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At the 20th annual Brave New Voices Grand Slam Finals—a Youth Speaks international poetry slam festival held July 22 at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House—contestants left their hearts on the stage and the 3,000 in attendance stood and roared its approval.
Among the cheering crowd was 16-year-old Liliana Perez, who with the help of three other girls of the Pomona-based team Say Word L.A., performed a poem dealing with the sensitive subject of rape.
“We’d written about the hurtful glamorization of suicide on TV, lack of self-worth, rape culture, empowering women and how indestructible we are, empowering boys who don’t meet any conformity of masculinity,” Perez said. “We really decided to be raw about what we see every day, how real it is to us and how powerful it is to still be standing in the face of these storms every day.”
Perez, who is from Pomona, first started writing poetry at the age of 15. She said that raw emotion is what truly inspires her poetry, which is usually about joy, love and seeing the beauty in what others might consider “not beautiful.”
“On the team, I really changed my topics,” Perez said. “At that point, I’m with teammates who make me feel safe enough to perform the things I avoid. We write about our mental illnesses, our happiness, our trauma and about rising over oppression and loving yourself completely.”
Perez first heard about Brave New Voices from her sister, Marissa Perez, who also participated before. This is the second consecutive year Perez has attended. Her team, Say Word L.A., has been attending these events for the past nine years and this year made it to the semi-finals.
All summer long, contestants from all around the world repeated and perfected their poetry, hoping that in the course of the four-day festival, they could reach the finals. Prior to the finals, those participating go through slams, workshops, performances and much more.
“We spent so many hours and all-nighters perfecting poems, running the same lines over and over again in different inflections,” said Perez. “When it was finally time to hit the stage, you really began to feel comfortable. What matters is that you are here, as a poet and a young person telling stories people need to hear in order to feel liberated and start their healing process.”
Another contestant, 19-year-old Anthony Orosco from Stockton, said that poetry has saved him. As someone who was once seen as a future gang member, Orosco found an escape through spoken word. It was also a way to prove people wrong.
It all began his senior year when he took his first poetry class and came across a teacher who saw great potential in his writing.
“The first day I walked in, she [the teacher] said she instantly knew that she was going to break my shell of not wanting to write. She saw something in me no one else did,” Orosco said. “She helped me from writing one, to two lines, to a full page.”
Orosco’s poems are greatly influenced by his Latino culture, as well as his father.
“A lot of people had their doubts that I would … be anything more than just a thug in jail,” Orosco said. “My father may be incarcerated, but I am not his choices, I am not his mistakes. My voice is too bold not to be heard.”
Through his poetry, he addresses topics ranging from the lynchings of Mexicans to lowriders. Orosco decided to first perform his piece titled “Lowrider” in 2014 for Brand New Voices, which led him into wanting to return.
That poem in particular allowed Orosco to stand out among the rest. Through the multiple performances in 2014, he received first place in a specific round for that piece. Although this was his last year participating due to the age limit being 19, Orosco has been invited back to Brave New Voices to be a mentor for a future generation of poets.
“‘Don’t be afraid to tell the stories because their stories can be someone else’s. Don’t be hesitant, to raise you voice and rise to the occasion. Be one of the warriors to liberate our people.’ I had somebody tell me that and I didn’t believe [it],” Orosco said. “Now I do.”