Student Creativity on Display at Buffalo State's Youth Voices Conference
The Center for English Teaching at Buffalo State University and the Buffalo State English Department present the seventh annual Youth Voices Conference, a celebration of the remarkable stories and talents of students from across our region, on Thursday, May 4, from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. The conference is free and open to the public; registration is required.
Buffalo poet laureate Jillian Hanesworth will kick off the conference, which features a musical performance by Buffalo hip-hop artist Chuckie Campbell and an interactive art installation in collaboration with the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
The Youth Voices Conference, now in its seventh year, seeks to reclaim space for the voices of youth and their teachers, and to reposition classrooms as learning spaces of meaning, purpose, and power in the Buffalo Niagara and Rochester regions. Last year’s conference drew more than 500 students from large and small schools across Western New York to present their projects to authentic audiences.
Student presentations at the Youth Voices Conference have included short documentaries, spoken word poetry, podcasts, and TED Talks based on creative classroom projects. Past presentations have featured student work exploring childhood and families, popular music, Islamophobia, the impact of genocide, identity and immigration, race and gender, the environment, and religious beliefs among many others.
“The conference not only gives students a chance to be heard. It’s also powerful to see adults listening, and that can be a rare thing sometimes.”
— Kristen Pastore-Capuana, Ph.D., Buffalo State Assistant Professor of English
“My students are able to present what they care about most in the world in a way that makes sense to them,” Buffalo teacher Deborah Bertlesman, who has brought students to the conference for several years, told WKBW last year.
The conference gives young people the opportunity to showcase their academic work along with their thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about issues that are important to them and the larger community. Youth Voices is a student-centered conference that brings young people together from across our region to share the work they are doing in their classrooms.
Buffalo State assistant professor Kristen Pastore-Capuana said the conference owes its success to giving students an authentic audience of supportive adults.
“It’s not only giving students a chance to be heard,” she told WKBW. “It’s also powerful to see adults listening, and that can be a rare thing sometimes.”
Past participants include Alden High School, EDGE Academy, Elmwood Village Charter School, Lafayette International, Maryvale Union Free School District, McKinley High School, Olmsted High School, Sweet Home Middle School, Tapestry Charter School, West Irondequoit Central Schools, West Seneca East Middle School, Williamsville North High School, Wilson High School, and many others.
Register to attend as an audience member.
4:00–4:30 p.m. – Registration and Youth Voices Art Installation (Student Union Social Hall)
4:30 p.m. – Keynote: Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo Poet Laureate (Student Union Social Hall)
5:00–7:15 p.m. – Student Presentations (Ketchum Hall, Bacon Hall, Rockwell Hall, and Bulger Communication Center)
7:30–8:30 p.m. – Musical Performance by Chuckie Campbell. Dinner and Dessert (Student Union Social Hall)
Former Buffalo News editor and art critic Colin Dabkowski, ’20, ’22, now teaches English at Alden High School and serves as an officer for the Western New York Network of English Teachers.
