Young people are not eligible to vote, but still suffer top-down adult politics, municipal sanctioned gentrification resulting in large scale displacement, for example. Where is their voice, their representation in contemporary politics? Most youth in America are systematically barred from adequate nutrition, a fair education, and healthy peer and adult relationships. There is desperate need for personal, creative, and intellectual development to being to empower young change-makers like Emma Gonzales and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Youth Speaks, alongside national and international Youth Slam Poetry partners, have spent the last twenty-one years doing just that. First by focusing locally in their respective home towns, Oakland, Houston, Minneapolis, Cape Town, South African, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, etc; Then, secondly by connecting over five-hundred young writers and thinkers with mentors and leaders in Arts Education for a four/five day festival: Brave New Voices. There, they network, share artistic work, and workshop writing and leadership techniques. Now in its 22nd year, BNV was entirely administered by alums. Youth go on to develop programs of their own, pursue creative passions, become culture workers, and occupy those positions of power that previous harmed them.