BAUDL Alumni Intern Robin Bonner rocking the crowd at Tuesday night's Inaugural Office Warming

On Tuesday, July 26, more than 40 supporters gathered to help the BAUDL launch a new space for youth and debate in downtown Oakland. The energy in the room was electric – from a dazzling poetic performance from alum star Rashid Campbell to the launch of the Leading with Debate Fellowship, and through speeches and stories from an energetic herd of BAUDL youth, there was plenty to entertain and delight.

This space, shared with our partners at McCullum Youth Court, has already opened up exciting new opportunities for the young people we serve: Continue reading ‘Launching a New Space for Youth and Debate’

Perry basking in the pleasures of the new BAUDL lending library. We need your help to make it great!

The Bay Area Urban Debate League needs your books and old laptops. We are launching our first ever Lending Library – and sending our students into a national circuit of competitive debate where laptops are key to survival.

BOOKS: Our students are ready to dig into books on politics, theory, and more. Anything on your shelf that might inspire and edify these young debaters would be welcome.  This year’s national debate topic is space – so books on this theme are particularly welcome – but any good books are more than welcome. Please only give books that you have enjoyed; we will inspire our students by keeping the quality high.

LAPTOPS: Anything with the power to run basic office applications is perfect – no matter how old, it will make a real difference.  The national circuit of debate is almost entirely paperless now – without laptops our varsity debaters will be seriously disadvantaged.

If you have any books or laptops you can contribute to this noble campaign, please get in touch with Executive Director Dmitri Seals at dseals@baudl.org or 510-517-0069 and make a time to drop by our brand new office.

Speaking of the new office, we will have an Office Warming Party on July 26th from 5:30 to 7:30 – save the date, and look forward to more news soon!

Perry Green joins the BAUDL as a UDL alum, a veteran political campaigner, and a committed youth worker.

The Bay Area Urban Debate League is excited beyond measure to welcome its new Program Director, Perry Green.  He comes to us as a graduate of the Chicago UDL and the college debate powerhouse at the University of Louisville – after years of coaching debate and working on political campaigns, he is more than ready to help BAUDL youth use their academic skills to lead in the real world.

Get in touch with Perry: Our new Program Director is excited to hear from all the stakeholders in BAUDL, from principals and teachers to students and parents, from all the communities of the Bay Area.  Reach out to him and share your ideas on how to push this program forward at or 510-575-9131.

Perry had these words to share as he entered his first day:

I am honored and thrilled to be serving as the new Program Director of the Bay Area Urban Debate League. The experiences I have had in the political world and the non-profit sector have prepared me to bring new energy and ideas to the table.

There has not been a day since I began debating in 1999 in which I have not given great consideration to the improvement and reform of our educational system to increase opportunities for at-risk and marginalized youth.  In my opinion nothing is more important. I look forward to working to increase rigorous, student-centered pedagogical opportunities for young people in the Bay Area.