Brave New Voices

Coming together in a time of uncertainty and challenge, a new generation of young, American poets have something to say about their world.

In 44 communities across the U.S., teenagers are competing for a spot on their regional teams in order to compete in Washington DC at the National Slam Poetry championship called Brave New Voices.

Following the story of six of these teams, Russell Simmons’ Brave New Voices is a new seven-part HBO series documenting the stories of six of the competing teams from distinct parts of the U.S. including New York, San Francisco, Ft. Lauderdale, Ann Arbor, Honolulu and Philadelphia.

Brave New Voices follows different team members as they compete in regional competitions that will determine the six poets comprising each team as they fine-tune their poems in practice sessions overseen by a team coach and share individual back stories reflecting on how the “spoken word” has changed them. They will finally join up with other teams in DC to find out who will follow Philadelphia (the 2007 winners) as the 2008 Brave New Voices team Champions.