Jonathan B. Tucker is a performance poet, facilitator, youth worker/advocate, community organizer and coach of the DC Youth Slam Team. He uses performance art to start conversations about social justice issues, focusing his efforts primarily on engaging and supporting young artists and activists in the DC/MD/VA area. He has led high school students on year-long journeys with Operation Understanding DC, exploring cross cultural dialogue and traveling down south to study the Civil Rights Movement. He is currently a grantee with the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities’ Young Artists Program, using spoken word poetry as a vehicle for peer education around HIV/AIDS with a group from Children’s Hospital called Teens Against the Spread of AIDS. Jonathan also works with Teaching for Change and regularly hosts open mics and slams at Busboys and Poets, BloomBars, The Fridge, and other community art spaces in which he also teaches creative writing and performance.