A voice to listen to: Project V.O.I.C.E

January 28, 2014

Project V.O.I.C.E creators Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay.

Project V.O.I.C.E creators Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay.

Ivy Schneider

Spotlight Editor

Project Vocal Outreach into Creative Expression (also known as Project V.O.I.C.E.) indeed shared their “voice” on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 pm in the Upper School Beit Midrash.

Project V.O.I.C.E. is a venture that Sarah Kay founded in high school. Later after meeting Phil Kaye while studying at Brown University, he joined in the project and they became co-founders. It consists of a group of “spoken word poets,” writers who memorize their pieces and perform them out loud. It is an interactive and unique form of storytelling that has the potential to be more personal and relatable.

“They travel all over the world giving performances at schools and teaching workshops to children and teenagers, inspiring them to channel their thoughts and experiences into empowering poems,” said Alison Rollman ‘14, Creative Writing Leader.

Rollman discovered spoken word poetry about a year ago while browsing online. After being chosen by Ms. Mansfield to be one of the Creative Writing Leaders, she started pondering ideas to bring to Milken.

Project V.O.I.C.E creators Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay.
Project V.O.I.C.E creators Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay.

“I thought it would be awesome if we could somehow bring spoken word poetry to the school. We emailed a couple poets, and it happened to work out with Sarah and Phil,” said Rollman.

Kay and Kaye performed their works at Milken. They first recited a poem together that was based on the story of how the met. They were at a Freshman talent show during college orientation and were the only two spoken word poets there. They formed a friendship and learned that they had a frightening number of commonalities. Kay has a brother named Phil and Kaye has a sister named Sarah. Both writers have Japanese mothers and Jewish-American fathers.

They continued the night by sharing personal poetry and performing individually in a way that casted a sense of inspiration throughout the Milken crowd.

You can visit their website, http://www.project-voice.net, and watch their videos on Youtube. Some common favorites are: “When Love Arrives”, “Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire”, and “Teeth.”