SPOKES Youth Advisory Board
Want to Join a team of young people who actively participate in Youth Speaks programs, give us feedback, help us imagine, and plan our activities and events throughout the year? Join SPOKES! SPOKES is Youth Speaks youth advisory board! Each year, ten Bay Area youth join SPOKES to grow as cultural organizers and arts practitioners by using their leadership skills to make the world more just, liberatory, and fun for their communities.
Zoe
Zoe (e/em) is a queer autistic editor, essayist, and poet. E is currently studying math at UC Berkeley.
Zoe first sought out poetry because e felt it would be a better way to articulate eir experiences than e had at the time. That was almost three years ago. Since then, it has become eir most vital craft.
Poetry is a distillation, a clarification of life and of meaning. It’s a way to communicate and understand; e writes, and in the process, e finds emself. Writing pins down ambiguities and poetry sharpens them, brightens them, pulls emotion straight from eir lungs and weaves it into meaning. It’s not just transference—it’s art. It’s the most honest, beautiful way e's found to put eir thoughts where e can see them.
Poetry is also a weapon, because art is a weapon for those denied understanding. It’s a way to communicate outside of the familiar, which means it still gets to people when logic has long become background noise.
Sareena
Sareena Kumar (she/her) is currently a senior who goes to school in Marin, California. She is passionate about spreading environmental awareness through poetry, specifically about matters such as climate change. Poetry was not a hobby she had had for a long time, but rather, she stumbled upon it at the beginning of sophomore year and felt a natural inclination to it. To her, a line of poem is also a snapshot, a lens through which to explore issues and highlight the beauty in the mundane. Through Youth Speaks and SPOKES, she is grateful to have found a community where she can use her love for this art form to enact positive change. When she is not writing poetry, she enjoys hanging out with friends and composing her own songs.
Vee
Vee Juarez (they/them) is a 13 year old poet who uses they/them pronouns and has a passion for marine biology. Their poetry explores complex topics such as morality in religion, death, queerness, and whatever else comes to mind. Their favorite way to get creative is making metaphors out of the everyday mundane. Vee performed as a member of After Angelou at the Maya Angelou Monument unveiling and was also a finalist for the Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam 2024. Vee believes a good poem is one that makes someone else feel seen —a motivation behind every piece
Sam
Sam Luo (he/him) is an immigrant poet from Guangzhou, China. He is a 2023 YoungArts Winner for Spoken Word, U.S. Presidential Scholar of the Arts Semifinalist, and the 2024 Claudia Ann Seaman Award recipient for poetry. His work has been featured by Disney, FOX, and California’s state career planning website. Sam’s words appear in Polyphony Lit, The Quarter(ly), and The Lumiere Review, among others. Formerly a Get Lit Player with the Get Lit - Words Ignite nonprofit, Sam traveled across Southern California colleges and high schools performing classic and response poetry as a part of Get Lit's brand-new UC-Approved, Standards and SEL-Aligned online Poetry and Ethnic Studies Curriculum. Sam is currently an editor at Berkeley Poetry Review.
Mei
Mei Chung (she/her) is a 15-year-old poet from San Francisco who joined SPOKES because poetry and spoken word is something that she couldn’t live without. She aims to inspire people with her poetry and help other teens feel heard and understood. Mei is also a singer with the Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco. In her spare time, she enjoys playing guitar and hanging out with her two cats. She loves the Youth Speaks and SPOKES community and hopes to make a positive impact in the world with her writing
Lilith
Lilith Kelly (she/her) is a Latina transgender poet and Bay Area native, recognized as a semifinalist in the 2024 Teen Poetry Slam. Serving as the president of the CVCHS Slam Poetry Team and an active member of Spokes, Lilith regularly participates in Youth Speaks events. Her work thoughtfully explores themes of the trans experience, romance, and mental health, offering a candid and nuanced perspective through her poetry. Lilith’s favorite subjects are math and psychology, reflecting her curiosity and analytical mindset.
