Poet Rachel Smith, 18, is a senior and a member of Epic Sound, the Kenwood Academy Slam Poetry Team.  This is her second year participating in Louder Than a Bomb (and she can also be heard performing here). Hallelujah the Saviors are Here is a condemnation of teachers who come to “the inner city” without becoming a true member of the community.

Though everyone knows “the points are not the point, the point is the poetry” – congratulations to Rachel, 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.