Sarah Kay: What We Build

Scripps College 2015 Commencement Keynote Speaker: Sarah Kay Sarah is an extraordinary poet and educator who has inspired audiences worldwide. Sarah is the founder of Project VOICE, a group that uses spoken word poetry to entertain, educate, and encourage young people. Through award-winning performances and innovative workshops, Project VOICE seeks to promote empowerment, literacy, and empathy in classrooms and communities around the globe. Students come away with a greater sense of confidence in their own voices and with a motivation to share and listen to each other’s stories after attending a workshop. A featured poet on the sixth season of HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam, Sarah has been invited to share her work on such diverse stages as the Malthouse Theater in Melbourne, Australia; Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the United Nations in New York City, among others. She has performed at events in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, France, Singapore, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Ghana, the Philippines, Sweden, Spain, Nepal, and India. In all, she has shared works of her spoken word poetry on six continents. Her 2011 TED conference talk, “If I Should Have a Daughter,” has been viewed more than seven million times online. She is the author of the best-selling book, No Matter the Wreckage (Write Bloody Publishing: 2014), a collection of her poetry. In 2006, she was the youngest competitor at the National Poetry Slam. Kay earned a master’s degree in The Art of Teaching from Brown University and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Grinnell College.