The art of College poetry

This year, Harvard College is home to one current and two former National Youth Poet Laureates, a lineage that began with inaugural honoree Amanda Gorman ’20. National Youth Poet Laureate Evan Wang ’29 and former laureates Salome Agbaroji ’27 and Alyssa Gaines ’26 recently spoke with the Gazette about how the title changed them, balancing arts and academics, and how their poetry has evolved during their time at Harvard.

---

When Wang sits down to write (usually late at night in his dorm room), he is already thinking about the stage. The first-year tests each line for how it may sound when spoken aloud, and imagines what hand gestures he can use for emphasis.

“When I’m prepping for a performance, I think of ways that I can accentuate certain aspects of the poem,” he said. “I really want to have fluctuation; it should never be monotone. Which word you choose to stress within the poem redefines the meaning.”

As National Youth Poet Laureate, Wang is in high demand. His debut chapbook, “Slow Burn,” comes out next month. He has been working with a composer on a choral piece that the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia is scheduled to premiere in June. This year he’s performed at the Google DeepMind headquarters in London, the AFS Youth Assembly in New York, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in D.C.

Wang began to pursue poetry seriously in 2021, after a spoken word poem he wrote and performed about his own experience with racial microaggressions garnered positive attention in his school district.

“That just really motivated me to continue writing about my own experiences, because I realized how quickly a poem about myself can become a poem for others and can be about others,” Wang said.

Wang’s poems are reflective and confessional, and he writes mainly about queer romance, yearning, and the immigrant experience.

“I’m always taking risks,” Wang said. “I’m always diving deeper into myself to see what I’m really trying to say. A lot of my mentors describe my poetry as ‘sharp,’ because a lot of my lines are terse. They don’t waste a lot of breath, and they really are a gut punch.”

Wang said his approach to poetry changed after seeing a video of author Ocean Vuong, one of his greatest inspirations, performing the poem “Head First.”

“The poem was so vulnerable, but it used the word ‘stupid,’ which is quite colloquial,” Wang recalled. “For so long, I thought poetry had to be pristine. I thought it was Shakespeare and Whitman. From then on out, I wrote poetry as a way to explore my own vulnerability, as a way to become really intimate.”

Wang is chair of the IOP Coalition for the Arts, a creative director for FIG. Magazine, and involved in the Harvard College China Forum. He is passionate about poetry as a form of entertainment and wants to collaborate on projects that combine poetry with other art forms. It was when he heard dancer Misty Copeland speak about representation at the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal ceremony that he truly realized how much the arts have changed his life.

“I remember sitting in the audience thinking I cannot imagine a future where my life is separated from the arts,” Wang said. “That really served as a catalyst for me to really begin considering poetry as a viable career.”

---

Agbaroji believes that many Harvard students are poets, though few would describe themselves that way. Too often, she said, the label feels reserved for those with awards or titles. She hopes to change that perception.

“This is an art form that is so democratic and generalizable,” Agbaroji said. “You don’t need a recording studio, you don’t need a film crew, you literally just need your brain and the words. I’m hoping to influence people to try to write and create in a way that doesn’t necessitate excellence, but maybe just fun.”

The social studies concentrator is currently recording a spoken word poetry and music album in the SOCH studio . She said having a project with an end goal has given motivation to her writing practice.

“I make the time between classes, while I’m eating dinner, sometimes in my bed at 3 a.m., because I am so eager for people to experience the work,” Agbaroji said. “It’s a different motivation. Before I was writing because I was struck with inspiration. This one is a sense of urgency, because I’m just so excited to put out my first official project.”

She recalled her first year at Harvard as a “balancing act,” juggling academics and a social life while serving as National Youth Poet Laureate. Sometimes that meant having a little FOMO (she missed Yardfest because she was giving a TED Talk) but resulted in some incredible memories, like meeting President Joe Biden and former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on a visit to the White House.

Agbaroji, who began writing poetry at age 14 during the pandemic, has always written about social and political issues, advocating against inequality and injustice. But recently she’s made room for more personal writing.

“I’m giving my work space to be about me: ‘Salome had a bad day today, let’s write about that,’” she said. “I think I’m appreciating that breadth I’m gaining as I mature as an artist.”

On campus, Agbaroji captains Omo Naija, Harvard’s African dance troupe, and is in the Signet Society. These days, the poets who inspire her most are rappers Kendrick Lamar, Noname, and Tierra Whack. Agbaroji, who is also a singer, regularly fuses poetry and music, which she said she was hesitant to do at first, due to the way she was first introduced to poetry: as an art form that is supposed to stand alone. Her album will feature both poetry and music.

“You’re supposed to be impactful with just your words and the stage. You shouldn’t need a song, you shouldn’t need a prop, all the power should live in the words,” Agbaroji explained. “But poets also know that rules are meant to be broken. I knew that coming to Harvard, that would be another element of myself I wanted to grow confidence in. I’m glad I did, and I keep challenging myself in that way.”

---

Last summer, Gaines realized she can’t live without writing.

It may not seem like a surprising revelation for someone who has been participating in poetry competitions since age 8. But after serving as National Youth Poet Laureate as a first-year, Gaines took a two-year break from poetry to explore other interests and career options through a joint concentration in Social Studies and History of Art and Architecture.

Then, an internship at Macmillan Publishers the summer before senior year brought her right back.

“I was around books all day long, and I was like, ‘OK, this is the thing I love,’” said Gaines, who declared a secondary in English. “I realized that I love writing, and I don’t see a life without it. I think poetry is always a part of the way I think about the world.”

Gaines recalls her first year as a pivotal time of growth and new experiences. On weekends she would often travel to perform her poetry at events like Bloomberg Philanthropy’s Earthshot Prize and the YPO EDGE summit and return to campus for classes and homework. Despite her status as National Youth Poet Laureate, she still felt impostor syndrome at Harvard, and felt pressure to pursue a practical career, even if it wasn’t her passion.

“I felt like the stakes were super high, and maybe I didn’t feel the authority to bet on myself as a writer, as a creative person,” Gaines recalled. “Through being at Harvard and being in classes with people who are throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the things that they love, I had to learn that that’s okay to do.”

This year, she has returned to creative writing in full force, working in whatever blocks of time she can find: between study sessions, in the dining hall, or even jotting down lines if they come to mind in class. Her work, which lately has explored themes of maritime navigation, the transatlantic slave trade, migration, and memory, carries a rhythm punctuated by alliteration that reflects her years performing spoken word.

Gaines serves on the art board of the Harvard Advocate, as well as the JFK Jr. Forum Committee at the IOP. She has been co-director of the Black Arts Collective and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Poets who inspire her include June Jordan, Sonia Sanchez, Frank Bidart, and Reginald Dwayne Betts, as well as Tracy K. Smith, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory and Professor of African and African American Studies.

 “I think it took some time for me to get back to writing poems and trying to see how my artistry, my craft, can develop,” Gaines said. “There’s so much for me to discover and to keep learning and to try again.”