Poet Miona Short, 16, is a junior at Walter Payton College Prep High School, but she was representing YOUmedia Chicago in this year’s competition.  This is her fourth year participating in Louder Than a Bomb. Her piece, The Surrender of Troy Davis, is a harrowing retelling of the September 2011 execution of prisoner Troy Davis in the state of Georgia.

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.