It was difficult for me to talk about the incidents and everything else that was going on in my life, so she suggested I write instead. I wrote three poems about how I felt because of it and entered a poetry slam at my school. I won the slam, and have loved spoken word and slam poetry since then.

Anytime I have an issue that bothers me now, I write about it, and things just seem to become much clearer when they're sitting in front of you on paper.


Brave New Voices was an amazing experience for me because it was a place for people like me to come together and express themselves in such a beautiful way.

On final stage, two girls from the Bay Area team did a piece about sexual assault in their childhoods, and it paralleled my story so closely that I couldn't do anything but cry and feel for them. It was such an intense connection. When they got off the stage, I grabbed one of the girls crying, I hugged her, and whispered in her ear, "I know what you mean." She just looked me in the eye and pulled me to her and embraced me.

It was probably the most profound moment of the competition for me. There are no words to explain the energy and pure love that all the poets felt for each other that night. When they called all the performing teams onto final stage to announce the winners, everyone was holding hands and chanting together so loud, no one could even hear, and no one cared who the winners were. It was just about us. It was one mic, one voice.

- Asia Davis