Lucky Francis, Jayden Barrett, Journey Rosa, in line as Lincey Violette stands behind them for their piece. Abiba Biao Photo.
A happy update: Since Abiba Biao first reported this article, Ink Theory has gone on to win Brave New Voices, making statewide history as the 2026 Brave New Voices Slam Champions. Stay tuned for a follow-up article on their recent victory.
In room 206 of the Dixwell Avenue Q House, there was magic happening. Lucky Francis, Jayden Barrett, Journey Rosa, and Lincey Violette took a minute of silence, then words were flying across the room. Surrounded by mirrors, the four looked back at themselves, their wordplay doing somersaults and tumbles in the air.
Shawn Douglas, the 2026 Connecticut Youth Grand Poetry Slam winner, sat attentively across from them, one leg across his lap. Francis, Jayden, and Rosa stood at the mercy of Violette as she symbolized the prejudiced police system, pointing a menacing finger-turned-gun at the three.
“I am your court of law and I say you were being suspicious,” Violette said, her words at once a testament to a system of policing that demonizes Black and Brown people and allows state-sanctioned violence. “The court has deemed you uncivilized and I must purge you from this Earth. It is my God-given right.”
The five young artists, all members of Connecticut youth poetry slam team Ink Theory, were about to make their grand entrance into the Toni N. + Wendell C. Harp Historical Museum. In less than a week, these same words would find their way 3,000 miles across the country in front of a national stage—and help bring the team to victory.
Earlier this month, poetry filled the room at the Dixwell Community Q House, as community members, artists, and residents sent their well wishes and support to the CT Youth Slam Team as they prepped for Brave New Voices, the largest international youth poetry festival. This year, the event took place July 15-18 at San Francisco, where 14 teams from across the country competed for the coveted title of 2026 Brave New Voices Slam Champions.
The send off was held in collaboration with the City of New Haven's Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism and The Word, a literary arts program that serves high school students and above and also manages the state youth slam team. It doubled as the latest iteration of Elm City Flow, an open mic that began with inaugural New Haven Poet Laureate Sharmont "Influence" Little, lapsed for a while, and was relaunched in March by new poet laureate Yexandra “Yex” Diaz.
Since 2025, Diaz has been the artistic director of The Word and coaches Ink Theory alongside teaching artist, educator, and former artistic director of The Word Tarishi “Midnight” Shuler. The pair are also members of the state poetry slam team Verbal Slap, which recently won first place at the Chicharra Poetry Slam Festival this spring and took fourth at the Southern Fried Slam in Orlando earlier this summer.
The ethos behind the event was to “amplify the voices of youth artists and represent youth in general,” Diaz told the crowd. This wasn’t limited to the performers, but woven into the event planning, with music by DJ Kenny and live artwork. As the night went on, artist Hasson Pires never seemed to lift his eyes off the canvas.
The night began with an open floor where former youth slam team members Roodley Merilo, Syra Barrett, and Theo Constantinescu shared poems, as well as Ryan “Fly Ry” Hendricks, a Waterbury-based poet and artist.
Later, members of Ink Theory took the stage to perform a mix of individual pieces, with three group performances intermixed in between solo performances, before Diaz and Shuler closed with a group piece and individual performances.
As Violette, Jayden, Douglas, and Rosa went up to perform Ink Theory’s last group poem of the night, the four stood slightly nervously at the front of the room, and giggled. With a snap of Douglas’ fingers, the jitters evaporated in a flash, and they launched into their poem discussing the prison industrial complex and criminalization of Black Americans.
“I hope you feel remorse, you cowards! / I hope the juice leaking out of our pores stains your shirt, you cowards! / I hope you can hear us banging in the floors, you cowards!” the four said in unison, shaking the ground through three stomps.
The sudden, swift movements were enough to send a jolt up a listener’s spine, as if they were attempting to uproot the very same foundations that let Black Americans fall through the cracks. Their outrage and indignation was palpable in every synchronized step.
Around them, the space seemed fitting: the room is a memento to Toni Harp, who was the first Black woman to become mayor of New Haven in 2013, but it is also a place where city history lives out loud. Themes of racial justice, mental health struggles, sexism, and bodily autonomy that the poets raised felt right on time, if not overdue. So too, maybe, did the weight of the moment—and the importance of speaking truth to power.
“I mean, there’s never been a time where I performed where I haven’t been nervous. It’s just a part of my human physiology,” Douglas said in an interview with Ink Theory members after the event. “But it’s always euphoric to finish and you get that round of applause.”
Top: Haason Pires holding up his completed work signed by audience members and performers. Bottom: The team practicing before the performance.
For Douglas, a rising sophomore at the University of Connecticut who attended Brave New Voices last year, the night was full of possibility. While the team advanced to the semifinalist round last year (you can view performances from former New Haven Youth Poet Laureate Anna Cappelle and Syra Barrett here), the defeat was crushing for Douglas.
Now, he said, he knows not to set his eyes on the prize, but to enjoy the moment and take the opportunity to learn from creatives in the field. By a week later, it would turn out that he could do both.
“I can say firsthand that our entire team is hungry. We all want to prove ourselves on a big stage but even if it’s a little smaller than what it’s supposed to be,” he said. “We’re still going up against the four strongest teams in the nation and all we can say is that we can prepare for what we can control and don't harp on what we cannot.”
This theme of persistence also rang true for other members on the team. A Hill resident and 2025 graduate of Achievement First Amistad High School, Francis said that what motivates her is the potential for both catharsis and truth-telling: she’s able to take things that are heavy on her heart and speak about problems. In the crowd was her friend Yasir Gonzalez, and her cousin Madisen Ennis.
“I actually watch a lot of slam poetry and stuff. So, like, when I came to see her, it was, like a kind of first experience because I always wanted to go see slam poetry,” Ennis said.
Ennis highlighted the importance of creative spaces for marginalized communities due to historical exclusion. A staunch supporter of Black art, she noted how the arts can serve as a method of emotional regulation.
Top: Francis, Yasir Gonzalez, and Madisen Ennis.
“It's the outlet for us, you know? They say there’s a lot of opportunities for all, equal for all, but it’s really not. So like for us, I feel like it's way better than, you know, picking up any bad habits, if you know what I mean,” she said. “ Seeing people of my color doing this is definitely inspirational.”
Like Francis, Gonzalez graduated from Amistad 2025, and was introduced to poetry through creative teacher Brianna Martone, and has been a spectator of poetry slams since. Now, he’s hoping to make the switch from being in the stands to on the stage. While he admitted that he’s a “shy person,” one of his goals is to perform at an open mic in the near future and start writing his own work.
“I watched people perform for four years at the school, and I never personally went up there. And I feel like with Lucky, maybe we’ll start doing that,” he said.
Ennis also had some advice for aspiring creatives.
“My grandmother always told me, ‘You lose out on opportunities when you close your mouth. So open it,’” she said. “You want to get into poetry, or do you want to perform, or do you want to sing? You want to do anything where it draws attention, be the loudest and be the greatest. You know what I'm saying? So don't stop yourself because you're your greatest enemy.”