Creative Youth of Arizona

The Phoenix Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) program aims to identify young people committed to poetry, performance, community engagement, education, and equity across Metro Phoenix.

The Youth Poet Laureate serves as a youth literary ambassador for the city. What that entails to each poet laureate will look different, but essentially, they are tasked with spreading their passion for poetry and storytelling to others! The official requirements for a Youth Poet Laureate are to create a community service project, perform at events across Phoenix, and publish a chapbook.

The program began in August 2019, with our inaugural poet, Sareya Taylor, serving from September 2019 to September 2020.

To learn more about them, click here!

Why is the Youth Poet Laureate so important?

We believe that, first, poetry is important.

Poetry is an empowering force, a literary means that can reach all audiences. This is why the adult Poet Laureateships exist, all the way up to the U.S. Poet Laureate. However, the Youth Poet Laureate position is a way to amplify young people’s voices specifically.

Young people are often left out of the conversation, whether that’s poetry or politics.

But if young people are truly ‘the voice of the future,’ then it is important to support and uplift young people now.

How can we expect young people to grow into leaders if we don’t recognize their leadership now?

For those reasons, we feel the Youth Poet Laureate position carries dual importance -- it is a program which can both promote a young person’s poetic career as well as strengthen their leadership.