Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate

Artivist ANOUK YEH

Santa Clara’s First Youth Poet Laureate

Written by Johanna Harlow Photography by Daniel Garcia

anoukyeh.com Instagram uh.nouk Twitter anoukyeh Anouk Yeh isn’t the kind of poet who cloaks her pieces in vague phrases or ambiguous analogies. As an artivist (art activist)—tackling heavy-hitting social and political issues like racism, ageism, gun violence, and sexual harassment—mysterious stanzas don’t cut it.

Poems are “vessels for awareness” for Santa Clara Youth Poet Laureate Program’s very first recipient, and there’s little time to dance around meaning. Spoken word is more palatable than soapbox speeches…so why not opt for a direct approach? “People are, in a way, kind of caught off guard in the best way possible,” the high school senior explains. “I think poetry, like all art, kind of coaxes people to drop down their defenses.”

Anouk’s experiences as a student journalist at Saratoga High School have greatly impacted her work. “I think it’s made me unafraid to more concretely attach my poems to current events,” she says, like when she reported on Saratoga Union High School District’s Me Too movement for an investigative assignment. After a few student survivors spoke up about sexual harassment and assault on campus, Anouk interviewed students and organizers involved. “I was intrigued by the entire dynamic—like how a group of 16- to 17-year-olds, young female students, were able to lead this movement that ended up also making local and national headlines.”

The incident invoked a piece called “Ode to Teenage Girls,” which got her noticed by the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program. There’s a haunting ache to the uncomfortable questions the

“color wheel connotations”

by Anouk Yeh

my art teacher, ever the whimsic tells me that colors are just complex emotions

running her fingers along the edge of the color wheel, she says colors convey emotions, like every good taylor swift lyric

depending on colors interpretations may change

my art teacher floods her canvas with red, says red by itself is angry

but red, drizzled with passion fruit orange is a glowing sunset smile

my art teacher says that depending on colors interpretations may change

like how gold on purple is royalty in the middle ages

but gold on silver is san francisco circa 1949

like how black and yellow is a bop

but black and blue is a bruise

depending on colors interpretations may change

like how black on white is classy

but black on black is dirty

like how gun on white is patriot

but gun on color is terrorist

like how crime on white is sex addiction

but crime on color is still terrorist

depending on colors interpretations will change

so in the courtroom, when they arm up to paint with royal blues and subdued hues

i know they are painting an inherent eulogy so in the court

when they arm up to paint with pastels and white tinted pigments i know they are painting a soft sentence

where the canvas is the accused the paint brush: the judge’s gavel

and the colors the colors: the verdict

“I think poetry, like all art, kind of coaxes people to drop down their defenses.”

-Anouk Yeh

poem asks: “isn’t that teenage girlhood? knowing that anytime, anyone you love could be swallowed / by a boy who thinks he can pocket the sun / knowing that there are men who want to pop your vocal chords like violin strings but still choosing to excavate a song from your lips,” Anouk prompts. “what is more teenage girl than constantly mourning / the way your body turned into someone else’s gaudy souvenir, but still / belting the lyrics everytime taylor swift comes on the radio because / that’s your song and at least no one can take that joy from you?”

The poem grieves, but there’s also strength expressed in the bold empathy and raw vulnerability of its lines. “I think there’s a very emotional and a very personal component to spoken word that really helps make that revolution irresistible,” Anouk shares.

Early last year, her powerful poems gained her an invite to speak at the Women’s March Oakland to a crowd of 600. “Before that, I had only performed a few poems to a few people at the local open mics—and my dog. So not that many,” Anouk laughs.

As she continues to gain traction, Anouk has begun pitching places beyond her school paper, writing stories for publications like Refinery29 and Education Post—and then there’s her work as our county’s first youth poet laureate.

During her fellowship, she and vice poet laureate Mahder Aklilu will organize several youth poetry workshops, including one for the incarcerated youth of Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, which will culminate in a published anthology.

The latter workshop was inspired by her time volunteering with the Prison Journalism Project, a program that helps incarcerated writers pursue publication. The organization taught Anouk to ask important questions about mass incarceration. “Isn’t it weird, when we have these national and international conversations about incarceration and no one who has a seat at that table has been incarcerated before?” the poet asks now. “[Incarcerated] voices are never amplified. Their voices are never truly factored in.”

Anouk’s workshop will inspire youth at the detention center to tell their stories and their truth, while processing their experiences and exploring their identities. “Everyone needs an artistic outlet,” she asserts, adding that she also hopes to encourage her workshop attendees to re-imagine what our nation might look like through a lens of restorative justice.

As for her other workshops, Anouk hopes to champion student voices, showing the value our youth contribute to advocacy causes. “As young people, we harbor this sense of unquenchable hope,” she states. “I think a lot of the time, because we are so hopeful, we can be written off as unrealistic—but I think that optimism and radical joy should be amplified more, rather than pushed aside.” Certainly, Anouk herself will bring her candor and contagious expectancy to many more projects and causes to come. C