Street Poets offers a variety of Community Programming including our SP Presents series and other open mics as well as our Poetry & Gardening and Poetry in Motion Van programming at community centers.

We host up to 12 in-person open mics annually at partnering sites throughout the city. These events showcase the poetic voices of our community, creating spaces where emotional openness and honesty are celebrated. Performers join us, inspiring the next generation of creative voices.

Poetry & Gardening awakens students to their own true nature by bringing them into an active relationship with the earth and the natural world. This program introduces youth to the healing synergy of poetry writing and gardening practices.

Our Poetry in Motion Van amplifies youth voices and supports systemic and cultural change. We visit communities bringing mobile recording equipment and community poetry workshops.

We offer storytelling workforce development workshops in music production, filmmaking and theater. Through these mediums we can help youth build bridges into creative career pathways.

Youth explore music production, beat making, audio recording, vocal techniques and more as they work together to create a music album.

Young people experience the magic of building a hip hop musical production centering the music they create and produce in Beats & Rhymes. They write, perform, dance and take on production roles.

Students create their own films exploring editing, writing, lighting, sound and more.

Street Poets has comprehensive wellness initiatives to support the mental health and well-being of both youth and our team. We offer programs like our signature poetry and meditation circle Seeking Peace, Healing Horizons and more.

All are welcome into this space where we participate in mediation, breath work, poetry writing and intention settings.

Expanding on our Seeking Peace practice, this space is created to more deeply explore issues faced by women identifying individuals through poetry, journaling and creative expression. 

Street Poets conducts 10-12 week writing workshops and arts facilitation at various schools across Los Angeles County. Annually, we partner with more than 10 schools (and more than 15 classes). Our workshops invite students to explore their stories, develop authentic voices, and bear witness to their own lives and the lives of others. Workshops include free writing exercises, text analysis, guided meditation, spoken word, drumming and circle practices. We also offer school versions of Beats & Rhymes, Poetry in Gardening, Healing Horizons and Poetic Reframes. These workshops create a space for students to discover their truths and imagine new possibilities for their futures.

Street Poets has expanded to become a leading organization facilitating poetry and music writing workshops in jails, probation camps, continuation schools, group homes, and other places of incarceration across Los Angeles County. Our focus is primarily on system-impacted youth, some of whom are incarcerated as young as 13. These workshops provide a space where participants can tell their stories without fear of judgment, and they are designed to encourage healing, personal growth, and transformation. Our work in these settings is deeply committed to reducing recidivism and, ultimately, eliminating the practice of carceral punishment. Street Poets uses the power of creative expression to help incarcerated youth build the skills they need to break free from cycles of incarceration and to empower themselves to create a brighter future.

Street Poets partners with Youth Mentoring Connection and Rhythm Arts Alliance to offer annual retreats in Big Bear for boys, girls, and non-binary youth, promoting self-empowerment and personal growth. We also collaborate with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and Wolf Connection to provide overnight homecoming retreats at a wolf-dog sanctuary for California State prison parolees.

Street Poets provides creative consulting and training rooted in our unique methodology, offering professional development and creative wellness programs for educators, youth workers, therapists, corporate teams, and law enforcement in Los Angeles County and beyond. We partner year-round with schools and organizations to support their staff and communities through workshops and consulting.

Through collaborations with groups like Rhythm Arts Alliance, Youth Mentoring Connection, Wolf Connection, New Math Music, Jail Guitar Doors, and Project Knucklehead—as well as initiatives like Summer Night Lights and CicLAvia—we amplify our impact. As founding members of the Arts for Healing and Justice Network, we advocate for and serve youth in probation, helping shift LA County’s probation culture toward healing and wellness through the arts.