The Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival is a 6-week literary festival engaging youth, educators, and schools in the power of poetry through workshops, performances, and a culminating award-winning showcase. The festival—formerly Louder Than A Bomb—has been reimagined to focus on community, and empowering young voices.
Serving as the largest youth poetry festival in the country, Rooted and Radical reaches hundreds of poets, and thousands of audience members each year. Through open mics, preliminary bouts, semi-finals, and finals at the Ramova Theater, youth from the Chicagoland area perform original pieces that have the power to change the world. Interested teams and indy poets are encouraged to register starting November 18th, 2025.
The festival will take place between February 7th and March 15th, 2026
- Festival Kickoff: February 7th at Harold Washington Library, Lower Level from 12-3pm
- Prelims: February 11th through 2oth at Columbia College and The Den Theatre at 11am or 1:30pm
- All City Open Mic, Rooted & Radical Edition: February 24th at Harold Washington YOUmedia at 5pm
- Semi-Finals: March 8th at The Metro at 1pm
- Finals: March 15th at The Ramova Theatre at 6pm
There is no registration fee for teams or indy poets for the 2026 festival!
What are the benefits of participating in the Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry Festival?
“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
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:
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- Please forward any questions that you have about the festival to programs@youngchicagoauthors.org or elly@youngchicagoauthors.org
- Festival Rules: The rules for the 2026 Festival will be emailed to you upon registration.
- 2026 Rooted and Radical Writing Guide can be found here.