Young Chicago Authors

Young Chicago Authors is a non-profit organization that promotes young writers and performers in the greater Chicagoland area. YCA provides opportunities for young adults to engage in creative expression, lyrical education, and community building. They are known for their Rooted & Radical (R&R) youth poetry festival which was previously called Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB). Some famous names one may recognize that participated at YCA include poets like Chance the Rapper, Nate Marshall, Kevin Coval, Eve Ewing, and Jamila Woods.

History
Young Chicago Authors was founded in 1991 by Robert Boone, a former author and creative writing teacher from Winnetka, Illinois. YCA was established with the intent of inspiring the youth of Chicago to engage in creative writing to tell their stories. In 2009, Robert Boone was given an award at the Coming Up Tall Leadership Enhancement Conference in recognition of his work with YCA. This conference was hosted at the White House by former first lady, Michelle Obama, who has similar roots also a Chicago Native.

In 2013, sexual assault allegations were brought up against Kevin Coval, former artistic director. Kevin Coval was the founder of the Louder Than A Bomb poetry festival, now named Rooted & Radical, but was fired after YCA's executive board decided to have him removed due to the sexual assault allegations he faced. Rebecca Hunter, the executive director, consequently announced her resignation from YCA in response to how the allegations were handled. In an interview with the Sun-Times, Hunter mentions how she was first made aware of the allegations when a group of young poets formed a “safety council” with the intent of identifying sexual predators within their community. After reviewing the list of predators, Hunter came to find that one of the listed names was someone who had a contract with YCA at the time and therefore suspended the alleged abuser, Kevin Coval, and YCA went forward with investigations of the claims.

Acting on the previous executive director's sexual abuse allegations, Young Chicago Authors has a new executive director, Demetrius Amparan, as of March 2021. He is passionate about the success of young people and putting them first and center to watch them flourish and grow. One of his goals is to be a good person for the children to look up to and he wants to be a positive influence on them.

Rooted & Radical (R&R) Youth Poetry Festival
Formerly known as Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB), this festival brought YCA a lot of acknowledgment and recognition in Chicago's Poetry scene. This program is not possible without the Teaching Artist (TA) that aid in coaching and educating the youth about poetry and how to home in on the skill of creative expression through their workshops. Teaching Artists at YCA create personal curriculums based on their own strengths: visual language of poetry, expanded poetry, interpersonal dynamic and word choices. These TA's also create their own legacy by either having participated in YCA's festivals before becoming a TA or creating their own name after being a TA, such as Matt Muse (rapper former TA of YCA) and Dominique James (former champion LTAB and former TA of YCA).

Wordplay
Wordplay holds a significant value to the organization. This event is a weekly event that is a safe space for young and prospective poets to express themselves through creativity. Both Wordplay and YCA as an entity allow for the children to grow, learn, and prosper. They also both create a sense of community to bring people together.

External programs
Following the Kevin Coval and others sexual assault allegation scandal, YCA hosted a community event to re-establish connections with in the community. While do so, they wanted to acknowledge the sexual assault allegation and take accountability. While doing so, YCA shared their plans to move forward with the program while taking extreme messures in order to assure the community that these misconducts will never be accepted in their space.To do so, they had to reschedule their Louder than Bomb event and postponed to 2021. Instead, they created workshops and town hall meetings. Since at this time, Chicago Public School did pull from endorsement YCA had to think of various ways to restore and regain trust. In doing so, YCA did take full responsibility for their leadership member and took the precious sought necessary in order to show the community their dedication to development.

To take part in the Black Lives Matter Movement, Young Chicago Authors partnered and did a collaboration with Koio. Through the partnership, an agreement to create a sneaker with the poem name “Untitled 2018” written by Taisaun Levin felt the most appropriate between the two brands. This shoe would create awareness to black struggles, black mental health, and black communities. Her poem was inspired by the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, etc. Since 100% of the proceeds made from the sneaker go to GoodKids MadCity, Black Lives Matter, and Young Chicago Authors, this promoted the partnership to response to the BLM social movement and promote racial justice.