Building Blocks

Philly's Underground Poet!!

The subway train rattles forward, filled with downcast faces on adreary Monday morning.
This is the room Jadon Woodard works mostmornings, walking through the cars
and booming: “Good morning, ladies
and gentlemen!” He launches into his act, improvising a spoken word
rhyme about a passenger’s apparel or, if they’ll help with the
material, a riff off someone’s name.

Jadon will rake in a few bucks in donations for the entertainment. He
used to need these sessions; it was the way he scraped together enough
money to get off the street for the night. He also does it to hone his
craft, just for the adrenalin rush of working the SEPTA orange line –
possibly the toughest room in Philadelphia.

That kid on the train? He’s a national champion. And rapidly becoming a star.

Jadon Woodard is one of the lead poets of the Philadelphia Youth
Poetry Movement, a program of Resources for Human Development. The
Movement helps young people find their voice through spoken word
poetry, promoting social change, cultural and ethnic diversity and
positive self-esteem. It’s a safe haven for expression, a place to for
young people to work on the art of literal and performance poetry, and
fosters emotional healing and community service.

It’s also an avenue for national and international competition for the
best of the best of the Movement. And the Philly Youth Poetry team
might be the best in the country. In 2007, the Philadelphia team won
the national title at the Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam
(the Movement was featured on HBO, which produced a documentary on the
event). Josh Bennett, one of the Movement’s leaders, performed at the
White House for President Obama and the first family.

This year, if they can scrape up enough money, the Movement will head
to Los Angeles to try to reach the finals and win the title again. It
sends Jadon back to the trains, and all the talented kids at the
Movement to the streets, performing at the Rotunda in west Philly, in
clubs and bookstores, or on the streets of the city trying to raise
money wherever they can to pull together the plane fare to L.A.

This is why Jadon has come here. Spoken-word poetry saved him from the
streets, literally turned his life around. He heard it for the first
time in a bookstore, where he was stealing Playboys to sell to kids in
his neighborhood. The bookstore where Jadon was shoplifting happened
to have an open mic night for spoken word. He put the magazines back,
and got up on stage.

“It was the first time I heard someone really speak my language,’’ he said.

Growing up, Jadon bounced out of five different high schools before
getting involved in spoken word poetry. In his sixth high school, he
graduated valedictorian. He now has a college scholarship, and a
blossoming career.

“If it wasn’t for poetry, I don’t know where I’d be,’’ he said. “I’d
be strung out. I’d be somewhere under a car. I’d be dead, or locked
up. I’d be a horrible product of my environment.

“I stayed focused, my art made me focus in school. I found something.
I found my niche. I had to do good, so that I could be good.”

Jadon came across the Philly Youth Poets at a slam in Florida, and
decided then and there to move to Philadelphia and join them, to hone
his art with Movement Director Greg Corbin and the best spoken word
artists in the country. He didn’t know anyone, had no place to stay,
and no way to make a living.

“I was homeless,’’ he said. “But I was on the team, and that’s all I
cared about.”

“When he’s writing, when he’s on stage, that’s what sustains him,’’
Corbin said. “He drinks it like water. If he couldn’t drink that
water, he’d dry up.”

To earn enough money to find a roof most nights, Jadon worked the trains.

“I developed a little bit of a following; people would recognize me on
the street and say: Hey, I know you from the trains,” he said. “I’ve
grown so much as a performer. If you can survive the trains, you can
survive anywhere. You can’t be scared of performing after that. On any
kind of stage, in front of 20,000 people, believe me, that’s nothing
after you’ve survived the trains.”

That training came in handy when he had to make the Philly team. The
tryouts to make the cut are grueling. Live performances, judged in
front of big crowds, can make or break young poets. On the final day,
Jadon stood in eighth place. The team takes four, with two alternates.

His final performance was scored a 30 – a perfect score. It was the
only perfect score of the competition, and it vaulted him, just
barely, into fourth place and a spot on the team.

Corbin said he started the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement because
“I saw a need for young people to speak.”

“There was nothing for young people,’’ Corbin said. “Most places that
did spoken word, kids couldn’t even get into. I just thought: What if
there was something just for young people. I handed out flyers – there
weren’t even attractive – and asked kids if they might be interested.
The turnout that first night, just on word of mouth, was amazing. And
it’s grown from there.

“Our poets are doing work that is hard-nosed and risk-taking. And
they’re living their words.”

Growing in his art with the Movement, Jadon has landed a commercial
(that’s him in the Sprite NBA Slam Dunk ad featuring the Knicks’ Nate
Robinson), and he appears on a Nickleodeon special in February
celebrating Black History Month with a spoken word piece on Josephine
Baker. He credits spoken word poetry, the Movement and Corbin with
helping him grow as an artist – and a person.

“Greg is like a mentor, a big brother,’’ he said. “He makes the point
that we not only come here to become great poets, but to become great
people. What’s the point of being a great poet, a great performer, if
you’re not a good person?”

“It has crafted me into the person I am. I think it’s made me a great
performer and a better writer. But I developed into the person I am
because of the people who care about me. In Philly, they’ve shown me
nothing but love. It’s a community; they care about you.’’