“How many women have given up their dreams to fit into the vision of womanhood we gifted them? This is the story of the past, the pulp that drips through the strainer of time onto the canvas of the future. We are the painters of the portraits who the girls of today will one day become.”
This excerpt is from the poetry of the winner of the 2024 Alameda County Youth Poet Laureate Competition, Jovina Zion Pradeep. Alameda County Library announced the winners in early August. The 2024 Youth Poet Vice-Laureate is Ashwika Jani, and both young poets are from Fremont.
Youth Poet Laureate Pradeep said she was encouraged by her teachers to join the competition. The process of writing and choosing her poems for the contest was tough. “I had to narrow the exact topics that I wanted to focus on and the exact imagery that I wanted to evoke in them,” Pradeep said.
“Every plastic bottle and ton of carbon dropped is an explosion, a wave that fades away into the impermanent glory covered in the silky cobalt blue as bubbles festooned upon the ships bedecking its surface.” – Jovina Pradeep
Pradeep’s poems were about celebrating diversity, protecting the environment, and women’s empowerment. She is passionate about these topics and aspires to be a businesswoman. “I know how hard it is sometimes to just be respected for your ideas as a woman so I wanted to promote that idea,” Pradeep said.
A panel of judges, including an Afroindigenous poet and a former Alameda County Co-Youth Poet Laureate, looks over candidates’ poetry for their content, craft and voice. They also look over their involvement in volunteer or extracurricular activities for leadership potential. The young poets had to also perform in front of the judges during the interview.
County Poet Laureates and Vice Laureates have the option to compete in state, regional and national poetry competitions. The inaugural Alameda County Youth Poet Laureate of 2021, Zoe Dorado, won second place in the national competition.
The Poet Laureate receives a Macbook and computer accessories, will get their poems published in a national anthology, and can organize events with the help of Alameda County Library. The Vice-Laureate receives an iPad and accessories. The Poet Laureate and Vice-Laureate will be invited to perform their poetry at public events throughout the year.
The Laureate and Vice Laureate term lasts a year, from August 3, 2024 until August 1, 2025. Jenny Rogers, a librarian at Alameda County Library, said County Poet Laureates can spend the term attending library panels, getting their poems published, teaching poetry writing to middle school students and organizing spoken word events.
Pradeep said she was excited to accept her title as Youth Poet Laureate during the awards ceremony, adding that the Master of Ceremonies for the event was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, an annual literary project that includes poems and is considered the most honored literary project in America. “I honestly just felt very honored to be there,” Pradeep said.
Pradeep has a lot of ideas she hopes will come to fruition as Laureate for the next year. The first potential project is to launch an anthology filled with poems, art and photography submitted by high school and college students in Alameda County. The second potential project is holding a literary festival for the youth.
Vice-Laureate Jani said her poems were motivated by telling her own story in order to learn from others. “I realize that there was a connection to be found and that I could actually learn about other people’s stories if I share my own,” Jani said. “This idea of trying to take something abstract, an experience, and translating it into something concrete in order to find connection with other people.”
“I implore you from my place on this podium
With all of my respect and then some
Please jo, look straight, and see
Our world is relevant to you and me
Wars inspire hatred and poetry
Juxtaposed with a world of couture and pleasantries
You can change the world by having a dream.” – Ashwika Jani
Vice-Laureate Jani wrote about her roots, the first-generation immigrant experience, coming-of-age and a Shakespearean Sonnet inspired by Indian Classical Music.
Jani said she wants people to enjoy poetry again. “Poetry still is wildly underappreciated and I think that sort of bringing new life to it and making it easier for people to understand and not just see it as something that is traditionally considered a little bit elitist or a little bit hard to understand,” Jani said. “That was one of my goals, to make it more accessible.”
