With the new City of Urbana Poet Laureate, Ashanti Files, installed in her post, Urbana’s Arts & Culture Program continues to seek it’s first ever youth poet laureate.
According to the CIty of Urbana’s Arts & Culture Program website:
The inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Program celebrates Urbana’s youth by sponsoring an Urbana teen poet (ages 13 – 18) who serves as a youth ambassador for poetry and utilizes poetry as a means for civic leadership, artistic excellence, and social engagement.
Urbana’s Youth Poet Laureate Program joins the National Youth Poet Laureate Program (YPL) network through Urban Word with programs in more than 50 cities, states and counties across the United States, collaborating with leading national literary organizations including the Library of Congress, the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Foundation, Cave Canem, and the National Endowment for the Arts. “The Youth Poet Laureate Program is one of the nation’s most important civic movements of this genearation. The YPLs are a collective of not only brilliant young writers but also deeply committed, young civic leaders working to improve their communities,” said Dr. Camea Davis, National Youth Poet Laureate Director. Urbana’s Youth Poet Laureate will be eligible to apply for the 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate Competition
Learn more about the initiative, or to nominate a talented young poet you know here.
Top image from the Urbana Arts & Culture Program’s website