The Shout
The Shout is a spoken word poetry focused arts and justice movement that began in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s shooting on August 9, 2014 and held their first large event on September 25, 2014.
Since that time, they have maintained a rhythm of weekly Whispers (community building conversations), monthly Shouts (large performance focused, community events where musicians, poets, and dancers respond through their craft), and daily Echoes (the way that participants in the Shout community are expected to live out justice in an active and vocal manner).
The Whisper-Shout-Echo rhythm that had been taking place for almost a year by the time of Sandra Bland’s loss enabled Shout poet, Jeremyah “The Fluent One” Payne, to have a community to turn to when he heard of his Prairie View classmate’s death. The Fluent One challenged the Shout Curator, Rev. Hannah Bonner, to Echo and take action leading to a day of deep contemplation and conversation between the two before an Echo erupted and the vigil for Sandra Bland began.
Since Sandra's death the Shout community has grown deeper in its collaboration with students and alumni at Prairie View A&M and TSU and supported the movement in whatever manner they are able, from Shout poets performing at rallies and at the vigil, to the Curator maintaining daily vigil and updates. During the holidays the Shout artists held a silent art auction to send the family of Sandra Bland funds at Christmas.
Updates on Shout Events are posted @TheShoutHTX on Twitter.
