How growing up as a Black girl in Indy inspired the new National Youth Poet Laureate

by ELIZABETH GABRIEL via https://www.wfyi.org/

his year’s National Youth Poet Laureate is recent Indianapolis high school graduate Alyssa Gaines.

Since third grade, Gaines has participated in the Indianapolis Youth Poet Laureate program through the location organization VOICES. Now as the national youth poet laureate, she will spend the next year leading writing workshops, speaking and performing at cultural events across the country, as well as writing a monthly blog hosted by the Library of Congress. Gaines will attend Harvard University this fall.

WFYI’s Elizabeth Gabriel spoke with Gaines about her experiences as a Black Hoosier and how they have influenced her writing career. The interview was edited for clarity. 

Elizabeth Gabriel: How old were you when you started writing, and how did you become so involved with poetry?

Alyssa Gaines: So I started writing poetry with an assignment in my third grade English class, and we all wrote poems about a color. And I think at that time, I was starting to become more aware of the factors that affected how I saw myself and the cultural traditions that I interacted with. And so I chose to write about the…

Read More: How growing up as a Black girl in Indy inspired the new National Youth Poet Laureate