The philosophy behind the Chicago Youth Poetry Festival Louder than a Bomb (LTAB) is quite simple: the point is not the point, the point is the poetry.
Founded by Kevin Coval, LTAB is a poetry slam competition that begins February 19th and ends March 12th. Held at different locations around downtown Chicago, four individuals and one group from their local high school perform original pieces in two preliminary, one semi-final, and one final round. Scores are given at the end of each round to determine whether or not each team moves forward. Nevertheless, as mentioned before, the point is not the point; the point is the poetry.

With the help of Mr. Eleveld and Ms. Lingafelter, seven students from Joliet West wrote and prepared slam pieces that were performed at the Louder Than a Bomb poetry slam. The students included seniors Elissa Chudwin, Chelsea Martinez, Beth Spesia, Lisandra Bernadet, Connor Relyea and Sadie McGuire and junior Toma Andreev. The individual poets included Lisandra Bernadet, Toma Andreev, Elissa Chudwin and Connor Relyea while Chudwin, Bernadet, McGuire and Relyea performed in the group piece. Beth Spesia helped to write and compile the group piece along with Chelsea Martinez. Each individual poet appeared on stage in a different round and performed their poem for an audience of three to four other slam teams and judges. After the performance the poem was given scores by the judges on an Olympic scale ranging anywhere between 1 and 10.

The team worked hard on both writing and performing their poems, earning a ten in the group round

. Each member was incredibly happy with the experience.