Teach Literacy through the Arts in DC, MD, and VA

This project report is a submission toGlobalGiving's 2017 Fail Forward Contest, where organizations are asked to share a story of when they tried something new that didn't go as planned and how they learned from it. Enjoy!

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Regie Cabico to talk about his work as a teaching artist for Story Tapestries. Regie is an award-winning poet and has been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Slam, MTV’s Free Your Mind and NPR. I was curious to understand how an accomplished performer has reacted to challenges and setbacks and used those struggles to reach new heights.

Regie has most recently become a great contributor to Story Tapestries’ programs serving the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), a multi award-winning organization that serves over 4,000 youths and families in the D.C. and Maryland areas through youth centers, school-based sites and public charter schools. In a collaboration that has grown steadily over the past three years, Story Tapestries sent Regie to develop a highly successful youth spoken word poetry program for LAYC.

Regie first admired the mission of LAYC when he used their Columbia Heights location to rehearse with the DC Youth Slam Team. Though most would shy away from the challenge of a youth poetry program that may seem doomed for failure, Regie dove in head first and came out with stellar results. When I asked how he made it all look so easy, he replied, “Teaching youths who did not want to write at Bellevue hospital in New York City, taught me how a small list of things to warm up the inner poet can spark larger ideas and reveal more of a student’s personal lives.” He added, “I focus on students being open-minded, listening and creating a supportive environment that allows students to be themselves and to focus. Writing together creates a bond and applause is the best medicine for troubled youth.”

Within Regie’s many personal and professional successes, how could there possibly be room for failure? But Regie insisted that behind every success there is failure, and shared some of his own pitfalls.

One particularly low moment that left a mighty impression on him was in 1994 during the National Poetry Slam in Asheville, North Carolina. “I lost the slam. I received 3rd Place. A poet named Gayle Danley, who would later become a dear friend of mine, came from nowhere and took the prize. I lost gracefully, and though it was crushing, it taught me a lot about humility. I did my best, but it did not stop me from writing and performing. (Resilience) is a trait I try to teach my students. I think a lot of schools have a hard time with competition but it's a real lesson to revel in the opportunity you have to share who you are and your story regardless of what "score" you get.”

If Regie would have given up, all of his later achievements would have never panned out and hundreds of youths may have never found the voice they so desperately needed under his impactful guidance. He learned to persevere, and now uses his own life example to inspire youths to persist in the face of adversity.

We can all take a note from Regie’s Fail it Forward story, and when we feel discouraged by failure and hope has fizzled out, may we be inspired with a second wind that brings us to even greater places than we could have imagined!