The William Grant Still Arts Center is honored to host youth from South Central/Inglewood-based Youth Justice Coalition and Leimert Park-based Recharge for a very special panel discussion/community forum moderated by LA’s own Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez as part of the NEA's The Big Read.

The program will feature teens speaking out on misconceptions of teens in everyday life, and the dangers of these stereotypes.

This will be real life, not-to-be missed dialogue that expands and is inspired by the struggles the teen main characters faced in Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel, Into the Beautiful North, this year’s selected novel for the NEA’s The Big Read.

And after, we'll all cut some cake and share a slice in honor of Dr. William Grant Still's Birthday as we do each year to commemorate the birth of the great composer and our Center's namesake.