Poet Natalie Richardson, 16, is a junior at Oak Park and River Forest High School.  This is her second year participating in Louder Than a Bomb. Egypt is a remarkable poem about Natalie’s childhood friend who moved to Egypt several years ago & one particular call home to her.

Though everyone knows “the points are not the point, the point is the poetry” – congratulations to Natalie, who successfully advanced to the Final round of competition, one of the top 13 individual poets in the 2012 Festival, out of a field of over 800 young writers.

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.