Louder Than A Bomb is the largest teen poetry festival in the world. Aiming to bring teens together across racial, gang, and socio-economic lines, Louder Than A Bomb provides friendly competition that emphasizes self-expression and community through poetry, oral storytelling, and hip-hop spoken word.

The festival is an Olympic-style poetry competition, featuring 70 teams and 650 students in 2011. During the festival, there are also plenty of noncompetitive events such as the Half-Pint Poetics Open Mic, sponsored by Kuumba Lynx . Half-Pint is an opportunity for elementary school-aged students to participate in LTAB. Just another reminder that at Louder Than A Bomb, the points are not the point.

Louder Than a Bomb is co-presented by Columbia College Chicago and Vocalo 89.5FM/WBEZ 91.5FM.

YOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS is grateful for support from Alphawood Foundation, Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, The Boeing Company, C.N.A. Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Tribune Foundation, The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs-CityArts Program 2, Chicago Public Media (WBEZ 91.5 FM), Columbia College Chicago, Crown Family Philanthropies, Just Indulge, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Lovely Bake Shop, Illinois Arts Council, MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, McCormick Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Poetry Foundation, Sahara Enterprises, Inc., Schopf & Weiss Charitable Giving Fund, Speh Family Foundation, and contributions from many individual donors and community partners.