Who Made This?

Los Angeles
A city with freeways that run like my veins
And a soul the breeze of an open PCH passed the pier

But I fear every new crack in the road
Is a new obstacle
And it’s full of potholes and dents that you won’t fill

So when I lay in bed and sleep
I dream
Of my parents and grandparents before me
who fought to give me
The thread of my story to weave
Because they chose to believe

In Los Angeles

Stepping off a plane or ship
Fresh from the South Pacific
Into the unknown
With nothing but their skin bone and hope

Into A city built by brown hands
From days in the dirt and sun
A concrete river of flowing sweat and tears
With monsters of personified fears

Los Angeles, America
Was built by immigrants
Paving our own path
And making yours too

Yet you can’t see
The children and innocent families
You tear apart quick at the seems
And the wounds you let bleed
For your own sake of selfishness and greed
And the pain in which you feed (off)
And dump lives in that river of abandoned dreams

You cover your stained red hands in gloves
And your devilish grin a mask
Because you never stop to ask
Who made this?

The first amendment applies
Only when it benefits you
Even when you chose to
Do nothing when bullets go right through
The people that gave you this country

Their pockets are empty
Gave you all they had
Their life
Their souls
All mixed up swimming through your bedroom’s fish bowl

“This America, use English” Whenever they speak so
As if they didn’t name La Cienega, La Brea and Pico

And you sit and plan how best to dispose of people
People like rats scrambling through a sewer
Because we skewer
Your vision of a white America

You thrive
While we’re ostracized and villainized
And washed your hands clean
From the tears of the children that cried
For their mothers and fathers
Being ripped away for a cash prize

So let each star on the sidewalk
Be wiped away and let there lay
The names of the lost who gave their
Hands to raising this city
Just to be dragged away by the sleeve
With their face pressed against the boiling concrete

There can be no white America
Without it being tainted with a bloody red
Lest our bodies lay at the lowest seabed
Abandoned with a rope or a gaping hole in the head
As you hide your relief so it won’t be you instead

The YPL program is designed to support and uplift youth poets in their development as writers, while providing resources and opportunities for growth and public service. The program components include:

• Group mentorship from a local poet.
• Monthly feedback workshops to share and comment on each other’s work, facilitated by an experienced poet-teacher.
• Monthly craft lessons taught by professionals in the fields of literary arts, writing, publishing, public speaking, etc.
• Weekly email prompts.
• Professional development opportunities, such as support with headshots and professional bios, sending work out for publication, and applying for grants.
• Opportunities to read or showcase their work.
• Option to design and implement a service project of their choice.
• Engagement in local civic and historical discourse with Social Impact Partner, Long Beach Forward, and Historical Partner, Rancho Los Alamitos.
• Publication in a Long Beach Public Library anthology at the end of the service year.
• A featured showcase reading sponsored by the Library near the end of the service year.
• Access to the National Youth Poet Laureate network, including virtual workshops and regional competitions.
• Other opportunities as they arise throughout the year.

While many of the opportunities that arise throughout the year may be optional, the Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate cohort is required to complete the following as part of their service contract:

• Attend a majority of the regularly scheduled monthly (craft and feedback) workshops.
• Submit work for publication in the LBPL YPL anthology.
• Participate in the final showcase reading at the end of the service year.
• Attend at least one (1) Community Engagement.

In addition, the Youth Poet Laureate is required to:

• Participate in the National Youth Poet Laureate program, including attending all required meetings.
• Be available for opportunities that specifically request the Laureate’s involvement, such as special City- or Library-sponsored events.

Participants in this program can expect to build strong and meaningful relationships with each other as a part of their literary community, as well as relationships with other organizations throughout the broader literary and activist communities.

• Writing shows promise and may engage with literary techniques and complex subject matter.
• A well-rounded individual involved in their community and school.
• Someone who is interested in uplifting their community with a desire to make an impact/change.
• Demonstrates leadership and willingness to be an active supporter of others.
• Someone who is able to be an active participant in the program workshops, conversations, and events throughout the year.
• Someone who is eager to share their perspectives about the world and community around them through poetry.
• Someone with a passion for writing, poetry, and the literary arts.
• Someone open to learning and growing as a writer in the program, including being mentored by a poet in the community.
• Able to dedicate time outside of program activities to write, revise, and practice.
• Willingness to do public speaking in front of audiences.
• Someone who may be excited to design a service project to benefit their community.
• Clear and responsive communicator who is attentive to program coordinators and requests.

2026-2027

• Youth Poet Laureate: Ajala Sen
• Youth Poet Ambassadors:
• Annali Bojorquez
• Cecelia Rogers
• Kieran Lundy
• Ruby Giles

2025-2026

• Youth Poet Laureate: Ezequiel Correa
• Youth Poet Ambassadors:
  • Eden Gonzalez
  • Maddox Harris
  • Macuilquiahuitl Ixeh
  • Adele Odette

2024-2025

• Youth Poet Laureate: Helena Donato-Sapp
• Youth Poet Ambassadors:
  • Liam "Lee" Balmeo
  • Jorany Chim
  • Ezequiel Correa
  • Sammantha Martinez
  • Ajala Sen
• Against the Storm: Poems of Resistance; Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate 2024-25 Anthology

2023-2024

• Youth Poet Laureate: Claire Beeli
• Youth Poet Ambassadors:
  • Helena Donato-Sapp
  • Matilda Iem
  • Kieran Lundy
  • Sofia Uribe
• Verses on the Horizon: 2023 Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate Cohort Anthology