Youth Poet Laureate Commencement

Join us on Friday, February 2, 5:30–7:00 PM for a night of powerful poetry and to celebrate the 2024 Lexingont Youth Poet Laureate Finalists:

Zoya Abbas – Lafayette High
Eva Alcaraz-Monje – Lafayette High
Reyna Radhakrishnan – Lafayette High
Nina Tay – Paul Laurence Dunbar High
Sophie Watson – Lafayette High

This event will feature special performances by the Lexington Youth Poet Laureate finalists and keynote speaker Deidra White. We will conclude the evening with the announcement of the 2024 Lexington Youth Poet Laureate. The Youth Poet Laureate Program is an initiative of Urban Word, with partner programs in more than 70 cities, regions, and states across the country–including the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning.

Deidra White is a Lexington, Ky. native and poet. She received the 2022 Farquhar Poetry Award for “Meihua,” the Patricia and William Stacy Endowed Fellowship for Distinguished Honors in English, the William Hugh Jansen Fiction Award in the Art of Storytelling/Folklore for “Woodstock,” and the 2023 Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Nonfiction Award for her contemporary piece “DUCK.” Her work engages the tradition of Affrilachian writing and explores the intricate dynamics of Black womanhood with an eye to past and present connections.

KET (Kentucky Educational Television) will be filming throughout the event.