Word Shapers, World Shakers: The Festival’s Youth Poet Laureates

Poets have lengthy used their pens to seize essential moments, encapsulate the strongest feelings, and supply their viewers new views. Some poets are appointed—for his or her cities, their counties, their states, and even the nation—as laureates, whose roles are to write and promote poetry in addition to serve their neighborhood as advocates, connectors, and innovators.

Since 2008, the National Youth Poet Laureate program, a venture of Urban Word, has expanded the notion of a poet laureate past the concept of an achieved grownup author. The program, now current in additional than seventy cities, states, and counties, celebrates prime poets between the ages of 13 and nineteen who’re, as their mission assertion reads, “committed to artistic excellence, civic engagement, and social impact.”

Communities throughout the nation are naming youth poet laureates , and with their appointment comes the accountability—and pleasure—of being a youth chief for their one- or two-year time period. During the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, I sat down with 5 inaugural poet laureates who have been invited as a part of the Youth and the Future of Culture program to learn the way they’re shaping their positions.

Harmony Devoe

Vermont State

Harmony Devoe’s love for poetry is a household custom: her grandfather wrote poetry for himself, her mom adopted in his footsteps, and Devoe has since taken up the mantle beneath her mom’s mentorship. She views her poetry as political and identity-based, given her Filipino, Indigenous Nipmuc, and European heritage, and an extension of her civic engagement work, which incorporates being the Vermont State Youth Council chair and a member of the Vermont Youth Lobby Club.

“Being a poet has allowed me to express feelings and concerns about the world in a way that people are inclined to listen to and care about,” Devoe stated. “I find more people tend to be more apt to listen to and enjoy poetry or a song about an important issue than a speech or news article, which makes me feel that creative mediums like poetry are a key way to share knowledge and information and inspire hope and action.”

Poetry additionally provides Devoe a way of freedom and understanding that she feels others ought to expertise. “If poetry was taught in a way [that highlights] the freedom and possibility this form allows, it may foster a love for writing in more youth, which for the world will be fundamental for communication and expression, knowledge preservation, and societal development, and enjoyment of the literary arts,” she stated.

For Devoe, being the inaugural youth poet laureate for her state alerts her want changing into a actuality. “The fact that [Vermont] decided to start a youth poet laureate program feels like they’re really taking in the more intergenerational part of writing and opening up the writing community,” she stated. “Being provided a platform that allows for all ages to listen to and learn from a youth opens up the opportunity for the state to see issues and their community through the lens of an identity that is not as widely heard from in my state’s culture.”

Emily Hsu

Edison, New Jersey

 Emily Hsu is a Taiwanese American artist and poet who found her love of storytelling at a younger age. Mandarin is her first language, so she discovered herself at English studying ranges behind her classmates with an unsupportive trainer and a tutor who would, within the third grade, solely give her Amelia Bedelia books. She determined to select up Harry Potter, and when she started to learn, she understood each phrase. That second each sparked and cemented her love of storytelling.

In eighth grade, she joined a slam poetry membership on a whim, and that set her on a course towards poetry workshops and, ultimately, changing into Edison’s poet laureate.

Hsu’s small city doesn’t have many shops for poetry, however that’s one thing she hopes her inaugural place will change. “I didn’t realize that many people in my own town were interested in poetry because I never heard about that, so I just hope that this [poet laureate] program, they’ll hear about it when they grow up,” she stated. “Being able to be the first one to start it and allow people to apply—I think it makes a difference.”

While her poetry is primarily in English, Hsu has began to incorporate Mandarin, which she notes is foundational in establishing her connection between cultures. In one poem, she included varieties of meals, and this made her think about: does it matter what the viewers can perceive? “A lot of people would be like, ‘You shouldn’t think about what the audience is thinking about,’ but the justice in your poetry is if the audience can understand it,” she defined. “If your audience can’t understand what you’re saying, then there’s not much depth in that poetry.”

Poetry also needs to by no means be thought-about as “just writing,” Hsu stated. “Poetry is so connective—it’s a type of art, and it’s connected with dance, with theatre, with voice, visual arts, photography.” That realization is inspiring, she expressed, and she or he hopes others can interact with poetry in the identical means.

Tara Prakash

Maryland State

Tara Prakash, founding father of the academic nonprofit Write to Right , grew to become Maryland’s inaugural youth poet laureate in 2024 after holding the place for Montgomery County. Her poetry focuses on reminiscence, growing older, and time. Being a poet laureate means having a platform for her to assist others be weak, make writing accessible, and discover questions.

