Urban Mtn.Voices           

EAST STROUDSBURG — One considered himself a loner.

The other said she needed some kind of creative outlet.

David Tinglin, 20, of East Stroudsburg, and Lauren Hooghuis, 20, an East Stroudsburg University junior, found what they were looking for in the still-new Urban Mountain Voices, a local creative writing and performance group specializing in slam poetry.

Tuesday, the group inked a deal allowing the Pocono Community Theater to become the group's "fiscal sponsor."

A fiscal sponsorship allows an established nonprofit organization like the theater to offer its blanket of tax-exempt status to a new organization so that — among other things — the new organization can raise money without having to apply for its own 501c3, nonprofit status.

The theater will not provide funding to UMV but can provide resources such as a performance venue.

"It's a perfect fit," theater president Ray "Skip" Scheetz said. "Our mission is to promote learning about the arts, and this is what Urban Mountain Voices is all about."

Currently a group of 13 with eight performing slam poets, program founder Tricia McGarvin-Fernandez said UVM formed last summer with the intention of giving local youths a way to express themselves with words.

Slam poetry is spoken-word piece often done in competition — think rap without the beats. UMV is free and is open to all Monroe County teens.

"It's an alternative to joining a gang, or taking out their frustrations on society — or another person," McGarvin-Fernandez said.

Tinglin moved to the area from Las Vegas two years ago and said in his home city, adults are catered to and teens are an afterthought.

He said he was a "loner" and never spoke out about how he felt — until he discovered writing and slam poetry.

"The kids (in Las Vegas) turn to the negative to express how they feel," he said before performing one of his poems, "Leon's Lyrics," about the trials of alcoholism. "But for me, poetry is a way you can get it all out."

Hooghuis said at her high school in New Jersey, she wasn't even thinking about college as she plodded through he junior year with a 2.0 GPA.

Then on the recommendation of a friend, she took a creative writing class and things made more sense than ever before. Now, she helps mentor some of the students who come in to the UMV program.

"If it wasn't for writing and poetry, I wouldn't be in college today," she said.

Those are the kinds of people, McGarvin-Fernandez said, the group is looking for to become involved.

She said signing Tuesday's deal to help with fundraising could go a long way to reaching out to more students.

The group also hopes to organize a team that will compete at slam poetry events and even start its own competition.

The group meets at 4:30 p.m. every Friday in Stroud Hall at East Stroudsburg University to workshop its poetry and its slam performances.