A Conversation with Young Poets Webinar
July 24, 2020Virtual
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM Eastern Time (ET)
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Let’s celebrate poetry together! “In These Moments, In These Movements” is a conversation between Youth Poet Laureates Alondra Bobadilla (Boston), Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay (Nashville), and Sareya Taylor (Phoenix), facilitated by Bow Seat’s intern Akhila Bandlora and Heather Laurel Jensen, a 2018 National Student Poet.
We will be discussing everything from the arts communities in our cities, to accessibility within arts scenes, to our responsibilities as poets to the world! The last half hour of the event will be devoted to writing and sharing out.
About the Speakers:
Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay was the first Nashville Youth Poet Laureate and the 2016 Poet Ambassador for the Southeast. She has been published in Nashville Arts Magazine, The Tennessean, Chapter 16, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Shanghai Literary Review, Atlas and Alice, The Felt, Indian Lit, and Poetry Society of America. Her first book “this is our war” was released through Penmanship Press in 2016. Her second book “everything is always leaving” was released through M.C. Sarkar & Sons in Kolkata, India in 2019. And also, very recently her poetry album ‘i don’t know anyone here’ has been published and released in Nashville, TN.
Born and raised in Boston, MA for most of her life, Alondra Bobadilla found and nurtured her love for writing since she learned her first letters. Besides writing, she has participated in multiple performance art forms since she was a little girl, finding ways to express herself beyond poetry alone. She’s curious, lively and loves to learn. In her free time she spends it with friends and loved ones, always trying to put first the people that matter most. She is a student at Fenway High School, and was named Boston’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate in January 2020.
Heather Laurel Jensen is a freshman at the University of Arizona. She served as National Student Poet of the Southwest 2018 and is co-president of Creative Youth of Arizona, an organization that administers the Phoenix Youth Poet Laureate program and develops creative opportunities for young Arizonans. Her poetry, short stories, and photography have been published by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Best Teen Writing of Arizona, diode poetry journal, Polyphony HS, and the Live Poets Society of New Jersey, among others. She is eighteen years old.
Sareya Taylor is a 18 year old member of the White Mountain Apache and Navajo tribes. Sareya’s pronouns are she/her/they/them. Sareya enjoys writing poetry and being a youth advocate for under represented groups. The rededication of the true history of Indigenous people and educating others about current issues within Indian Country is extremely important to her as she expresses her passion through poetry. She currently serves as Youth Poet Laureate of Phoenix, Arizona and a Unity 25 under 25 youth. She plans to go to college and get a degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education with a minor in Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing.
Akhila is an 18-year-old Freakonomics enthusiast, octopus lover, and above all, a poet. She has lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for most of her life, but is headed to Princeton University this fall. The recipient of Bow Seat’s Gold Award for poetry in 2017, her work has been featured by Greenpeace USA, The Ocean Project, and Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center, among others.