In December 2019, the City of Worcester selected the first youth poet laureate in Massachusetts, Amina Mohammad. Over her two years in office, Mohammad, who grew up in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood, would move from live readings to a virtual world that included not just poetry but finishing her high school years and starting college.
As her term was coming to an end, she shared, “… poetry comes in all shapes and forms, and this would be the best way to express how you feel about this certain situation that’s going on.”
You can read more in her discussion with Devy Forcina at https://worcesterculture.org/writing-expressing-and-healing-an-interview-with-amina-mohammed-worcester-youth-poet-laureate/.
You can also read her poem “Change” at https://www.uml.edu/Magazine/Summer-2021/amina-poem.aspx. You will also find a selection of Mohammad’s poems on the City of Worcester’s poet laureate’s webpage (http://www.worcesterma.gov/cultural-development/poet – scroll to the bottom).