Keep your fingers crossed for members of the Q.C.'s breatheINK Youth Poetry Initiative. Six members, all students in the Charlotte area, are currently in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Brave New Voices Poetry Festival. The festival - held at University of Pennsylvania through July 19 - features 56 youth poetry teams who are competing for the bragging rights of "international champion."

This is the first year that members of breatheINK, founded in 2013, are representing Charlotte at Brave New Voices. In addition to competing, folks attending the festival will have the opportunity to attend conferences with guest speakers and workshops where they can hone their spoken word skills.

For a glimpse at what's happening at this year's festival, check out this video of students from RunDSM, a teen slam team based out of Des Moines, Iowa.