Santa Barbara Inaugurates Two Youth Poet Laureates

 Melinda Palacio

Kundai Chikowero and Madeline Miller photo by Rod Rolle

Santa Barbara County's First Youth Poet Laureate is Madeline Miller, who was born in Mexico City and grew up in Santa Barbara. Her laurels wrap around poetry and community activism. She works as an assistant at a local law firm and holds several titles in slam poetry, including two first place titles at the 2021 San Marcos High School Poetry Slam and the 2021 Santa Barbara County Poetry Slam. Read Madeline's poem "Bird Song" and others by young poets at the SB County Youth Poet Laureate website.

The county's first Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador, Kundai Chikowero was awarded the Outstanding Youth Leader--the City of Santa Barbara in 2018. She has published two volumes of poetry and has won the Martin Luther King Jr. Essay and Poetry competition six times since 7th grade.

As a judge for the the Martin Luther King Jr. Contest, I've watched Kundai blossom over the years. This is a newly indoctrinated position and the young women are excited about their titles. Kundai said, "the groundwork has not yet been laid out," but she looks forward to more events.  Both youth laureates have done great work, well before the title was bestowed upon them.  Kundai shares two of her poems with La Bloga. 

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By Kundai Chikowero

 

 

At the end of the day

When the news turns off

The paper discarded

The radio switched to aux

When sound is replaced with silence

Writing will still prevail

 

An art form existing beyond the voice of the speaker

One that can’t be powered off

Turned down

Or unplugged

 

You have a role

To act in the best interest 

And when the breaking news is censored

And the complicated conversation you do not want to address is still occurring.

Thank the writing

 

The form of writing so

Rhythmical 

Almost magical

The songs literacy

Preserved and distributed through paper

 

Because poetry is not just an art form

But a voice

Both quiet and loud

Explicit and vague

 

We must work as one

Listen as one

No us versus them

Breadcrumbing 

Or performative action

There will come a day when people remember their voice

And at the end of the day

We will use that voice

 

 

Hypocrisy

By

Kundai Chikowero

 

 

An irrelevant question

ludicrous, may I add

If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it

Does it make a sound?

To propose that existence

May only be in existence

If it is existing in perception of a human

Who is also existing

George Berkeley begs the question

Taking the action of existing

Away from the existee

Earth

And putting it on the perceiver

Human

In vanity, the human experience

Has deviated from being on earth

To being just to be

egregiously expected to fund and sustain existence

From beings who cannot exist within themselves

With a higher level of consciousness

comes a greater responsibility

Existence is no longer left up to the earth

But maintenance lies on us

To carry what we create

As we will only go as far

As the load we create allows us to