Department of English

Second-year BA English student Brian Millado recently competed in the Louder Than a Bomb spoken word poetry contest in Chicago, an Oprah-sponsored event.

He and his Hamilton Youth Poetry Slam team traveled to Chicago for four days of networking and workshopping with poets and authors from around the United States. They were the only team to represent Canada!

Louder Than A Bomb essentially pits all the high school slam teams in a state/province against each other, and the winning team represents the city/state in future international events. Brian coaches high school students from Hamilton, the Hamilton Youth Poetry (HYP) Slam team. In Chicago, Brian placed second in the International Grudge Match Team Slam and the team placed third overall.

Brian is looking forward to traveling back to Chicago in August with his team to compete in an even bigger contest, Brave New Voices. According to Brian, “It never really is about the competition, but the networks and the coming together to hear great words from the youth.” Brian is definitely a great spoken word ambassador for his city, his university, and his country! Check out the You Tube link for more information about Brian and his Hamilton Youth Poetry Slam team at Bigger than a Bomb in Chicago.

HYP at Louder Than A Bomb, Chicago. - YouTube