Bio:

Kane Smego is a dynamic keynote speaker, cultural diplomat, and performing artist who empowers audiences to build connection through storytelling. A sought-after presenter in the educational sector, Kane has delivered transformative keynotes and workshops at over 85 colleges and universities and 50 K-12 schools nationwide. His compelling stage presence has led to invitations from prestigious platforms including TEDx, The Aspen Institute’s ThinkXChange, The National Association of Social Workers conference, and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Kane draws on deep global experience to inform his talks. As the Associate Director of Next Level, he helps orchestrate a U.S. cultural diplomacy program that sends hip-hop artists to over 50 countries to promote conflict resolution and community building. Whether performing at historic venues like The Joyce Theater and The Ford Theater or topping the Spotify Viral 50 Billboard, Kane blends artistic excellence with substantive social commentary.

A bilingual English-Spanish speaker currently based in California, Kane is a native of North Carolina where he holds a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill. He is currently a Constructive Dialogue Scholar and Master of Public Affairs candidate at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, bringing a rigorous academic lens to his work in community building and democratic engagement.

Programs:

YouTh ink – For 15 years Kane Smego has been performing and running educational programming in over 125 K-12 schools and colleges in 40 US States and abroad in countries around the world utilizing the dynamic YouTh ink Curriculum. Fusing literacy with social-emotional learning, YouTh ink uses poetry and hip hop to help students celebrate their unique identities and craft powerful works of creative writing. Programs can feature any combination of assembly, workshop, and student open mic and can be tailored to focus on specific curricular elements per request.

Stories for Change –

Format: Lecture-Presentation or Plenary Session

How do our individual stories shape our collective leadership? Using his own life story as a lens, Kane explores the complexities of race, whiteness, and language in professional and educational settings. This program provides a framework for using storytelling as a tool for community building and explores best practices for collaborating across lines of difference. It is an essential session for organizations looking to deepen their engagement with equity and authentic leadership.

Format: Interactive Workshop or Breakout Session

Designed for students and emerging leaders, this generative writing workshop helps participants explore their own “layered identities” and can complement the keynote or stand alone. Kane facilitates a series of storytelling and poetic exercises that empower attendees to articulate their unique, intersectional backgrounds. Beyond self-expression, the workshop focuses on how understanding one’s own narrative is the first step toward effective leadership and building genuine connections in diverse environments. It has been a foundational session for orientation programs or other initiatives seeking to build more healthy and inclusive campus, classroom, or workplace environments.

*Note: Programs can be combined into a “Residency Model,” featuring a morning keynote followed by afternoon workshops for smaller leadership cohorts. All programs can also be customized to be appropriate and relevant for all age levels, from K-12 and college students, to adult professionals.

Kindly Remove Your Shoes: International Cultural Exchange

Format: Keynote or Featured Talk

In this dynamic presentation, Kane Smego draws on his experience as a cultural diplomat in over 30 countries to explore what it means to be an ethical global citizen. By sharing stories from his work with the Next Level program and other global and local inititiaves, Kane examines how to navigate international spaces with sensitivity and humility. This talk challenges audiences to celebrate the power of cross-cultural collaboration while critically examining the power dynamics of showing up in the “countries of others.”

Workshops & Breakouts:

Word Up!

We all have a story to tell, what’s yours? Drawing on the concept of intersectionality pioneered by Kimberly Crenshaw and harnessing the power of poetry, this dynamic workshop helps students tell their own stories. As they are guided through a specific process, students will explore the myriad layers that make up their social identities, and create original works that celebrate the experiential wisdom each of them wields. Whether self-identified writers or beginners attempting the art form for the first time, this workshop will provide participants with the tools and guidance they need to craft powerful narratives in their own words.

Learning Outcomes:

Primary

• Students will be able to analyze and communicate various aspects of their unique social identity through creative writing.

 Additional

• Students will be able to brainstorm, plan, and compose their own original works of narrative poetry infused with literary devices.
• Students will be able to articulate and discuss the ways in which various aspects of a person’s social identity interplay to affect his/her/their lived experience.
• Students will be able to explain the basic concepts of intersectionality and how they relate to the fields of diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
• Students will be able to describe the global legacies of oral history and how they are linked to our innate use of storytelling in understanding and engaging with the world around us.

Kane’s workshops utilize his unique YouTh ink. Curriculum and are designed to lead participants in exploring their identities and life experiences, and in utilizing literary devices to communicate their stories through powerful works of spoken word poetry. Workshops can be customized depending on the experience level or age-group involved, as well as tailored to touch on certain themes or topics of a course or event.

Standard workshops are designed to be accessible to beginner and experienced writers alike. Participants with no experience at all will be taken through a writing process and come out of a workshop with their own original piece of spoken word poetry.

For groups made up entirely of veteran poets and slammers, workshops with more advanced writing prompts and techniques are available, as well as activities to improve their performance and public speaking abilities.