Ask a young person in Newburgh how they are really doing, and most have never been asked. Voices in Motion hands them the microphone and says: tell us your story. We are listening.

There is a fourteen-year-old in Newburgh right now who writes poetry in the margins of her notebook and has never shown a single line to another person. There is a boy who dances in his room with the door closed because he does not yet believe the world wants to see him move. There are dozens of young people in this city carrying stories, talents, and truths that have never had a stage, an audience, or even a single adult who stopped to say: I want to hear what you have to say.

Voices in Motion exists for them.

This is a one-day youth creative empowerment event built on a simple, powerful idea: that when you give a young person space to tell their story through poetry, movement, and honest conversation, you give them something far greater than an activity. You give them proof that their voice matters. You give them the experience of being seen and celebrated by their own community. And for a young person who has spent years being told to be quiet, that experience can change everything.

The event is planned for Saturday, September 26, 2026, in the City of Newburgh.

A young person arrives in the morning, maybe nervous, maybe guarded, not sure what to expect. They are handed a journal that is theirs to keep, and for the first time someone tells them that what they write in it has value. In the workshops that follow, they are guided gently into their own creativity: writing spoken word poetry about who they are and where they come from, moving their bodies in expressive dance, sitting in circle with other young people and discovering they are not alone in what they carry.

By afternoon, something has shifted. The guardedness softens. A girl who arrived silent reads three lines she wrote and the room snaps for her. A boy who never thought of himself as an artist realizes the words pouring