“The point is not the points; the point is the poetry.” This year marked the 13th anniversary of Chicago’s annual youth poetry festival, Louder Than a Bomb.
The New Trier Poetry Club was lucky enough to be a part of this extraordinary poetry slam. NT students participated in semi-finals at Columbia College on March 3.
While considered a benchmark poetry club “experience,” the real preparation for LTAB comes later in the school year.
Senior and Poetry Club Head, Claire Rosen said, “We have Louder Than A Bomb in the back of our minds starting in September, but we didn’t get down to business on putting the official team together until December. We had a plethora of poets to choose from for our LTAB competitors, and gradually the team formed itself.”
Students work on different pieces from the start of the year, and when the time comes to begin thinking about Louder Than a Bomb performances, they select from pieces members have submitted.
Junior and Louder Than a Bomb performer Julia Pappageorge said, “We see who has something worth competing with and [what] would resonate with the crowd and from there we keep on evolving the poems and then we go.”
“We wanted to make sure these were poems that would connect with audiences. The poems covered a wide range of issues. They confronted sexual orientation, technology, alcoholism, gender discrimination, body image; just a great variety of subject matters,” said club sponsor and English teacher John O’Connor.
Louder Than a Bomb is not so much a competition as it is an opportunity for talented local poets to share their work. “I don’t like calling LTAB a competition; we’re not there to win, we’re there to witness some [expletive] poems,” said Rosen.
“My proudest moment this year was seeing all our individual poets read, because I’ve gotten to watch them grow and improve and embellish their performing styles for as long as I’ve known them. Anna Parsons, one of our individualists, finally mustered the courage to read her first poem to us in January after having attended weekly for months, and that first poem she read to us made it to the semifinals. There’s nothing more exciting than that,” said Rosen.
The Poetry Club members that performed at the legendary Louder Than a Bomb included Beauty-Full Brown, Claire Rosen, Julia Pappageorge, Pearson Probst, Jackson Polston, Anna Parsons and Alia Bajaramovic. Riding student support in the audience, the team made it all the way to semi-finals, something they had never accomplished before.
Poetry Club member and junior Heather Gerth said, “The amazing thing about Louder Than a Bomb was the unity and the fact that you weren’t just rooting for your own team, you were rooting for everyone. It was like one big team of national young poets.”

“After LTAB is all said and done, the thing that continues to impress me the most is the sheer number of students and young people that flock to Columbia College each year to hear and be heard. There were over one hundred teams this year, with at least six poets each. That’s 600 poets leaving their stories on the stage, not to mention the hundreds that gather to snap, crackle, and pop after every line. If you’re not cheering for the other teams louder than for your own, you’ve got the flu. We’re poets; we snap,” said Rosen.
The club’s experience with LTAB was so much more than simply presenting their poetry and making it to the semi-finals. It was the group experience they had and the amazing performances they witnessed. “The bus rides home were always the best because we went around talking about our favorite poems and how we did. It is very much a communal vibe that comes with poetry. The team is a big part of that support system; there are hugs all around, you feel loved and accepted in an environment to share your thoughts,” said Pappageorge.
The team’s experience with Louder Than a Bomb reflects the club’s environment on a daily basis. “Everyone supports each other. Its completely a team effort and I think that is really great. Everyone is really happy for everyone and they work as hard on each other’s poems as they do their own,” said O’Connor.
The team could easily be one of the most supportive and community based clubs at New Trier, and their ability to make it so far at LTAB was a result of their true commitment to each other and to poetry.
“I hope that New Trier’s poetry club continues to grow and expand as it has been for the past couple of years, because then as many lives can be changed for the better just as mine has been. There’s not a single person who could look back upon their experience with TNT and say they wish they had done something better with their time. Obviously, we have snacks every week,” said Rosen.
“We realize that LTAB is not the end all, be all of our existence. The catch phrase of LTAB is: the point is not the points, the point is the poetry,” said Rosen. Being aware of this dichotomy helps turn the focus back to the poets than to the judges, which is what brings us all together in the first place.”