ABSTRACT
Th is chapter is organized as a refl ection in fi ve parts, a collage of voices examining the role that a student-led poetry sub culture played in a small school (Communication Arts and Sciences, or “CAS”) at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, and which spread beyond the walls of the school to the broader youth community of the Bay Area and the country. Two of the authors, Rafael Casal and Chinaka Hodge, were students in this small school and continue to work as poets. Th e other, Rick Ayers, was a founder of CAS and organizer of Poetry Slams from 1999 to 2006. Th e refl ection takes the form of a conversation between the three participants, sometimes directed at each other, sometimes directed at the broader readers.
