Bella Mestuzzi. Abeba Biao Photos.
Bella Mestuzzi took a deep breath before looking out into the audience.
“Yeah, I know. I stand out in a crowd of tiny tits and tiny bodies so I’m ushered to the back, to the plus-sized purgatory where beige, and beige, and more beige tell a story,” she read. “A story of control, of oppression, of ‘hold it all in,’ a tapestry of discomfort where my beauty is considered sin. Straps dig, strands chafe, cups overflow — I can’t take it."
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most troubled of all? It’s me.”
Those vulnerable, raw, fresh words—and many more— came to Neighborhood Music School on a recent Saturday night, during The Word’s now-annual Youth Poetry Slam. After three rounds, four poets were crowned 2025 champions, a title that will send them on to the youth poetry festival Brave New Voices to represent New Haven in Madison, Wisconsin later this year.
The four include Journey Rosa, Shawn Douglas Jr., Anna Capelle, and Crystal Francis. Held this year in Madison in July, Brave New Voices is a four-day festival where over 50o youth poets, running from 13-19 years old, gather for writing workshops, showcases, and of course, slam competitions.
Bayan Albakkour, AJ Chonnay Wallace, and Izzi Geller.
In addition to The Word, a spoken word poetry education program that educates New Haven middle and high school students on how to read, critique, write, and perform poetry, the slam also partnered with New Haven poet laureate Sharmont "Influence" Little and consisted of five judges. According to Tarishi “Midnight” Shuler, artistic director of The Word, up to 20 students can register and complete in the slam.
In the crowd were Metropolitan Business Academy teachers AJ Chonnay Wallace and Izzi Geller, there to cheer on students including junior Bayan Albakkour. Both had come to the performances last year and wanted to showcase their support again. Geller described the performances as “powerful.”
“Anytime young people gather, there's some magnetism and some beauty in that,” Geller said. “And especially, I think when young people gather, to make art and like to create something new together. I think we need more of that.”
Saturday, youth and audience members took it in stride. For Albakkour, poetry was a medium of self expression that she first turned to in middle school. Years later, it has stayed with her, and her writing is now a frequent practice. With support from Geller, Albakkour said she felt motivated to continue writing, presenting a poem on high school love and romance during the slam.
“Just think with your heart, think with your mind,” she said at one point during the night. “If you got the soul to do it, you can do anything.”
Journey Rosa: Exhilarating. Rosa will be going on to represent New Haven at Brave New Voices later this year.
Meanwhile, participants like Sound School freshman Journey Rosa spent hours, and then days, preparing for the night of the slam. In the days leading up to the event, they wrote and revised seven drafts of the poem before presenting it during the third round (watch a clip of that in the video below). They later described the performance as “exhilarating.”
“The way I write my poetry is I want to tell my story, but I also want to advocate for the mixed people who have to go through what I go through,” they said, describing the motivation behind their poem. “So I chose the one that both displays what I go through and that blossomed into how it’s a worldwide issue.”
Through poetry, Rosa highlighted the importance of being noncritical of your writing and holding space for your feelings.
“Poetry doesn't always have to be the common standard of poetic. Poetry can be anything. Day to day life can be poetic. Everyone has their own side,” they said.
Amya Smith.
Among the participants were also Amya Smith, a 20-year-old political science major at Central Connecticut State University. Smith first heard about The Word her senior year at Amistad High School from her creative writing teacher Brianna Martone, she said. While the cutoff age for competing in Brave New Voices is 20, Smith stated that she had to come out “for the love of the game.”
For the three-minute round, Smith chose to perform her poem “Madonna Whore Complex” discussing sexism in relationships. Inspired by a recent breakup, Smith used her writing to call to attention how patriarchy influences gender roles and unhealthy relationships.
The title refers to the conflicting dual expectations men expect of women: wanting a wife that is conventionally attractive, and has values of virginal purity but is also promiscuous.
“It kind of opened my eyes to how this world really builds it so that men can basically build a bear with women. And then even when a woman goes through hell to make herself available and good enough for him, it's still not enough,” she said.
Like Rosa, Mestuzzi also found her experience performing rewarding. A recent graduate from ACES, the 18-year-old said they used writing as a medium to work through her trauma and negative experiences. Encouraged by their homeroom teacher Emily Guerrucci, Mestuzzi took the leap and joined The Word.
“I was terrified, but I had so much fun,” Mestuzzi said, reflecting on her performance. “Like, I don't think I can describe the euphoria. I'm so proud.”
To watch + hear excerpts from The Word's 2025 Youth Poetry Slam, click on the video above.