PRESS RELEASE: 6th July 2011 We Like A Challenge: Award winning Leeds Young Authors aim to raise 6000

in less than two weeks to take part in the world's biggest Youth Poetry Slam Festival. Leeds Young Authors love to take on the odds. And they generally turn up trumps. In 2009 the teenage poets attended the Brave New Voices Poetry Slam Festival and stunned the opposition by beating international talent to claim second place. In 2010 LYA won the UK National Poetry Slam. In 2011 'We Are Poets', a documentary highlighting the hopes and achievements of LYA beat international opposition to win the Youth Jury Prize at the Sheffield Doc Film Festival. Now the odds are against them again. They desperately need to raise 6000 in less than two weeks to take part in the Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam in San Francisco, USA from 20-23 July. This event is the world's biggest Youth Poetry Slam and live poetry performance competition. LYA feel this is the only way to maintain their winning ways, and continue to fly the flag for Yorkshire on the international scene. Based in Chapeltown, Leeds Young Authors' uses creative writing to develop young people's communication skills by improving their grammar, diction, spoken and written English. The public is asked to contribute by visiting http://www.indiegogo.com/Leeds-Young-Authors Supporters can also contact the group to hear about personalised sponsorship plans. Leeds Young Authors (LYA) is a grassroots youth organisation founded in 2003 in the socially deprived area of Chapeltown, Leeds, UK.

LYA promotes active literacy, social, political and cultural awareness by creating spaces to celebrate youth voices, and offers the opportunity for young people to develop their artistic abilities as confident writers and live performers across race, class, gender, culture and sexual orientation. Khadijah Ibrahiim, Artistic Director of LYA says: "LYA has offered free literature and creative writing workshops to dedicated young people aged 13-19 (together with a group for those aged 11-13) every week for the last eight years, we are extremely grateful for the huge effort, energy, enthusiasm and generous time given by our small team of volunteers." Contact: Khadijah Ibrahiim, tel 07796900213 kibrahiim@yahoo.co.uk Links & recent press:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Leeds-Young-Authors https://twitter.com/#!/LYApoets http://www.leedsyoungauthors.org.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_41458685969 https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221302241233559 http://www.youtube.com/user/LeedYoungAuthors http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/aet/epic-film-is-set-to-impress-at-theinternational-documentary-festival.htm http://sheffdocfest.com/films/show/5056 http://sheffdocfest.com/view/www_sheffdocfest_com_films_youthjury http://www.i-donline.com/i-spy/sheffield-doc-fest www.wearepoets.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jun/17/sheffield-doc-fest2011-highlights http://www.yorkshiredance.com/whatson/poets-for-poets#8230 http://www.bravenewvoices.org/ http://www.wordcup2010.org/ http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/events/readings/?id=6647 http://www.leedsinitiative.org/international/page.aspx?id=21292