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. 

Young Writers Workshop Series


As part of a larger effort to develop arts education opportunities for Georgetown University students, artBeat connected the Lannan Fellows, GU undergraduates enrolled in the Lannan Literary Programs seminar series, with the After School Kids Program (ASK). The goal is to provide poetry workshops to adjudicated youth in ASK.  In Spring 2007 three Lannan Fellows developed curricula and presented three poetry workshops to ASK, incorporating poetic principles from texts of Lannan visiting writers. artBeat partnered with GoMag, pocket-sized nightlife magazine, to host a fundraiser for a literary magazine devoted to the works generated in the ASK-Lannan workshop series.  In Spring 2008, artBeat worked with local poetry educator Christion "Christylez" Bacon and Brooklyn-based GU grad Fabian "Farbeon" Saucedo to facilitate ASK writing workshops utilizing principles of the Hip Hop craft.  For information on ASK visit www.georgetown.edu/outreach.  

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