Discover 14.1 Winter 2021

ANOUK YEH

Artivist

Santa Clara’s First Youth Poet Laureate

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 aninvestigative 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

Written by Johanna Harlow

Photography by Daniel Garcia

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