusing classic literature/poetry with contemporary spoken word performance techniques. Get Lit's in-school, after-school, and Get Lit Player programs are designed to boost literacy, foster cultural understanding, and encourage creative self-expression. By immersing teens in the world of great books, Get Lit equips students for future success in college and the workplace by building concise writing skills and dynamic public speaking abilities, and giving them a foundation of self-confidence.

Since its founding in 2006, Get Lit has inspired thousands of young people to immerse themselves in literature, often for the first time in their lives. At Get Lit we are committed to providing youth with as many opportunities as possible to develop a love of literature, poetry, and language and to present their voices in a variety of ways, including public performance, printed anthologies, and online. We believe that by inspiring a nation of teens to read, we are leveling the playing field between rich and poor, mainstream and marginalized, and, in the process, bringing previously unheard voices to the fore.

With support from people like Carol Muske-Dukes (Poet Laureate of California), Tim Robbins, Jimmy Santiago Baca and others, Get Lit serves over 15,000 teens annually through its variety of in-school, after-school, and Get Lit Player programs. We work in conjunction with over 45 Los Angeles County schools and have created a model that can be taken nationwide.

This 12-Week curriculum will give you everything you need in order to help your students with their writing. Their speaking. Their self-esteem. Their lives. You will open doorways. You will give them choices they never imagined possible. You will see magic and miracles unfold before your very eyes. Through poetry comes power. Through memorization come miracles. And through recitation and response poems come revelations. Enjoy the ride. It will be a wild and wonderful one. I promise.