Meet the Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Poets
Each year we have not only an Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and Vice Laureate, but we also welcome all of our Finalists into this amazing community of young poets.
Meet the 2022 OYPL Poets
Bios are current as of May, 2022.
Kaylan Black
Kaylan is a junior at Envision Academy of Arts and Technology. She is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars and is on the African American Honor Roll.
Poetry is unique to her because it allows her to freely express herself and it shows how different we are. It is a way to build bonds with others and is a place where she can release her feelings with no qualms about how it may be perceived.
Kaylan Black, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Kaylan Black in conversation with Lucy Flattery-Vickness
Nadia Elbgal
Nadia will be graduating in June from Berkeley High School. She is an active member in her community where she has mentored Yemeni students in OUSD elementary schools and is an activist for the Middle Eastern and Muslim communities.
Nadia is a songwriter who uses poetry daily and feels it is essential to writing her music. Poetry has always made her feel empowered and hopeful. It is a place where she can get her emotions out and is a form of therapy for her.
Nadia Elbgal, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Nadia Elbgal in conversation with Greer Nakadegawa-Lee
Rina Huang
Rina is a junior at The College Preparatory School. She is currently the co-editor of The Steele, her high school's literary journal, in which she publishes often. Rina began writing poetry as a child and as the years passed, her poetry became a way to mark her milestones. Her poems represent the memoirs of herself through the intersections of her identities on being Chinese and American.
Rina Huang, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Rina Huang in conversation with Eleanor Wikstrom
Dara Kashayar
Dara is a junior at Campolindo High School. His family and Persian culture are very important to him. He is a part of the World Affairs Council in the student Ambassador Program and also volunteers with the mayor’s office. He is a writer for his school paper and hopes to leave a positive impact.
He is passionate about using his voice to make a change in Oakland, with a focus on equity.
Dara Kashayar, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Dara Kashayar in conversation with monique jonath
Vincent Ng
Vincent is a junior at Oakland High School. In the summer of 2021, Vincent won the #STOPAAPI hate essay contest where his essay was recognized and published on an OUSD zine. Poetry allows him to realize how powerful and individualized his own voice is as an immigrant who is still navigating it all as a teenager. Writing is a place where he can unleash all his emotions and feel that no one can criticize him.
Vincent Ng, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Vincent Ng in conversation with Chiana Griswa
Xander Timmons
Xander is an eighth grader at Seven Hills School.
He is a passionate artist that is bounded by the unity of movement, words, notes, strings, keys, and colors. He believes the mind is where true humanity stems from and that the body is nothing more than flesh and blood. Xander takes pride in his work and treasures any dose of weird, because what is even the point of being normal, if being normal doesn’t allow him to achieve his goals?
Xander Timmons, 2022 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Xander Timmons in conversation with Siara Edmond
Geronimo Valenzuela
Geronimo is a junior at Oakland Technical High School.
He is an amateur inventor, appreciated fool, and an overall fan of coffee. He is currently writing for his school newspaper and is the prop master for Oakland Tech’s theatre department.
To Geronimo, poetry is a way to chase a more comprehensive truth. Words can have several meanings and references that better express the writer and their message.. Poetry is a social art.
