National Youth Poet Laureate Finalist Among Many Firsts for Charlotte Yeung

Charlotte Yeung’s resume boasts a lot of firsts: first on Amazon’s new release list for her children's book, Isabelle and the Magic Bird; founder and lead instructor for a poetry workshop series for women in Afghanistan, and the first Hongkongese American, John Martinson Honors College and Purdue student competing as a National Youth Poet Laureate finalist.

The sophomore political science major has, remarkably, only been writing poetry for a year and a half. She discovered poetry when she participated in Between the Lines: Peace and Writing, an online writing exchange with students from dozens of countries. Meanwhile, she engaged in art activism through an organization called VOICES, a nonprofit in her hometown of Indianapolis that helps local youth pursue economic self-sufficiency and civic engagement. As a high school senior and VOICES YES Fellow, Yeung used her writing to advocate for improved mental health policies in schools, an experience that deeply influenced her writing style.

“I started imbuing my fiction and poetry with issues I really cared about,” Yeung said. That approach paid off, and she was named the Indianapolis Youth Poet Laureate, who also holds the title for the state of Indiana. As the state youth laureate, she entered the regional competition and was selected as the Midwest ambassador, one of four finalists for the honor of National Youth Poet Laureate, a title managed by the nonprofit Urban Word. 

“This is very meaningful to me because most of my poetry education has come from people who work in VOICES and Urban Word,” Yeung said. “I’ve never taken a poetry writing class in college or high school. I didn’t perform poetry until I became the Indy Youth Poet Laureate. I’m now in an Urban Word fellowship where I learn more about refining my craft with the other ambassadors. I wouldn’t be where I am without these two organizations.”

In addition to writing poetry, Yeung plans to become a diplomat and help to advance nuclear non-proliferation, an issue with which she came face-to-face when visiting Hiroshima as an International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) representative in fall 2022. While there, she spoke with hibakusha, survivors of the nuclear bomb, and discussed nuclear policy with the governor and mayor of Hiroshima. 

Yeung sees diplomacy and the chance to be National Youth Poet Laureate as two paths to the same goal: helping those who have lived through war and instability find a voice. Her family history taught her that people need the opportunity to tell their stories, and her coursework in the honors college strengthened her conviction that she could help others using her creative skills. 

Yeung’s grandparents were teachers in China during the Cultural Revolution, a time when intellectuals were persecuted and schools were closed. “My dad saw violence during that time,” Yeung said. “I started thinking how insane that is compared to how I grew up. And how that history was swept under the rug in my family. We can process trauma and events like that in art, particularly poetry, because it requires writers to boil down any experience into the words that matter the most, and that process reflects how our mind simplifies complex experiences into short narratives.”

Yeung experienced the power of arts activism firsthand through an online poetry workshop she developed for women in Afghanistan. Inspired by the honors college course Beyond Afghanistan taught by Professor Elizabeth Brite, Yeung took the skills she learned tutoring Afghan refugees in class and designed and taught the poetry workshop online. 

“It was incredible getting to teach them and see them grow,” Yeung said. “It’s so inspiring because so many of them don’t have access to an education. It’s very brave of them that they were willing to learn poetry in English. That’s like me trying to learn poetry in Japanese, a language I have limited practical experience in. I’m very proud of them for doing that.”

Peter Moore, clinical assistant professor in the honors college will print excerpts of Yeung’s students’ poetry on postcards using a letterpress. The postcards will be displayed in the STEAM lab on the Purdue campus.

Amidst all of these achievements, Yeung is most excited about the one that is literally out of this world. Her bilingual Cantonese English poem “Mid-Autumn" will blast off for the moon in 2024 as part of the Lunar Codex’s Polaris Publication, a time capsule that will land in the Nobile Crater and preserve writing, art, music and film along with other content for future generations.

Yeung will compete with the other four finalists for the National Youth Poet Laureate title in Hawaii in April. When the next youth laureate is announced on April 29, Yeung doesn’t see her future plans changing dramatically regardless of whether or not she is selected. 

“At the end of the day, I’m going to be a poet no matter what I do,” she said. “My main goal has always been to go into policy and contribute to the liberation of those silenced by war and instability.”