I've been staying up past my usual Sunday night bedtime to watch 'Brave New Voices' on HBO. The series follows teens from across the country as they compete in the annual Youth Speaks' Brave New Voices Festival, a celebration of teen slam poets.

Now, look, I approached the show with a sizable pre-set image of slam poets. Radical East-coast urbanites from gritty backgrounds with better post-secondary school prospects than me. And Demetri Martin on that show that one time.

And I thought this was okay. I thought I was in a good place with this.

But what I found was that slam poetry is coming from every corner of our society. The stories told are wildly varied, frequently challenging, and startlingly honest. In fact, it's that honesty that catches me off guard every time, leaving me in a puddle of my own tears while rubbing away the goosebumps. While these teens ARE exceptional in the way that they engineer their poems, it's the performances that highlight the commonalities [even the ugly bits] of the human experience.

You can watch the entire first episode here.

Full performances of poems, along with other extras here.

More on Youth Speaks and the Brave New Voices Festival here.

Editor's note: Video content does contain the occasional expletive. But...in context, it's pretty validated. Just a heads up.

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