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Educators and parents, among others, have grown more concerned in recent years about student literacy. A lot of that has been focused on the strict definition of literacy as the ability to read and write.

Now the Mesa Arts Center is launching a new program called Project Lit: Igniting Critical Literacy through the Arts.

"More traditional literacy is reading, writing and speaking. Critical literacies would be emotional, social and cultural literacy," said Tomas Stanton, director and co-founder of Phonetic Spit, a literary arts organization.

We learned more about the program from Stanton and the Mesa Arts Center’s Director of Engagement Mandy Tripoli.