The Dewmore Baltimore Youth Poetry Team, featuring six local teens, once again carried off the top prize at the 2018 International Poetry Slam held last weekend in Houston.

Youth Speaks, the national organization sponsoring the Brave New Voices Festival, announced the results last Sunday on the festival’s Instagram page.

This was the second time in three years that the Baltimore poets won the grand championship, according to Dewmore Baltimore founder Kenneth Morrison. The youth team, as well as its adult counterparts, also won top honors in 2016.

Brave New Voices is an international event that annually hosts approximately 500 teens ages 13-19 for five days of workshops and panel discussions that culminate in the championship.

“It was beautiful to watch youth from Baltimore form friendships with their peers from South Africa and Guam,” Morrison said.

— Mary Carole McCauley