Eight youth poet laureates collaborated on the multimedia project "Cotton: A Retrospective." This collection of original poems was inspired by John Dowell's powerful photography series "Cotton." Check out the entire collection and watch youth poet Malachi "Malpractice" Byrd perform his poem "Forced Labor."

Students from our academy's poetry classes created this multimedia project. Learn more about our academy’s youth poet laureate program or sign up for our free poetry classes for youth (13 to 18) and young adults (18 to 22) below.

This project is presented by Words Beats and Life, Washington Performing Arts Society and the National Endowment For The Arts.