From inception the ReadNex Poetry Squad has been an outfit that truly puts its money where its microphone is, and, for all of its members, setting a positive example via community outreach work has been as—if not more—important than the music they make. The sheer volume of laudable grassroots social-relief efforts the band has been involved in is simply staggering: Its regular “Monthly Campaigns” to help raise awareness of important issues have included a Thanksgiving food drive, a clothing drive for victims of Hurricane Katrina (the group even drove the collected items down to New Orleans in a rented truck,) a James Brown memorial charity concert in Newburgh, and numerous other advocacy programs. The quintet is even sponsoring a protégé named Liberty, an 18-year-old aspiring poet and rapper. “He was having problems at home and with money and wasn’t mentally available in the classroom, so he was in a school for troubled youths,” Decora explains. “Since we’ve been working with him, he’s doing much better now. He’s in a private school, where he’s moved to the top part of his class.”

But on top of all of the above is the group’s flagship outreach endeavor, its highly successful Nex to Read after-school program. Drawing on the group’s love of poetry, the effort currently helps more than 130 young students in the Newburgh school system express their feelings through the written and spoken word. CONTINUE....