***Note: Young Chicago Authors’ annual youth poetry festival has been reimagined and renamed. It is now Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival. This page is no longer being maintained, and is for archival purposes only.***
Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) is the largest youth poetry festival in the world.
LTAB is an annual event hosting over 500 youth poets for 5 weeks of Olympic-style poetry bouts, workshops, and special events. Students rep schools and community groups all throughout the Chicago area. They perform original solo and group poems in a tournament-style competition. Louder Than A Bomb is currently hosted in over 13 other cities across the U.S. by partner organizations.
Founded in 2001
Founded in 2001 after the Twin Towers fell, during a time when young people of color in Chicago were being targeted by an anti-gang loitering law which aimed to take away their right to assemble in groups of more than two.
BY 2 CHICAGO-BASED POETS
Two Chicago-based poets-Kevin Coval and Anna West-and a group of educators created a space for youth to congregate and express themselves through the writing and performing of spoken word poetry.
From a Handful of Teams
What started with a handful of teams spitting bars in a basement has grown into over 120 teams all over the city and the suburbs competing to packed houses.
To Cities Across America
Now more than 13 cities across the country and Canada use the LTAB Chicago model to educate and organize.
