The Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival (R&R) is an annual six-week literary festival of youth poetry, featuring showcases and events open to the public. Youth poets from the Chicago area perform original solo and group pieces for thousands of audience members.
Now in its fourth year, this festival—formerly Louder Than A Bomb—has been reimagined to focus on community over competition, empowering young voices through a student voting system. This newly imagined festival rethinks scoring and judging to empower participants and get back to the heart of creating a community for young people to share their stories in a non-competitive environment. We want to further empower youth poets to use their voices to celebrate one another through our student voting system.
The 2025 theme, Looking Forward and Looking Deeply, explores how rapid changes in technology and media shape our world, urging participants to reflect on their role in the future and their connections with one another. We ask the questions; how are you engaging with the world? How are you engaging with one another? What does the future hold, and what is your special place in it?
The only youth poetry festival where voting is in the hands of the youth
“Coming to this event made me appreciate art even more and made me realize how important it’s to express ourselves especially since we as youth can be so misunderstood” – Festival Participant
The festival will take place between February 1 – March 16th, 2025
What are the benefits of participating in the Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry Festival?
Youth get the chance to connect with their peers, engage creatively with a unique annual festival theme, learn more about themselves as artists and writers, and get to do something unique. With about 50% new festival participants each year, this festival is for every student regardless of ability and experience.
Many of our youth state that they feel changed, heard, and more confident after stepping onto the stage and speaking in front of our supportive crowds. With our festival built around voting and nominations being in the hands of peers, each festival participant gets the chance to be nominated for unique awards and festival advancement by their peers.
What are the benefits of attending a Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry Festival Event?
Each of our events are professionally curated with a host, a special Chicago artist featured performer, and filled with the original stories and voices of Chicagoland youth. Audience members leave inspired, connected, and renewed after attending a Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry event. These events are open to anyone to attend but especially encouraged for youth to attend to get the chance to see their peers in a leadership role, being celebrated, and executing their creative skills. This is a perfect school field trip for the English, Humanities, and Creative Writing classrooms, and after school poetry club.
RESOURCES:
-
- Please forward any questions that you have about the festival to programs@youngchicagoauthors.org
- If you are interested in serving as a volunteer at one of our festival events, please email jmascarenhas@youngchicagoauthors.org or sign up via our R&R Volunteer form.
- If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out to donate@youngchicagoauthors.org
- Festival Rules: Read the 2025 Official Rules PDF and the 2025 FAQs PDF for more information on how the festival works
- 2025 Rooted and Radical Writing Guide – Here are creative resources and writing prompts to support you in engaging with this year’s 2025 festival theme: Looking Forward and Looking Deeply.
2025 Festival Sponsors (Coming Soon)