Youth Poet Laureate Uses Poetry To Tell Her Story
Anna Yang, Coke Scholar 2023, will be Freshman at Stanford in Fall 2023
Anna Yang is a 2023 Coke Scholar, and a recent graduate of Notre Dame High School, San Jose California. She will be a Freshman at Stanford University this Fall.
A Budding Poet
At a very young age, Anna was very imaginative and creative, and loved writing.
Her mom bought her a diary so she could write every day;
When Anna was in fourth grade, she wrote her first poem;
She loved the freedom she had with a poem - that it did not have to be literal.
It really resonated with her.
Publishing Her First Poem
The first poem Anna wrote in fourth grade was called “Lie in the Storms”.
Her mom thought it was really good and wanted her to submit for publication to the Highlights Magazine’s Poetry Page.
So, at an early age, Anna had her first published poem!
Discovering Spoken Poetry
Over the next few years Anna continued writing and publishing a lot of poetry.
In the Sophomore Year of High School, she applied to be the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate.
She was one 10 finalists that year, but didn’t win Youth Poet Laureate.
But, as part of the judging, she had to read her poetry out aloud - something she had never done before.
She found Spoken Poetry a tad scary, but she took to it quickly.
Storytelling Through Spoken Poetry
Soon, Anna could be seen at coffee shops in her neighborhood with other youth poets reading poetry to an audience.
She found it very empowering & encouraging - getting feedback from live listeners, rather than just writing to be published!
This experience gave her the opportunity use poetry to educate the community and tell people her story,
Along the way, Anna participated in a slam competition as part of a team in San Francisco,
And her team actually won first place!
It was confidence boost she needed as she applied to be Youth Poet Laureate the next year.
Becoming Youth Poet Laureate
Anna became the Youth Poet Laureate in her junior Year.
She read 2 poems to the Judges.
She talked about her Chinese identity, and the complexities of being an Asian American and feeling that you have a family in China, and then a family in the US.
How to reconcile these identities, especially during COVID, when she couldn't visit her family in China as often, and she felt like she was drifting away from the Chinese like part of her identity.
Her poems kind of centered around who she is, and the experiences that have shaped who she is today.
These experiences and feelings would be shared by immigrants from other countries, or those that have roots in other countries, but were born in the US, where they can kind of see the common thread throughout humanity.
Duties of Youth Poet Laureate
As Poet Laureate, Anna would be asked to read her poetry at events, or to sign her poetry to be published in books, or anthologies.
Her biggest event was being invited to read for the inauguration of California's Attorney General with California Governor Gavin Newsom in attendance.
On with the Podcast
In this Podcast, Anna talks about her passion for Poetry, Beekeeping, Winning the Coca Cola Scholarship, her college search process, and his advice to high schoolers.
Listen to Anna Yang, Coke Scholar, On her High School Journey. (34-Minute Listen).
Let me know what you think of Anna’s Story.
Have a Great Week!
Venkat