The Living Word Project (LWP) is the resident theater company of Youth Speaks, committed to producing literary performance in the verse of our time. Aesthetically urban, pedagogically Freirean, LWP derives personal performed narratives out of interdisciplinary collaboration. Though its methodology includes dance, music, and film, the company’s emphasis is spoken storytelling. LWP creates verse-based work that is spoken through the body, illustrated by visual and sonic scores, and in communication with the important social issues and movements of the immediate moment. LWP is the theater’s connection from Shakespeare’s quill to Kool Herc’s turntables; from Martha Graham’s cupped hand to Nelson Mandela’s clenched fist: a new voice for a new politic.  Together, Intersection for the Arts, Campo Santo, and the Living Word Project, have developed and premiered many years of Hybrid Project Festivals of New Works, as well as the World Premiere play “Mirrors In Every Corner” by Chinaka Hodge. Upcoming projects together will be the continued development and World Premiere in October, 2011 of “Tree City Legends” by Dennis Kim, and the next play with Chinaka Hodge, tentatively titled “Watts Up”, continuing to follow members of the family in her play ”Mirrors In Every Corner” , set for a premiere in 2013.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Chinaka Hodge, and Joan Osato are also individual artists with Intersection for the Arts and are collaborating on several upcoming Campo Santo projects.

http://www.livingwordproject.org/