Book Information
For press inquiries and booking please contact:
Linda DeRosett, Youth Programs & Volunteer CoordinatorLexington Youth Poet Laureate Program Coordinator
lderosett@carnegiecenterlex.org | (859) 254-4175, ext. 229
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFeb 11, 2026
Tony Robinson Named Lexington Youth Poet Laureate
Lexington, KY – On February 11th, five finalists vied for the Lexington Youth Poet Laureate title in a commencement ceremony hosted at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Of those five, Tony Robinson, a senior at Lafayette High School, was chosen as the 2026 Lexington Youth Poet Laureate (LYPL) by a panel of esteemed judges, that included Katerina Stoykova, Elizabeth Kilcoyne, Sean Corbin, and Jay McCoy.
Runner-up Mady Dinh, along with Rylie Humphress, Gauri Joshi, and Ash Sauer, will continue to serve as official ambassadors to the City’s historic and vibrant cultures of poetry and literature, using their positions to promote local writers and the transformative qualities of poetry and the written word.
The National Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) identifies, celebrates, and honors teen poets who exhibit a commitment to artistic excellence along with civic engagement and youth leadership. YPL collaborates with local youth literary arts organizations and leading national literary organizations. “The Lexington Youth Poet Laureate is a title that allows one to speak, and express the truth that is often overlooked.” Stated the Youth Program and Volunteer Coordinator, Brandon Hatfield.
Robinson said, “Poetry to me means a mode of expression in the short, accessible, and figurative that can express the complex.”
For press inquiries and booking please contact:
Linda DeRosett, Youth Programs & Volunteer Coordinator
Lexington Youth Poet Laureate Program Coordinator
lderosett@carnegiecenterlex.org | (859) 254-4175, ext. 229
More About the National Youth Poet Laureate Program
Founded in 2008, the National Youth Poet Laureate Program identifies and celebrates teen poets who exhibit a commitment to artistic excellence, civic engagement, youth leadership and social justice. Learn more at http://www.youthlaureate.org
More About the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational and community center devoted to helping all citizens improve their quality of life through education and expression. Our open-door policy invites people young and old to learn something new. We offer seasonal classes in writing, publishing, and languages; tutoring for students grades K-12; vibrant youth and family programs and exhibits; readings from established authors and local literary icons; and other arts-related events designed to encourage among Central Kentuckians an appreciation for learning and the arts. Learn more at CarnegieCenterLex.org.
More About Urban Word
Urban Word is an award-winning youth literary arts and youth development organization that collaborates with local youth literary arts organizations across the country to provide uncensored platforms for youth voice. It is championed by the leading national literary organizations, including the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities, the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, PEN Center USA, Cave Canem, and the Library of Congress.
Poems
Count
You’ve got metal on your tongue,
found metal between your finger tips
topped off by a number and name
maturing to the body count of 73,077,
I believe in your ability to find the dead
worth finding.
Shift through bodies, shift through
nameless faces, blasted,
take their claim to a skeleton,
bare your chest in medallions
memento, identify the moment
you lost your head.
Identify the way you’ve layered
a hole in the ground,
disconnected from the longest part
of life, your death.
Bird
Fallen, the bird
is stripped of its feathers.
Clipped, strung tethered
to the corkboard that
splinters, and spits
brown mulch from its
screwed rotted face.
Solace, is found
in the gaping wisdom
Caught, from the bird’s
beak. He says how
his struggle is a
testament to the
might of blue feathers
and Elmer’s glue.
Captivation, only lasts
as far as you can find the time.
Jostled, the bird
swings with the sway
of children’s laughter.
Thankful,
Bloodied, he is
blessed in finding purpose.
Pain, is a reason
to escape or find yourself
on a pin board. Posed,
is the wisdom of a bluejay.
My brother is a traveler,
he has been gone for many
moons;
skipped town before the sun
set over the horizon. No one
said goodbye, but there are
legends that he left loudly,
just unseen, unnoticed.
In Milan, there resides catacombs
and cathedrals
lined with bones. I’m convinced
he’s seen them, became as
fascinated as I with the
concepts of a church
turned to dead.
Leading to him laying his head to rest
at the footsteps of a priest, calling it home.
My brother is mute,
he never spoke a word
but always caused a ruckus.
I made a nice
clean-up crew.
Though,
it’d be unrealistic to say,
his departure did not
mark some end to my carefulness.
Prodigal brother, not to return home till
my hands mark the day on the calendar
in ink. The sun rises and sets,
and I pray it shines
brighter on your head.
Thinking back on his heart beat,
badum — I realized I had only
memorized how he sounded when he
was asleep. Distant, far away, his soul
ran slow to me. My auditory and tactile
sense discouraged, quite suddenly,
by the irreparable factor like a broken
car, sour lemon, he was rendered driving
on a broken motor, I had no fix to.
Suddenly,
and spontaneously having combusted
on the side of the highway he’d made back
to me.
The Gnostics argue that Judas did not betray
from hate, rather a love unknown to others,
a kiss on the cheek, a devotion to God, to promise
of devotion
to carry out a plan, knowing your demise,
But considering, Abraham still brought
his son to the hill instead of the lamb,
it is found true that love, on occasion,
may only truly fashion itself as its devotion
to distance, to something inexplicable and
omnipresent.
