TEAM HISTORY
SLAM CLUB 2016-2019
The PHS SLAM club was first established in 2015 by Kathryn Agudo and Alexander Finn. The club was initially a safe lunchtime space only, encouraging students of all grades to participate in lunchtime open mics and ASB club activities. In 2016 Coach Finn, Jazmin Hernandez, and Tina Kumar took over the club as advisors and grew the club with afterschool showcases and fundraisers. This was the inception year of the Slam Club Showcase in 2017. In 2017 the club also began making monthly field trips to the Youth Speaks Under 21 Open Mic events in San Francisco's Mission District. Our poets begin to build relationships with young poets and rappers across the Bay Area The following 2 years saw increased participation and the development of after school workshops. These workshops, held every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 to 5, have been organized and facilitated without compensation by coach Finn since the 2018-2019 school year. In spring of 2019, after 2 years of participating in Youth Speaks programs, PHS SLAM club officially organized their first competitive poetry team, The Pittsburg Prodigies, named aptly by alumni Nayeli Roman. Though underdogs, this team would go on to place 4th in the Bay Area in the 2019 Youth Speaks Unified Team Poetry Slam, setting the tone for the following 4 years.
PITTSURG PRODIGIES 2019-2023
After competing mightily in their first team competition in 2019, The Pittsburg Prodigies developed a strong reputation in poetry and hip-hip spaces across the Bay. After multiple field trips in the fall, the Prodigies began writing and practicing team pieces and new songs for their return to the competition stage. The pandemic arrived in march of 2020, exactly 1 month before the Prodigies were expected to compete in our second Unified Slam. Miraculously, through the pandemic Coach Finn still met with the poets and rappers twice a week after zoom classes had ended. Writing workshops, check-ins, and open mics were weekly practices even through the lockdown of the 2020-2021 school year.
With the return of in-person classes in August 2021, The Prodigies were provided with a new opportunity to share our gifts with our community and beyond. Many returning seniors gave us a powerful foundation of poets and emcees, and together we organized our first community open mic outside of school grounds. The East Bay Open Mic, organized behind the historic California Theater in downtown Pittsburg, yielded over 100 attendees and appearances by alumni, families, community members, city council members, the school superintendent, and even the sitting mayor of Pittsburg. In the spring we had an unprecedented 5 poets from Pittsburg make the YS Teen Poetry Slam Finals, and our own Jojo Cisneros took 3rd place and earned a spot on the Brave New Voices Bay Area team, whom later was asked to perform at the biggest international youth poetry festival in the world: Brave New Voices. That same spring we also had 2 emcees make MC Olympics Finals, and placed 3rd in the Bay Area Unified Slam as a team. At Unified Finals we also recieved the Youth Speaks Community Award for embodying the "Spirit of the Slam". Our annual showcase took place in May with great success.
The 2022-2023 school year started with high expectations, and our poets and rappers delivered on the promise to shine even brighter. Our fall event evolved in to the first ever Prodigies Grand Slam, which marked our first ever in-house competition-style poetry slam and rap event. The PGS was a great success, solidifying our club as safe space for organized artistic competition. Soon after The Prodigies were honored for excellence by the PUSD School Board during a special board item in January. Slam season arrived in the spring, and the Prodigies again had multiple poets advance to the YS TPS Individual Finals, and Alena Patten took 3rd, earning a spot on the 2023 BNV Bay Area Team. At the Unified Slam the Prodigies made finals for the 3rd year in a row and earned the "People's Choice" selection from YS. The year finished strong with our 6th Annual Prodigies Showcase
IN MY SECTION INC, 2023-PRESENT
After immense success as a club and a competition team, in spring 2023 the Prodigies decided collectively to evolve into a 501c3 nonprofit. The dream to move into nonprofit status began 6 years ago, but the timing, personnel, and funding were not caught up with the size of the dream. With the prompting of Jojo "lxdydon" Cisneros, a BDHS alumni, proud Pittsburg Prodigy, and co-founder of In My Section Inc, the nonprofit officially took flight in August 2023. Our board is made entirely of PHS alumni, community members, and former Prodigies; our vision to grow the arts movement in the 925 and beyond has never been stronger. Our poets have recently been booked for paid performance opportunities withYouth Speaks, Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program, Creative Concord LLC, and the Pittsburg Seafood Festival. We have also been invited as a team and an organization to participate in 17th Annual Passing the Mic Intergenerational Hip Hop Theater Festival, held by the University of Wisconsin Madison's Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives / First Wave Hip Hop & Urban Arts Scholarship Program. Our young writers, poets, and rappers have never had this caliber of opportunity before, and to continue the work we are now actively seeking grants, donations, or any form of financial support.
Our visions for the nonprofit are to forever stay rooted in Pittsburg, but to ultimately support other disenfranchised neighborhoods along the highway 4 corridor and beyond. We want to put money, college and career opportunities, and love into the hands of our youth. Most of all, we want to inspire our young artists to shine their light, so that they can come back to our community and not only inspire and shine light on the next generation, but to elevate our community economically, artistically, and socially. With your support, we know that In our section we will shine brighter every day.
