| « The Stone Diaries Discussion Questions | The Unnamed: New Novel from Joshua Ferris » |
Events Fri Feb 12 2010
A Slam Festival
Feel beats and rhythm as Chicago youths perform their inspirational poetry and spoken-word hip-hop. Next week, February 19, one of the largest festivals of its kind will begin. Presented by Young Chicago Authors, Louder Than A Bomb is a teen poetry festival aimed at bringing kids together from across all racial, gang, and socio-economic lines. Inspired by their own lives, teens will present their written works to a crowd of over 6,500.
Since it began working with students across the city 10 years ago, LTAB has boasted an 85% high school graduation rate and has had no incidents of violence. With this being the 10th Anniversary of the slam poetry festival, the event is expected to be even bigger, with 60 teams and over 650 Chicago-area participants. Because of the program's success, even Hollywood caught on to the phenomenon. Emmy award-winning filmmakers Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs are finalizing a documentary, aptly named "Louder Than A Bomb," which followed students in the year leading up to the 2008 festival.
This year's festival is themed "The Real Chicago Renaissance" based on Chicago Public Schools controversial Renaissance 2010 school privatization program. The festival will also be dedicated to Chicago's legendary oral historian Studs Terkel.
The LTAB festival has pushed these students the past few months, and they still have a lot of work ahead of them. So come to the festival this year to enjoy some inspiring written work by some of Chicago's young talent.
The festival will start with the preliminary rounds from February 22 to 28 at Columbia College, the semi-finals will take place March 1 at Steppenwolf Theater, and the finals will be held March 6 at the Vic Theater. The winners will go on to perform at Brave New Voices 2010 in Los Angeles this coming July. Ticket prices vary for each event, so visit the website for information about purchasing them for the event.
Sdot / February 16, 2010 12:27 PM
There should be a Louder Than a Bomb in every city... these kids are such moving performers.... and it is an amazing environment!