Our Voices is a team piece performed by the poets of the Percy L. Julian High School Slam Poetry Team: seniors Jeffery “Tri-flow” Cain, 18, and Sydney “Sydd Da’Kidd” Malone, 18, alongside sophomores Ivery “Poison Ivery” Johnson, 15, and Wilson “Broken Knight” Milner, 17. This was the first year of Louder Than a Bomb competition for the team.

Though everyone knows “the points are not the point, the point is the poetry” – congratulations to Percy L. Julian High School, who successfully advanced to the Final round of competition, one of the top four teams in the 2012 Festival, out of a field of over 90 schools and community organizations who participated. 

The largest of its kind in the world, Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) is Chicago’s rapidly-growing teen poetry festival, taking place February 18 - March 10, 2012, at various venues around Chicago. Aiming to bring teens together across racial, gang, and socio-economic lines, LTAB is a friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community via poetry, oral story-telling, and hip-hop spoken word.

Click here to hear all the other 2012 recordings, alongside nearly 200 Louder Than a Bomb Finalist pieces recorded by Chicago Public Media (WBEZ-Chicago) over the past eight years.