Poetry At Its Best Changes Things

In 2010 I happened upon a special on HBO - the Brave New Voices 2010 Poetry Slam. Four teams of teenagers from around the United States competing, using poems they wrote themselves, after training year round. This poem, by Denver’s Eli Lynch, Elizabeth Cheever and Libby Howard really stuck with me. I am not a poet myself, but if I was I would have wanted to be up there with them, yelling these words through the mic. You should know, before you watch this, that the judges at this slam never gave a score below an 8, on a 10 point scale, although I believed several competitors deserved less than 5’s. The audio in this video is not the greatest so I apologize, I can’t post the words here or it’ll qualify as plaigarism. Just try to listen as best you can. I also recommend Brave New Voices - Childhood, Amber Alert and Favorite Color.