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WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective is an organization that utilizes spoken word leagues, performances, and community writing workshops to provide a space for self-expression, identity exploration, and social justice, with active programs dating back to 1990; and
WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective is made up of four conjoined programs, including:
Steel City Slam, an 18+ adult slam league, which sends a team to the National Poetry Slam each year,
WordPlay, a program of creative writing and performance workshops that are free and open to all ages and all communities,
WordUp, a program that connects performance poets and the community, and
Young Steel, a youth slam league for poets between the ages of 13 and 19; and
WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective's Young Steel program started January 2012 and operates in the style of poetry performance known as "poetry slam," which is a competitive event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience, who are instructed to give numerical scores based on the poets' content and performance"; and
WHEREAS, the Young Steel poetry slam meets for competition every last Saturday of the month at Cannon Coffee in Brookline and every first Thursday at the Union Project in Highland Park; and
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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh recognizes the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective and their newest program Young Steel for their service in enriching our communities in their celebration of the art of the spoken word.
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare Tuesday, February 5, 2013 to be Pittsburgh Poetry Collective: Young Steel Day in the City of Pittsburgh.