National Youth Poet Laureate

The National Youth Poet Laureate is a title held in the United States by a young person who demonstrates skill in the arts, particularly poetry and/or spoken word, is a strong leader, is committed to social justice, and is active in civic discourse and advocacy. It is a title awarded annually to one winner among four finalists, most of whom have been chosen as the Poet Laureate for their city and region.^[2]

The national competition for Youth Poet Laureate is held in May at various distinguished locations, from the Library of Congress to the Kennedy Center, and is judged by a panel of esteemed poets and writers. In its seven years of existence, the award has been granted to seven teens, Amanda Gorman of Los Angeles in 2017, Patricia Frazier of Chicago in 2018, Kara Jackson also of Chicago in 2019, Meera Dasgupta of New York City in 2020, Alexandra Huynh of San Francisco in 2021, Alyssa Gaines of Indianapolis in 2022, and Salome Agbaroji of Los Angeles in 2023. To date, every laureate has been female.

To be chosen as the National Youth Poet Laureate, young people who have served as Youth Poet Laureates in their own cities go through an in-depth application process that includes evaluation of their work, poetry and artistic skills, as well as their in-school and extracurricular activities. These activities collectively must show a desire and action to improve and engage their communities.^[3] In addition to recognizing the talents of a young generation, the National Youth Poet Laureate program attempts to create spaces for young people to participate in political and cultural conversations of their time. During their year of holding the title of National Youth Poet Laureate, the poet attends events across the country doing readings and advocating for young people to participate in the expression of themselves and their generation through literature and poetry.