The National Youth Poet Laureate champions the voices of creative, socially-conscious, motivated young storytellers. In 2017, the Laureate partnered with Amplifier to create artwork celebrating its inaugural appointee, Amanda Gorman. The Harvard student is a published poet, U.N. Youth Delegate, community activist, and more.

“My poetry isn’t always rooted in current events, but it’s always rooted in world or domestic events which speak to social justice and equality,” she told The Boston Globe. “I can write poetry about anything under the sun, but what calls me again and again is to use my pen lyrically in a way in which I can have a dialogue about race, about gender, about class in a way that I couldn’t necessarily do with prose.”

Amplifier surprised Gorman with this piece by Lexee Valdez during the NYPL awards ceremony in New York.