When Emanuelee “Outspoken” Bean speaks about poetry, he’s talking about building resilience, teaching young people to challenge authority, and preventing what he calls “the smooth brain epidemic.”
The Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus’ journey to becoming one of the city’s most influential arts educators began with tragedy and evolved into a calling that has shaped hundreds of young lives for more than a decade.
Bean’s moniker carries profound personal significance. His brother suggested combining “Outspoken” with his family nickname “Bean,” but he initially resisted. Then, in February 2008, just as Bean’s Prairie View A&M University poetry slam team won regionals, his brother was murdered.
“I didn’t like it at first,” Bean admits. “But I’ve gone by Outspoken Bean legally since February 23, 2008, just to honor him, to honor what he was saying.”
His brother, a rapper who served as Bean’s first audience and biggest influence, had encouraged him to explore poetry beyond his initial motivation, which Bean candidly admits was “really, to get girls” at Prairie View poetry slams.
Bean came to Houston from San Antonio for college, with plans to graduate and move to New York for a career in technical theater. Instead, Houston’s rich arts infrastructure kept him rooted.
“I realized that Houston is a freaking giant when it comes to the arts. Houston’s arts ecosystem enabled me to make a
Outspoken Bean
living as a poet.”
“I realized that Houston is a freaking giant when it comes to the arts,” Bean says. “Houston’s arts ecosystem enabled me to make a living as a poet.”
He began working with organizations such as Houston Grand Opera, Writers in the Schools, and Young Audiences, sometimes feeling he was “robbing people” with his invoices.
The city’s cultural DNA, from DJ Screw to Swishahouse, showed Bean that artists here build empires. Even practical considerations, like Houston having two airports for cheaper travel as a touring artist, factored into his decision to stay. “It makes sense,” he says. “A lot of entrepreneurial artists who are not just artists, but also have acute business acumen here.”
Meta4 Houston
For 14 years, Bean has led Meta4 Houston, now a project under Writers in the Schools, a non-profit organization that connects children and youth with professional writers and spoken word artists to unlock the joy and power of storytelling. The organization’s mission is to get young people to speak eloquently through poetry about issues that matter to them, even if “the powers that be disagree.”
Meta4 Houston won first place at the Slam Competition during the Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival on July 22, 2023, in San Francisco, becoming the first youth poetry team from Houston to win the national title. Meta4 Houston has a notable history at Brave New Voices, previously ranking in the Top Ten in 2014 and 2017, and narrowly missing the finals in 2017.
“It’s all good when kids are five years old talking about sunflowers,” Bean says. “It’s another thing when they’re talking about ‘I don’t like this mayor.’ People become less willing to give money.”
Poets prepare by working together to develop concepts that often address societal issues. They rehearse extensively, including through practice competitions, and create both solo and ensemble compositions with innovative choreography.
Bean sees poetry slam as a low-stakes training ground for high-stakes life situations. “I want y’all to F*** authority. I need you to get practice,” he tells his students. “The stakes are low. But there’s going to be a point in time in your life where the stakes are astronomical, and you still want to have to argue.”
Learning to be outspoken
Samaya Green discovered Meta4 Houston during COVID-19, watching Brave New Voices videos and feeling inspired by young people expressing their voices through poetry. After a practice round at the Alley Theater in middle school, she tried out for Meta4 Houston and made the team, despite her stage fright.
“I was nervous. But I’m really confident in my writing,” she says. “I fall back on why I wrote this poem and who my writing is for, and I channel that through my performance energy.”
Over two years on the team (2023-2024), the HSPVA student experienced Bean’s unique coaching philosophy firsthand.
“Bean is very outspoken, no pun intended,” Green says. “So his rebellious ways kind of came onto us naturally. We were like, ‘Oh, okay, cool.’ And he’s our coach, so we looked at him like, if he could do this, then we could do it.
“During our practices, Bean would have us do a lot of research before we wrote our poems,” Green continued. “We would analyze what is going on in the world before we just wrote about it, because he valued that in our writing. He wanted to make sure that we knew what we were talking about, and we knew what we were writing about.”
Poetry and spoken word unlock something traditional education often misses: the ability to dig inward and build what he calls “the muscles of imagination.” In an era of AI and instant gratification, he’s doubled down on making students do the hard work.
This year’s Meta4 slam series includes rules designed to expose AI-generated work. “Art is meant to be human. Writing is meant to be human,” Bean says. “These are human connections. Painting is meant to be human, even if it’s bad.”
When asked about those who dismiss poetry as just words on paper or entertainment, Bean says, “That’s the same thing that fascists say. They want conformity, not creativity.”
Bean no longer coaches directly; he’s transitioned to building infrastructure that will outlast him. He views being on a poetry slam team as “DNA,” a niche experience that should equip young people with transferable skills for life.
“Ease is earned,” Bean says. “We go the hard way. I feel like they’d be mad at me if I just don’t push them. Because I know that I’m helping them in the long run. I’m building resilience.”
