This Middle American high school senior spits about being caught between the expectations and realities of manhood, family and justice. In eighth grade, his first poem was about the genocide in Darfur. But his signature poem "Young, Gifted & Fat" was inspired after he listened to Nina Simone's "Young, Gifted & Black." Ben embraced the idea of taking the negativity around a social identity and making it something to be proud of and something to respect.

Ben has a unique take on his experience as a child of the new millennium. "When September 11th happened, I was in the sixth grade," he says. "It took me a long time to digest what it really meant. I remember being scared and watching every single station playing the same ten-second clip." He adds, "As I grew up and understood the situation more, I'm more scared of getting beaten up by a cop coming home from school than I am from being blown up in a building. The realities of what fear is for me as a teenager in America are so different from fears of being just an American."

At the Ann Arbor regionals, Ben exposed the story of his broken home and the promise of his future. He's worked with his team to portray the manhood ritual of high school sports. Then at Brave New Voices, Ben and Team Ann Arbor unite to bring their hearts and truth to the BNV stages.