Her predecessor, Aya de León, ceremonially passed her laurel on to Masri during the meeting, alongside a crown of olive branches — a reference to Masri’s Palestinian heritage.
Masri, who has taught kindergarten at Berkwood Hedge School since 2001, will serve as the city’s poet laureate for two years. Her term started on Jan. 1 and will end on Dec. 31, 2027.
The poet laureate program was established in 2017, with poet laureates acting as creative ambassadors for Berkeley and working “to champion the city’s literary arts community,” according to city spokesperson Seung Lee.
Masri’s poetry is inspired by her Palestinian and Lebanese heritage, and her work often focuses on the connection between land and ancestry.
Masri was chosen through a competitive process, in which applicants were judged on expertise in poetry, literary experience, performance of spoken word and community engagement. Applicants were also required to demonstrate having a “deep and meaningful relationship with Berkeley,” according to the application form.
During their two-year term, the new poet laureate will create an original poem about Berkeley, hold public readings and recite poems at city and library events, as well as mentor the youth laureates. The poet laureate will additionally receive a $5,000 honorarium for their two-year service term.
Concurrently, Berkeley High School freshman Nolawit Ketema recently stepped into her role as Berkeley’s Youth Poet Laureate alongside her classmate Rachel Dunn, also a freshman, who will serve as the Vice Youth Poet Laureate. Unlike the city’s poet laureate, youth laureates only serve a one-year term.
The Youth Poet Laureate program began in 2024 through the Berkeley Public Library. Robyn Sweet — the Teen Services librarian at the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library — helped start the program after seeing how successful Oakland’s Youth Poet Laureate program was.
According to Sweet, the program helps empower teen voices by giving them a platform to share their ideas and perspectives, and perform poetry in front of their peers and the greater Berkeley community.
In a press release, Ketema said that writing and poetry are how she makes sense of “emotions and experiences” that she doesn’t know how to say out loud.
“Poetry shouldn’t demand perfection or expertise, only openness,” she added in the release. “If even one piece makes someone feel seen, understood, or less alone, then the words have done what they were meant to do.”
For Sweet, the benefits of the program go both ways. She adds that being able to listen to youth voices can also have a profound impact on adults.
“It’s not often that adults get to listen to creative voices coming from youth,” she said. “It just brings another perspective than those that we’re already hearing all the time.”