This year the Tigertail WordSpeak team, coached by director/performer/writer Teo Castellanos and poet/educator Angela Kardos, will compete again in Brave New Voices, the Olympics of international youth poetry slam festivals.Competing across the country in the San Francisco Bay area from July 17 to 21, 2012, the Tigertail team will represent the best of Miami’s emerging cabal of brave new voices.

Tigertail WordSpeak team member Giovanni Garced.

The team is comprised of five Miami-Dade slammers — Maylin Enamorado from Miami Arts Charter, Brianna Woods from Miami Northwestern Senior High, Javana Dunnom from North Miami Senior High and Giovanni Garced and Samantha Turner, who graduated from North Miami Beach Senior High.

Watch Giovanni Garced perform “Skin of the Sky”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iloeK1LNRQ.

The Tigertail WordSpeak team will have some serious competition in San Francisco. With more than 500 youth poets from across the United States, Brave New Voices won’t be a walk in the park for the Tigertail team. But this year’s team is one of the best. Out of a pool of 1,000 teens, five were selected to represent Miami. I saw two of team members—Garced and Turner—perform late last year at Books & Books, and they energized the audience with their emotional, heart-thumping slams that cut to the bone.

If you’re in San Francisco, support Tigertail’s WordSpeak team at the Brave New Voices festival. Visit youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices for information.