SUMMER JAWN

SUMMER JAWN encourages young people in Philadelphia to harness their own cool—their rebelliousness and beauty, their wit, incisive intelligence, and formal and informal networks—to encourage each other to take seriously their social complaints and hope, and to see how what matters to them connects to the governance that acts in their name. #VoteThatJawn’s ArtPhilly project, Summer Jawn 2025, will work with a paid team of high school and college students to amplify the impact of their voices through artmaking, anchored by spoken word. In collaboration with renowned spoken word artists, students will create work that will be showcased through performances, video and social media platforms, culminating in the ArtPhilly festival in 2026. Art lets them be seen; voting can let them be heard. Summer Jawn 2025 will also generate tutorials, which will be embedded into the Committee of 70’s online civics curriculum, to archive as a guide for classrooms for 2025-26, generating even more writing. The summer program will also include discussions about local elections, along with #VoteThatJawn’s mantra about local and organic voting to keep young people focused on what they can change, instead of demoralised by what they cannot.