Xiomara Batista lives in Harlem, where she has just discovered slam poetry. She uses slam to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world, where she feels unheard and unable to hide. After growing new curves, Xiomara learns to let her fists do the talking — but she still feels like she has plenty to stay, and fills pages with poems. After Xiomara is invited to join the slam poetry club at her school, she’s afraid to join without her mami finding out, but she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.