At eight years old, Kai Diata wrote their first poem. Now, at 19, they are New York City’s Youth Poet Laureate.
Growing up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Diata and their mother were members of the New Black Arts Movement. The organization, a space focused on Black liberation, inspired Diata, who wrote their first poem after listening to a meeting. From there, Diata’s journey of writing political poetry began.
With a visual artist mother, Diata was constantly surrounded by artists in their youth. Their mother engaged in participatory art, creating a piece and allowing people to add to it. “Growing up, she was creating a lot, and we would go to a lot of spaces,” Diata says. One of these spaces was The Laundromat Project, an arts organization advancing artists and neighbors as change agents in their respective communities. Exposure to a variety of artists across mediums inspired Diata.
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“I had a lot of people nearby who [did] music. For a few years, I would do poetry, and I had a mini band, and we would do it together. That could not have happened without community,” says Diata. Community organization, STooPS hosts an annual event connecting Bed-Stuy’s community with art accessibility and honoring local artists. At eight, Diata participated, sharing their poetry. As a first foray into performing their work, participating confirmed to Diata their need to perform.
Diata’s education began at a homeschool co-op from age five through elementary school. With a Black history-focused curriculum, they learned about figures such as Langston Hughes and Assata Shakur. “I feel like that opened up the world of Black poetry as a whole,” Diata says. “It was like, ‘Ah, this is what that looks like.’”
Poetry and performance was paused however, when Diata began middle school at Mark Twain Intermediate School, instead turning their focus to academia. They returned to poetry after seeing Mahogany L. Browne’s performance at the Lincoln Center in 2023. “I remember one specific night where I went to see Mahogany L. Browne at the Lincoln Center, and that blew my mind. That changed my entire perspective,” says Diata. “I just saw her on stage and the way she commanded space, even when she wasn’t telling a poem, when she wasn’t performing a poem, I [said], ‘I want to do that.’”
Brown’s performance pushed Diata to start thinking about what performing meant to them. “There was an urban word slam. I was among the 20 finalists for it, and I didn’t win. But it was incredible just having the experience. That’s when I really realized how much performance is an aspect.” They dedicated themselves to writing more and working towards becoming the poet of their dreams.
A few months after seeing Browne perform, Diata received the opportunity to ask her a question at a panel. “I [asked], ‘As a young poet in Brooklyn, in New York, where should I go? What should I do? How do I expand?’ she said, Urban Word,” says Diata. “For me, that locked it in. I [said], okay, this is what I need to do. So I found the Youth Poet Laureate program.”
Diata applied to the Youth Poet Laureate program in 2023, earning the spot of first runner-up in the competition. “ I [said], ‘This is amazing. This is cool. I’m a poet, and I want to win.’ So I did it one more year.” In November 2024, Diata earned their official title as 2024 – 2025 New York City Youth Poet Laureate.
This role launched everything for Diata. They continue to build a network of poets and are able to attend events to share their work as well as continue Urban Word’s mission of creating change through civic engagement.
Currently in a gap year, Diata will attend Howard University next fall. A poet who was runner up with them the first year they applied to be the youth laureate attends Howard as well. “I’m hoping that I go over there and we really start a new poetry scene or get into it and help build it.” Diata is excited to further participate in the DMV’s poetry community, specifically their slam scene. “Baltimore is known for their poets, like New York. I got to visit them for a slam [poetry event], and I know some people there. To me, Baltimore is the next scene to navigate, to really slam in and to build community with, because really, ideally, none of us are separated.” For Diata, slam poetry is training for poets to communicate their messages and practice activism through art.
They could talk about slam poetry culture all day, if possible. Diata holds excitement to navigate more of the slam poetry community and try to mend aspects of it.
“I feel I’m constantly mending communities because I’m one of the few youth poets in the slam scene,” says Diata. “There are very few of us. I feel I’m trying to mend that community and youth with poetry in general, because it’s such an adult dominated and sometimes usually male dominated space as well, even among Black people.”
Diata plans to shift dynamics with hopes to mend New York poetry with Baltimore poetry. Healing communities through their work remains part of their personal mission and is something Diata will continue to do within their youth laureate role and beyond.
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