When she arrived at Roanoke’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate competition this past October, Elani Spencer didn’t expect to win. On that cold and windy Saturday, Spencer—a Hollins University freshman and Rochester, New York native—read her poem “Girl” to a sparsely crowded, bundled-up audience at the Melrose Library. Then came the unexpected.
“Although I already knew writing would definitely be a part of my career, becoming the Youth Poet Laureate [made me realize] that is actually possible,” Spencer said. “I always had doubts about going into writing—I was always worried about my financial stability and whether or not these opportunities would find me—but now that I've won the competition, now that I know that that is possible, this is a route I can take.”
It was Hollins professor Eva Lynch-Comer who learned about the program and encouraged Spencer to apply. And now, Spencer is the first of what will hopefully be many future Roanoke Youth Poet Laureates.
Spencer says she generally writes poetry focused around social justice issues. She’s inspired by poets like Danez Smith, valuing the beauty, poetics and accessibility of Smith’s writing. Her winning poem was called “Girl,” and Spencer says it was inspired by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but in a more uplifting manner, “something that focused on the issue, but gave us an out as well.”
“This poem is about coming together and creating a sisterhood, about feminism and being kind to one another and remembering our worth as individuals,” Spencer said. “The main character is struggling with seeing her worth as a woman. Then, there’s a mentor who reminds her that she has a purpose in life. It's going back and forth between these two voices and is supposed to be very encouraging.”
The Youth Poet Laureate program is a collaborative community effort supported by the Roanoke Arts Commission and Roanoke Public Libraries. According to the Roanoke Arts Commission website, they look for “young, civic-minded poets whose quality of work is demonstrated through their performance and commitment to our community.” The Youth Poet Laureate is assessed "based upon their performance of an original work” and poets can be between 13 and 19 years old.
Douglas Jackson, Arts & Culture Coordinator of the Roanoke Arts Commission and Bryan “Harvest Blaque” Hancock of Soul Sessions — a local spoken word night — decided to bring the poet laureate program to Roanoke. They reached out to the National Youth Poet Laureate program, looking for support to get a local chapter started. The arts commission gave Bryan a grant for this first year, under what Jackson is calling “the year of the artist.”
“Our goal with the year of the artist was to highlight that we believe everybody's creative, and we can use our creativity to make the community a better place,” Jackson said. “We're really interested in all the intersections of the arts, everything that makes us a stronger community. So it's only natural to have a youth poet laureate, who's exploring through literature, through words, through imagery.”
On Feb. 20, Spencer was presented to city council by Jackson and introduced by Meighan Sharp, Hollins professor and Chair of the Roanoke Arts Commission. Spencer then read her poem “Perennials,” receiving a standing ovation from council and the audience.
Read Elani Spencer’s poem “Perennials”
Next, Spencer will perform at an arts parade in the spring, and in the fall will tour different schools in the city to educate students about poetry and, she says, hopefully conduct workshops. She hopes to introduce students to different forms of poetry and see what kind of writing they want to do.
“We’re going to let [Elani] shape [her duties as Youth Poet Laureate],” Jackson said. “[But] we want people and artists to look around and see how they might make the community a better place. Say there’s an event happening in a neighborhood that we'd like to set a tone for—that's something that poetry can do. A lot of times people think about the arts, they only think about the visual arts, and it's great to bring in literary projects [too].”
Though Spencer is only at the beginning of her writing career, she’s proven she will be able to pave her path forward as a poet and writer.
“I definitely believe that everyone in life was born with some kind of gift to give to the world,” Spencer said. “And I feel like writing is my gift. I want to be able to use it to inspire change, and to hopefully show people that poetry can be a medium of change.”