Broward County Library and Ellsworth Public Library are hosting “An Online Conversation with Alexandra Huynh”, National Youth Poet Laureate, as part of the NEA Big Read program.
Broward County Library and Ellsworth Public Library are hosting “An Online Conversation with Alexandra Huynh”, National Youth Poet Laureate, as part of the NEA Big Read program. Alexandra Huynh will discuss her life, poetry, and answer participants’ questions during this online conversation. Alexandra’s passion includes passing on her own experiences to others.
Alexandra Huynh is an 18-year-old second-generation Vietnamese American poet from Sacramento, CA. She is a 2021 Sacramento Youth Poet Laureate, a program of Sacramento Area Youth Speaks, and is a Western Regional Ambassador and the 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. Alexandra began writing poetry in elementary school in the form of song. She gravitated towards poetry as a means to express complex emotions, but she seldom shared her work. When she competed in her first poetry slam in high school, she landed a spot on the Sacramento Area Youth Speaks Slam Team, which would go on to compete at the International Brave New Voices Festival. Heartened by the warm and visionary people she met, she has been immersed in poetry ever since. As a second-generation individual, Alexandra employs poetry as a tool of self-reclamation and social justice for marginalized communities. She embodies a radical pride in her Vietnamese heritage, and seeks to write her story outside of the context of whiteness. Through poetry, she hopes to give students a vocabulary to articulate their lived experiences and empower them to shape their future.
The 2021 South Florida Youth Poet Laureate Isabella Ramírez will be serving as our moderator for this conversation. She is an award-winning writer from Lake Worth, Florida who was appointed as the 2020 National Student Poet of the Southeast, one of the highest honors for youth poetry in the nation. Some of her accolades include placing first in the 2021 Louder Than A Bomb Florida Indy competition, earning a National Silver Medal from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, earning Merit Winner and Honorable Mention designations in Spoken Word from the National YoungArts Foundation, getting published in “The Best Teen Writing of 2020,” and winning the 2021 Emerging Writer Button Poetry Video Contest. Through poetry, Isabella hopes to inspire others and provide a platform for social justice. The South Florida Youth Poet Laureate competition is a collaboration between the Jason Taylor Foundation’s Omari Hardwick bluapple Poetry Network, and Urban Word, a New York-based literary arts education and youth development organization.
The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
The Broward Public Library Foundation is a 501(c) 3 charitable organization incorporated in 1982 committed to enhancing the collections, programs, and services of the Broward County Library system beyond the means of public funding. Broward Public Library Foundation is the proud sponsor of the NEA Big Read program striving to achieve a state of excellence throughout the county's family of libraries.
The Ellsworth Public Library, located in Ellsworth, Maine, is a vibrant and essential community resource, educating and inspiring the people we serve.
AGE GROUP: | Teens | Families | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Online/Virtual | Author Events |
TAGS: | NEA Big Read |
Mon, Apr 22 | 12:00PM to 8:00PM |
Tue, Apr 23 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Wed, Apr 24 | 12:00PM to 8:00PM |
Thu, Apr 25 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Fri, Apr 26 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sat, Apr 27 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sun, Apr 28 | Closed |