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Diane Luby Lane        

Founder & Executive Director of Get Lit-Words Ignite; Literacy Advocate, Executive Producer & TEDx Speaker

Diane Luby Lane is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Get Lit-Words Ignite, a 2020 Library of Congress best practice nominee for “doing exemplary, innovative and replicable work that promotes literacy and responds to the needs of our time.” She is the creator of the Get Lit in-school curriculum that has been approved by the University of California as an "A-G" provider and is taught in over 150 schools throughout the US to over 10,000 graduates each year. In 2012 she created Get Lit’s annual 3-day Classic Slam, which she has co-produced for the past twelve years. The Classic Slam is one of the largest youth poetry competitions in the nation.

Recently, Lane served as executive producer on the feature film OUR WORDS COLLIDE, a feature documentary following the lives of five Get Lit poets in Los Angeles that premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2022, where it won the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Award. She also co-produced the film SUMMERTIME, which was written by and starred 27 Get Lit poets and directed by Carlos López Estrada. SUMMERTIME opened the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and was released to theaters across the country in the summer of 2021 becoming "certified fresh" and later iTunes "Editor's Choice." In 2006 Lane wrote and starred in a critically acclaimed one-woman show, Deep Sea Diving (AKA Born Feet First), which opened in Los Angeles and toured high schools, colleges, and detention centers with Chicano poet Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Lane is a graduate of the Annenberg Foundation’s Alchemy + Leadership Program, a TedX speaker, a Southern California Leadership Network Fellow, a former member of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Poet Laureate Committee, and the LA Youth Poet Laureate Committee that first selected Amanda Gorman. Her books include "Words of Women" (Samuel French) and "Get Lit Rising" (Simon & Schuster), which is the winner of the 2016 Nautilus Award for books that “carry a potent message and bring hope, wisdom, healing, and joy.” She is a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Lifetime Service Award from President Barack Obama. Most recently she has worked with Get Lit to build an online interactive poetry platform called Uni(verse) for youth and teachers in classrooms all over the world. Uni(verse) is an approved digital content provider Los Angeles Unified District.

As an actor, Lane is represented by Innovative Artists and has been the principal performer in over 25 national/international campaigns. She is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher and an Agape Licensed Spiritual Practitioner. She lives in LA with her husband, two kids, two dogs, and two cats.

Speech Topics


Changing the Field of Education: Can Poetry Improve How Students and Teachers Relate?

Will AI take Over Our Kids' Education?

The Politicization of Reading: Critical Thinking Skills & Censorship

The Difference Between "Nice" and "Kind"

The Pathos of Children, Transmuting Pain to Power

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