{"id":73622,"date":"2025-11-28T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/73622\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T22:03:09","slug":"a-high-schoolers-poetry-became-his-resistance-and-it-won-him-the-title-of-youth-poet-laureate-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/73622\/","title":{"rendered":"A high schooler\u2019s poetry became his resistance, and it won him the title of Youth Poet Laureate \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election on a pro-deportation agenda, McBride High School senior Ezequiel Correa felt moved to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I use this as a medium,\u201d he said of his poetry, to spur \u201cothers to take up action?\u201d<\/p>\n

Colors came to him first: reds and browns, he said, represented the soil and skin of his Mexican ancestors. Then he replayed the rhythms of his conversations with his mother, an immigrant. He conjured motifs evoking his heritage (\u201chuaraches sliding across dust\u201d) and the life he leads in Long Beach (\u201csneakers scraping pavement\u201d).<\/p>\n

All these elements were \u201ca resistance to something,\u201d Correa said: \u201cattacks on our autonomy.\u201d He wove them into a vivid tapestry celebrating his Chicano identity and culture. The resulting poem, \u201cMy Ballad,\u201d<\/a> led him to be honored as this year\u2019s Youth Poet Laureate of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Correa\u2019s mentors described him as \u201cwise beyond his years\u201d (he is 17) and \u201cemotionally honest\u201d (his poetry readings have moved audience members to tears). But above all, he writes about what matters to him, Youth Poet Laureate mentor Nancy Woo said.<\/p>\n

That ethos is essential to the mission of the Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate program, which seeks young poets who are engaged with the world, Woo said. A poet herself, Woo believes poetry should acknowledge the crises people are facing, and she encourages Correa and other youth poet ambassadors to see the complexity and richness of the world.<\/p>\n

Over a year, the poet laureate and ambassadors hone their craft through workshops, and Woo said she has seen Correa \u201cblossom through this program.\u201d Ultimately, \u201cthe youth poet laureate \u2013 laureateship in general \u2013 is a service position,\u201d Woo said. In addition to spreading love for poetry through appearance and speaking events, the position is designed to empower youth to speak truths that poetry can uniquely address.<\/p>\n

In August, Correa was tapped to read at a meeting of Long Beach Unified School District administrators. As he waited for his turn to speak, he heard Superintendent Jill Baker \u201cmince her words,\u201d alluding to recent federal immigration raids without directly naming them, Correa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized then I could take the space not only to just read my poetry, but to also speak out on the terrors that are happening in this country,\u201d Correa said.<\/p>\n

He faced the district\u2019s decision-makers with confidence and prefaced his poem by speaking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, discrimination and resilience.<\/p>\n

Lucy Salazar, director of equity, engagement and partnerships in the district, sat in the audience. \u201cTo acknowledge that in front of our administrators was really powerful,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more we continue to hear students, the better we do as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Correa, it was a turning point in seeing poetry as an essential political tool, one that can bridge understanding and inspire action. (\u201cI can only ever read this type of poem,\u201d he said.) And he looks to young people like Amanda Gorman, the country\u2019s first youth poet laureate<\/a>, who captivated a national audience when she performed her poem \u201cThe Hill We Climb\u201d<\/a> at President Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ezequiel Correa, Youth Poet Laureate, at Long Beach Forward in Long Beach, Monday, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

But Correa also sees how what he\u2019s learned as a poet \u2014 distilling salient information, crafting powerful language \u2014 can translate to other settings, like debates on the House of Representatives floor, he said. As he waits for news on his college applications, he will keep his options open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arts aren\u2019t exactly something that\u2019s super aspirational in our house,\u201d he said. Yet his mother, Martina Gallardo, who has raised five children, including Correa, sees immense potential in her son\u2019s work. \u201cHis poetry allows people, even for just a moment, to really bathe in another entity,\u201d she said in Spanish \u2014 particularly important, she added, at a moment when the U.S. is seeing a rise in white supremacy.<\/p>\n

She is not alone. Amy Crepeau, who helps oversee the youth poet laureate program through the public library, watched Correa and other ambassadors speak at a ceremony in May and was buoyed by their messages and poise. \u201cWe\u2019re in good hands,\u201d she said of the youth poets who are raising their voices in what she called a \u201cheavy\u201d political moment.<\/p>\n

This is what Correa aims to inspire. When he thinks of police in riot gear confronting unarmed protestors or the discrimination his mother has experienced, the injustice feels insurmountable. \u201cHow do you defeat that?\u201d he asked \u2014 and answered in an interview: \u201cThrough hope,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s ultimately what poetry brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Youth Poet Laureate program is currently accepting applications for the 2026-27 cohort. Long Beach teens can check the eligibility and application requirements<\/a> and apply here<\/a> before February 28, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election on a pro-deportation agenda, McBride High School senior Ezequiel Correa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-73622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}