Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry Festival

The Rooted and Radical Youth Poetry Festival will host 500 youth poets from more than 60 Chicagoland schools for four weeks of poetry bouts, workshops, and special events.

Formerly Louder Than A Bomb, this newly imagined festival rethinks scoring and judging to empower participants and get back to the heart of creating a community for young people to share stories on a non-competitive stage.

This year’s theme is Joy! – inspired by Ross Gay’s quote, “Joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone.” Events will take place at various venues around Chicago and culminate with a finals showcase at The Nederlander Theatre on March 22 at 6 p.m.

To purchase tickets, learn more about the festival or register for various festival special events, visit www.rootedandradical.org.

This year’s festival is made possible by the Zell Family Foundation, The Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation; Chicago Community Trust, Amazon, WBEZ 91.5/Vocalo 91.1, the Chicago Sun-Times, and contributions from many individual donors and community partners.