For the second consecutive year, Youth Speaks Hawai'i has taken top honors at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival.

The Hawai'i team competed July 14 to 19 in Chicago, at the 12th annual festival. The team also won last year in Washington, D.C.

"To my understanding, nobody has done that before," Youth Speaks Hawaii coach Elizabeth Soto said.

Young spoken-word poets ages 13 to 24 were eligible to compete in the Brave New Voices competition.

The six poets chosen for Hawai'i's team were Harrison Ines, Jill Fukumoto and four members of 2008's winning team — Ittai Wong, Alaka'i Kotrys, Jocelyn Ng and Jamaica Osorio.

"Our quarterfinal competition was more intense than the semi(finals) and finals, but it was still a rough journey getting there," Osorio said.

In May, Osorio was invited to perform as part of a night of poetry and spoken word hosted by President Obama at the White House. The 2008 champs were also featured on the HBO series, "Russell Simmons presents: Brave New Voices."

Fifty teams from the U.S., Britain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guam participated in the Chicago competition. At the Brave New Voices competition, poets performed for 3 1/2 minutes.

The four teams in the final round were from O'ahu; the San Francisco Bay Area; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Leeds, England.

The Hawai'i team performed four poems in the finals: two duets entitled "AIDS" and "Gender," a solo performance called "Kristine" and a quartet poem named "Censorship."

"Everyone on our team got on stage at least once in the finals," Osorio said. "That's really important to us, to make sure everyone is represented."

Soto said a rigorous practice schedule helped Youth Speaks Hawai'i become the champions, including hours and hours spent writing, editing, memorizing and rehearsing.

"It's the culmination of the kids' hard work and their unity as a team," Soto said.