Boston's new Youth Poet Laureate once hated reading poetry
BOSTON - There's a new poet in town. Boston's new Youth Poet Laureate is Parker-Vincent Alva.
"I think it's so powerful. It's really writing diluted down to its most emotional," the Boston Latin School student told WBZ-TV.
The city surprised Alva with the position at a ceremony, beating out nine other semi-finalists.
"The picture they have of me when I found out, I look terrified because I'm like 'What? What do you mean?'" Alva said.
The sophomore from Roslindale told WBZ-TV that poetry hasn't always been their thing.
"I hate reading poetry"
"In fourth grade my teacher was like 'I'm going to make you guys love poetry' and I was like 'I hate poetry.' I would go home all the time and say, 'I hate reading poetry, I hate doing this, I don't understand what this means,'" Alva said.
But after experimenting with writing songs, they eventually turned into poems anyway.
"I really enjoy that there were no rules and I could keep going back and back to something and it could mean different things every time," said Alva.
Youth Poet Laureate book
As the new Youth Poet Laureate, Parker gets to publish a book that will be made available at all Boston Public Library branches. They want the book to be a representation of them and the importance of community.
"I just want it to be new. I want it to be experimental. I want it to be things that people haven't seen before or haven't seen written about. I want it to make people uncomfortable, but I want it to make people seen," Alva said.
"Look at those emotions"
Alva believes age doesn't define emotions and wants their poetry to reflect that.
"I feel like as young adults coming into the world, people my age have a lot of feelings about things and those feelings are often discounted or seen as, you're a teenager you're feeling them more strongly. I think it's important to look at those emotions and think why am I feeling that so strongly," Alva said.
There is a working title for the eventual book, but that's a secret for now. Alva encourages any young person looking to write poetry, to not be defined by traditional rules.
"It can mean so many different things to so many different people, so really pour your own meaning into it and keep going with it,"
