artBeat Narrative

The seeds of artBeat Collective, Inc. were planted in a 2006 poetry seminar. Inspired be an exchange of their written work, founders, Montana Ray and Claudine Kanku Page, began a dialogue regarding the capacity of poetry to express ideas of social currency. 

Montana and Claudine were further united by an interest in East African culture; Claudine was fundraising to bring a local poet of Congolese origin, Omekongo wa Dibinga, to speak on Georgetown's campus, and Montana had previously worked as a curator for the Nommo Gallery, in Kampala, Uganda. In each other they found a shared objective to use the arts to fashion a positive self-image and promote communication across cultures. 

Spread the Word 2007



Thursday, April 26 2007, we celebrated literacy in the district with our first annual Youth Literary symposium, Spread the Word.   The gathering was held at the  and WVSA ARTiculate Gallery and was generously funded by Lannan Literary Programs, Georgetown University.  At Spread the Word 07, youth gathered from seven DC-VA-MD  area organizations and schools to read their poetry.   Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions of our guest reader, Dinaw Mengestu, author of the acclaimed, "The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears."  Christylez was the emcee and Kristin Arrant of the Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project backed readers on her drums. 

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