FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 23, 2015-- NYC Votes and Urban Word NYC are pleased to announce that Nkosi Nkululeko has been crowned the New York City Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) for 2016. He claimed the title at the seventh annual YPL spoken word competition at 92nd Street Y on December 19th. He delivered the winning performance of his original poem, “How It Sounded to Squish a Cockroach” (video and text included below).
19-year-old Nkosi is a Callaloo Fellow and The Watering Hole Fellow. He has received nominations for the American Voices Award, Independent Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize. Nkosi was a member of the 2014 Urban Word NYC Slam Team and the 2015 Urbana-NYC Slam Team. He has performed his written works in venues such as the Apollo Theater, Nuyorican Poets Café and Harlem Stage. His work is currently published in No Token, Rose Red Review, Hobart and elsewhere. He lives in Harlem, New York, and enjoys listening to jazz.
As Youth Poet Laureate, Nkosi will work with the CFB's voter education campaign, NYC Votes, to reach young voters across the five boroughs, promoting voting and civic engagement at public events and various peer-to-peer engagement programs. The YPL program delivers a positive voting message to thousands of young New Yorkers each year through performances, speeches, voter registration drives, and neighborhood outreach.
Mr. Nkululeko said: "I’m thrilled to be NYC’s 2016 Youth Poet Laureate! I look forward to continuing to use my voice and art to communicate to people from all corners of this city, and hopefully beyond, the importance of fully acknowledging and exercising their power as citizens.”
The Youth Poet Laureate program promotes creative self-expression and civic engagement through spoken word poetry. The competition is a partnership between NYC Votes, Urban World NYC, and the 92nd Street Y.
“We are pleased to introduce Nkosi Nkululeko as the 2016 Youth Poet Laureate” said Onida Coward Mayers, director of voter assistance at the NYC Campaign Finance Board. “As the NYC Votes ambassador of civic activism and engagement, Nkosi will carry the responsibility of encouraging young people across the city to find their voting voice throughout the critical elections of 2016.”
Michael Cirelli, executive director of Urban Word NYC, said: "Nkosi represents the top tier of both artistic excellence and youth leadership, that teens are more than capable of achieving. When we believe that our youth can excel at the highest levels, not only do they meet our challenge, but they thrive. That’s what this program represents, and Nkosi is the embodiment of those principles in action. We’re thrilled that he is the 2016 NYC Youth Poet Laureate."
"92nd Street Y has been a home to great writers and readers. It is joyful to host talented young poets, their positive message and vision," said Larisa Gelman, Director of the Educational Outreach Center at 92nd Street Y.
Youth-oriented groups interested in inviting the Youth Poet Laureate to speak about voting and to perform his poetry may contact the CFB's Voter Assistance Unit to make arrangements.
How It Sounded To Squish a Cockroach
It was as if splintering a shard
of wood with a bag of blood
in its body, the dark beast,
dissolving in the palm of my hand
against the ceramic basin
of my bathroom just as I pressed
into its abdomen, potentially executing
its children that would, in fact, foster
colonies in the sink were it not
for this simple act of carnage.
If my hand, in that moment,
was not God, explain its ease
in deciding the creature’s fate,
beneath the palm, becoming alike
to spilled oil, slick & staining,
its wings unfolding below the skin,
black smeared upon black.
This, an erosion of deadly colors
much like a portrait
of a citizen, so hidden behind
its own blood that it becomes less
than a citizen but more like a roach
squished on the side of a sink
without a voice or rhetoric, unable
to vote against the things that which kills it.
& isn’t that the most common & tragic story
of any creature’s inability to speak
the same language of its conqueror,
but we still say; Please, do not make me the body
that only the outraged will remember.
My fellow countrymen, I suggest we vote
to make the slaughtering of roaches
illegal, because don’t most of us
know how it feels to be beneath the palm;
pressed & oppressed?
NYC Votes is the nonpartisan voter engagement campaign of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) and its Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC). In addition to promoting voter registration, participation, and civic engagement in New York City through its many programs and partnerships, NYC Votes sponsors the city's official Debate Program and produces the citywide Voter Guide.
Urban Word NYC presents literary arts education and youth development programs in the areas of creative writing, journalism, college prep, literature, and hip-hop. It provides writing workshops to teens year-round and hosts the Annual Teen Poetry Slam.
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