Remember these Names

What’s incredible about this year's Youth Poet Laureates is that, despite their age, they are filled to the brim with contagious energy, sophisticated ideas and beautiful artistic talent.  Words Beats and Life had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the three YPL’s to hear about their passion for the arts.  

Remember these names: Sarina Patel, Elana Ernst and Kashvi Ramani.  These three poets have a lot to say and we’re ready to listen.

Elana Ernst is a 7th grader.  Let that sink in.  Ernst doesn’t let her age define her ability to relate to her audience and share an incredible talent with the community.  “Words have always been important to me,” said Ernst.  After noticing a lack of arts education in her community, Ernst has vowed to do all she can to enable accessible arts education to those that might not have it.

“I was first drawn to poetry on a dare,” said DC Youth Poet Laureate Sarina Patel.  “I then started writing poems as a mechanism to express my feelings.”  Patel started to use poetry to explore politics, something she is incredibly passionate about.  She also likes reading the work of individuals that weren’t technically considered poets, like Malcom X.  What drew her most to the art form is the fact that poems “can be a form of revolution.”

“A lot of the time my brain moves faster than my mouth does,” says Arlington YPL Kashvi Ramani.  Ramani, Like Patel, uses writing as a coping mechanism.  She often finds herself communicating through poetry what she can’t by word of mouth.  Ramani also served on the DC Youth Slam Team from 2020 to 2021.  “I’ve seen a huge lack of poetry in my community,” she said.  Ramani explained that there is a major emphasis on STEM fields in her community rather than the arts and she wanted to bridge this gap for others that may be in the same position as she is.

When asked where they draw their artistic inspiration from, Ernst explains that she feels inspired by music specifically.  Patel draws inspiration from the people and poets around her.  She loves people watching and finds that her best work comes when she analyzes the everyday moves of other people in her community.  Patel explains that she is inspired by her online community, especially in the COVID era where physically connecting with other people can be hard.

Ramani and Patel are of Indian heritage and both explain that this has a huge impact on the way in which they express themselves.  Ramani often asks herself, “is this heritage really mine?”  She explains that in India, she doesn’t feel “brown enough” and in America she doesn’t feel “American enough.”  Ramani talked a lot about the struggle to understand her own identity and the way she fits in with both communities.  Patel even started her own collective for BIPOC teens to create space and resources for minority youth.

I’ll say it again: Remember their names. Sarina Patel, Elana Ernst and Kashvi Ramani.  These young artists give their whole selves to their work and could not be more capable of taking on the role of Youth Poet Laureates.  Whether it’s spreading information and resources to BIPOC youth or creating a space for arts education amongst a community that really lacks it, these YPL’s are doing what most of us can only dream to do.  Watch out world, here they come!