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At the Youth Speaks Poetry Slam, Bay Area poets talk love and money

on May 7, 2012

On Friday, April 27, people descended upon the Masonic Center in San Francisco for the 16th Annual Youth Speaks Poetry Slam Finals. Thirteen young people between from across the Bay Area held the audience captive with their poems on everything from young love to the broken economy. Of the thirteen who participated — who hailed from Oakland to Newark and Lafayette — five were chosen to represent the Bay Area in the annual Brave New Voices national poetry slam coming up in July.

Check out a few of the East Bay representatives’ poems by clicking on the audio files next to their photos below. (Audio courtesy of Katie Styer and KALW.)

Colleen
Colleen’s poem
Dneise
Dneise’s poem
Jade
Jade’s poem
Marje
Marje’s poem.
Monica
Monica’s poem.
Nya
Nya’s poem
Obasi
Obasi’s poem
Queen
Queen’s poem

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Photo by Basil D Soufi
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