RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. This collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare.
We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.
We’re excited continue this series with the 2025 Arts in Society Grantee: Words To Power!
Tell us about your organization
Words To Power shows underserved youth the power of their words through the following activities:
Poetry workshop series in elementary, middle, and high schools in the Denver metro area
Designed and taught by a former teacher with more than 20 years of facilitation experience making poetry come alive, Words To Power’s culturally relevant and social emotional learning-focused curriculum shows youth the power of their words to create positive change for themselves and for their communities.
As a culmination of our workshops, Words To Power hosts events celebrating participants; powerful poetry in front of their parents and/or peers.
Publication and distribution of three books of youth-written poetry
Youth from our program submit poems to Words To Power’s annual publication. Contributors receive 3 copies of the book and a themed t-shirt.
Although each year’s theme is different, it usually emphasizes the importance of making our ancestors proud and using our voices to uplift.
Words To Power distributes copies of the books during our workshops to inspire participants to submit their poetry to the next publication.
Community book release events
Youth contributors to the annual publication receive $50 to perform at the summer book release events.
Audio recordings of poems for short videos
As an extension of our youth-written poetry books, contributors can record their poems as part of the production of social media reels/videos.
Words To Power collaborated with Cultivando on this project. Cultivando is an organization that cultivates the leadership of the Latino community to promote health equity through advocacy, collaboration and social change.
Through our Promotora model, grassroots leaders who live in Commerce City and North Denver recruit and engage their peers on community-informed solutions to health inequities.
To date, Promotoras support community members in creating a thriving and growing multigenerational network of leaders who are active through workshops, storytelling, public hearing testimony, interactions with the media, and other learning and leadership development opportunities.
Tell us about your first project that will utilize your Arts in Society Grant
Words To Power and Cultivando hosted an inspiring Earth Day Open Mic event in Swansea featuring youth performers from our programs.
Words To Power presented our poetry workshop series for Garden Place Academy, Bruce Randolph School, Colorado HS Charter HS (GES), and Cultivando’s Youth, culminating in a student presentation of their powerful words in front of family and/or peers.
We published our 3 annual city-wide poetry books (elementary, middle, and high) featuring 231 youth, including 80 from the three schools in our Arts in Society Colorado art grant.
In addition, we published two poetry books specific to Cultivando (12 contributors) and Garden Place Academy (54 contributors).
You can read and purchase the books.
We hosted summer community book release events for each city-wide book. A total of 88 youth performed their powerful poems for 447 attendees. We recorded and shared a poetry video of a participant.
In addition to arranging a partnership with a school in Commerce City, we look forward to recording and sharing more poetry videos from project participants.
What’s next in the pipeline for your organization? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your Arts in Society grant help to support these efforts?
Words To Power is excited to deepen our relationships with partner schools and organizations through more poetry videos that we can share online. In this way, we can continue amplifying youth voices.
What was your experience like when applying for an Arts in Society grant? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply?
Although the process is very competitive, applying for the Arts in Society Colorado arts grant can be a great stepping-stone for other funding opportunities. Preparing the LOI encouraged us to present a concise and to-the-point representation of our project.
The full application allowed for more depth. We were able to utilize some of the language and supplemental documents for other applications.
In terms of tips, we would suggest starting with the idea of doing the work “with” and not “for” a community. As the saying goes, if you’re not successful the first time, try again. It took us three years of applying before being approved.
Arts in Society Grantee Project Highlight: Colorado Dashiki Festival
Learn more about CAICC and their project Colorado Dashiki Festival, and how they’re bridging culture, education, and innovation to empower underserved and underrepresented communities throughout Colorado!
Administered by RedLine and funded through a cohort of Colorado foundations and government agencies, Arts in Society is a grant program supporting cross-sector work through the arts across Colorado.