“Poetry is a really unique way of communicating, and it can do a lot that other means of communication just can’t—getting through to people, resonating with them, conveying something that you’re feeling to someone else,” Prakash stated. “You’re exploring a question or something you’re wondering about with other people, and oftentimes you’re trying to figure something out through a poem and you’re sharing that exploration or journey with the audience.”

Because Prakash values this openness, educating and selling entry have grow to be lifelong targets , particularly since she believes many younger folks have a slim definition of what artistic writing is and may be. “It’s so flexible; there are no parameters,” she stated. “I feel a lot of [youth] think of writing as just something you do for an English class. It’s so much broader than that. It is a really powerful tool.”

Prakash emphasizes that belief and neighborhood are two essential points of utilizing poetry for connection and social justice. “Creating those spaces of trust and dialogue is a really big aspect of using poetry to communicate because, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your work, there’s a really limited amount you can do with it,” she defined. “Having [a] community has been so essential in helping me broaden my sharing and be willing to use it to advocate.”

When she’s finished along with her time period as poet laureate , Prakash hopes that this system and place that she’s cultivated will proceed to carry others into poetry and assist her neighborhood. “It’s my responsibility to create a title that’s robust, rewarding, and [serves] the local community,” she stated. “[I’m] creating something that outlasts me, not something that, as soon as my tenure’s over, it dies out.”

Elani Spencer

Roanoke, Virginia

Elani Spencer is a Black, queer, disabled poet interning with the Roanoke Arts Commission to form its youth poet laureate program for future laureates. Her poetry is a means for her to be open about her intersectionality and discuss stereotypes, biases, and the way numerous identities are seen by society.

Because Spencer is initially from Rochester, New York, she expressed that holding the youth poet laureate place for Roanoke is much more humbling and significant. “This community is trusting [me] to represent them, and they’re literally putting their stories and their experiences in [my] hands,” she stated. “Being the person to capture that within a poem and to be able to share that with the rest of the community, that has been so much fun for me.”

 Spencer famous that being a poet has began to form her future targets, serving to her uncover her ardour for arts administration, mentorship, and connecting with others. She stated of performing, “Some [listeners] bow their heads to soak up every word, others nod and snap like every line hits home, and most lock eyes with me so it’s as if I’m talking directly to them. For just a few minutes, we are all connected in one space, and from this precious time together, a sense of belonging, understanding, and acceptance blooms.”

Her experiences have led her to imagine that poetry is likely one of the greatest mediums for particular person expression, and that is why extra folks, youth particularly, ought to grow to be concerned. “Poetry offers a platform for you to amplify the movements and issues you care about,” Spencer stated. “Now and since high school, poetry has helped me navigate hardships, process complicated feelings, and add my thoughts to the larger political conversation. It is extremely important that everyone has this kind of outlet.”

王潇/Evan Wang

National

Evan Wang sees himself as a poet, performer, and advocate, and he’s the primary man and East Asian American to carry the title of National Youth Poet Laureate. He values the intermingling of English and Mandarin in his poetry and strives to push the boundaries of what the medium may be.

“In this day and age, poetry can be used as a rallying cry, as a way to reach out to other art forms, and I think that’s so inspiring because we’re actively changing poetry,” Wang stated.

This place, which permits him to spark change and thought, is one Wang cherishes deeply. According to him, there is not any separation of labor and day by day life, verses and politics, and their phrases and all the pieces else. “The appointment [as laureate] amplified my voice so I could speak through the silence to show young writers that there is opportunity and possibility within our local community, that here is a place for them to sing their truth,” he stated.

Wang was raised by his Chinese immigrant grandparents for 9 years, so it’s essential to him that his writing reaches each English- and Mandarin-speaking audiences. “I love to include Mandarin within my poetry so immigrants, especially people who speak primarily Mandarin, can still find a piece of themselves within my writing,” he defined. “The Chinese government often censors contemporary Chinese poetry. I want to bring that sense of culture to America because poetry has such a longstanding history in China.”

Poetry is intimate and consultant of individuals and tradition, Wang notes, and it’s his hope that he will help others see it that means. “I want to be able to represent [my culture] in all the ways I can so that other young writers, writers younger than me, can see that and think, ‘Oh, I have to represent my culture like that as well,’” he stated.

Wang summed up what I imagine all of the poet laureates really feel about being younger, inaugural poet laureates targeted on connecting folks and sparking change: “Let our words be a reminder that the creative spirit cannot be restrained. It is one of the most effective and efficient ways to engage with democracy, and it lets us sing through the muzzle. I hope people hear us and carry with them our words—our words, full of so much heart and sight.”

Shauri Thacker is a Folklife Storytellers Workshop intern specializing in writing and modifying. She graduated from Southern Utah University final yr along with her bachelor’s diploma in English, artistic writing emphasis.