Pyro

Kelsey Van Ert (Pyro) is from St. Paul/Minneapolis Minnesota. She is most known for her spoken word poetry and Hip-Hop theatre performances. She also is passionate about performing and composing music for voice, cello, and guitar. Furthermore, over the past five years she has developed a love and talent for breaking (Break Dance).

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In 2005, Kelsey became involved in the Twin cities Hip-Hop community through writing and performing Spoken Word poetry with a group of other local youth and community leaders called Teens Rock the Mic (TRTM) and later with The Quest for the Voice (QFV). Through these organizations, she became involved in Brave New Voices (BNV), the largest annual international youth poetry slam in the United States. She helped organize the trip to BNV 2005 in San Francisco with TRTM and she later won a spot on the QFV team of five other youth poets from the twin cities who competed in BNV 2006 in New York City and BNV 2007 in San Jose. Through her participation with Quest for the Voice she became involved with other local organizations such as Yo! The Movement and the Peace Palace. Both organizations use art as a medium to empower youth and their communities. Kelsey also became involved with Intermedia Arts, a Minneapolis arts organization, theatre and gallery, in 2006 and again in 2010, when she was commissioned to perform in B-Girl Be, an annual festival of women in Hip-Hop in the twin cities.

As a result of her hard work towards her craft, she was given a full scholarship from the University of Madison WI to be part of First Wave, a program geared towards Hip-Hop arts and community activism. Through First Wave she has been able to travel and perform in multiple locations throughout the U.S as well as Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and most recently the United Kingdom. Not only was Kelsey given an opportunity to study and gain artistic training through first wave, but the opportunity to develop curriculum and workshops. Kelsey has conducted spoken word workshops in Madison area high schools, Jr. High schools, as well as community centers. Through her teaching, she has not only been able to pass on knowledge, but grow even more from what she has learned from her students.