Slam Out Loud is led by a team of artists, psychologists, educators, and system-builders working to make the inner foundations of a transformational life available to every child in India.
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Our
SOLmates
Our Beginnings
Slam Out Loud began in classrooms.
Our co-founders were full-time teachers in low-income communities, where children came to school every day carrying questions, dreams, fears, and stories that rarely found space inside the classroom.
Alongside teaching, we began bringing the arts into our classroom and taking spoken-word poetry workshops to children across India. The 77th workshop, in Kashmir, changed everything.
In a classroom shaped by conflict, children were invited to choose an emotion and write. We expected joy, friendship, and small memories of childhood. Instead, children wrote about hate, sadness, confusion, guilt, fear, and hope.
This day solidified our belief that, for students, spaces for creative expression were necessary, not a nice-to-have, and Slam Out Loud became an organization.
What We Discovered
We discovered that expression is not ornamental. In fact, it is foundational to learning, identity, and becoming.
We had seen how often children were asked to leave parts of themselves at the school gate: their language, culture, identity, emotions, and imagination. School expected them to listen, remember, and answer correctly, but rarely invited them to create, question, or be fully seen.
Every time a child created something original, something shifted.
We realised that when children are given structured spaces to create, perform, question and discover, they begin to see themselves differently. They build the belief that their circumstances are not their ceiling. They begin to say: “My voice matters, my story matters, and I belong in bigger rooms.”
Our Commitment
We believe every child deserves the capacities to flourish, not just the chance to complete school.
We learn directly from students and teachers, then partner with state governments to embed what works into curriculum, training, and measurement.
By building this foundation at ages 7–14, when identity is still forming, we are engineering the conditions for a different kind of life.
Our commitment is to bring this kind of learning to children who are too often denied it.
We believe in creating a world for ALL of our children, in which, as Sir Ken Robinson said, “Creativity is as important as literacy.”
What Our Partners Have To Say
Our partnership with Slam Out Loud is rooted in a shared belief that every young person deserves the space to be heard, to create, and to thrive.
While we are early in this journey together, we’ve been inspired by SOL's joy-filled, dignity-first approach and its commitment to inclusion in the communities it serves.
We love that they combine imagination with rigour, showing what's possible when creativity is treated as essential, not optional.
Omar Momin,
Head, Godrej Foundation
We share a belief in the power of storytelling to change narratives, alter paths, and shift mindsets, particularly in contexts where structural inequities limit whose voices are heard.
Slam Out Loud's approach to strengthening adolescents' confidence and self-expression resonates deeply with Girl Rising, and our longstanding association reflects our shared conviction that creative expression is essential to advancing agency and opportunity for young people.
Nidhi Shukla,
Co-CEO, Girl Rising