Hannah Kimmett, a junior at Manitou Springs High School, placed fourth in Colorado Springs as a teen slam poet this Sunday, April 26, at the City Auditorium. She and the five other teen poet finalists from Colorado will travel to Atlanta, Georgia this summer to compete in the international Brave New Voices competition. This is the first time Colorado Springs has had a citywide youth slam team. The selection of the poets that would be on the team began with about 20 poets from schools all around Colorado Springs. After the Youth Semi-Finals competition, which took place on March 28th, only eight poets were left.

The next competition, the Youth Finals Championship, took place on Sunday, April 26th. The remaining eight poets competed for spots on the Colorado Springs Youth Slam Team for the upcoming year. There were three rounds, and the lowest-ranking poet was eliminated after each. In the first round, Kimmett slammed a poem called “Afrikan”, storming the stage with views on black rights. This poem left her in 2nd place after the first round.

In the second round, Kimmett performed a poem entitled “Ovaries”. This was a poem that dealt with misogyny and feminism. Kimmett described it as, “Really funny and just not like anything I write. That’s the only funny poem I’ve written ever.” After the second round, her 3rd-place ranking ensured her a spot on the Colorado Springs Youth Slam team.

Kimmett’s third poem was called “The Beginning of the Universe”, a take on religion and time being “really honestly so fake”.

“That’s my sermon. If I was a preacher, that’s what I’d say in church all the time,” Kimmett says. She had performed this poem at a slam-off between Mitchell High School and Manitou Springs High School a few weeks prior, and had received good feedback.

After the final round, the judges announced the poets who would be on the upcoming year’s youth slam team. Kimmett was placed fourth out of the team of six that will work with Hear, Here for the next three months before competing at the Brave New Voices competition in Atlanta, Georgia this July.

“I feel really good about going to nationals. I personally feel like I should have placed higher, but that’s just me being me. I feel like I could have been up there for longer; each poem could have been a little bit longer than they were,” Kimmett says.

She also wants to thank Drake for supporting her, Danny Devito for being her inspiration and dogs everywhere for blessing this earth.