A passionate poet and creative writer, Chevy Chase teen Tara Prakash considers her grandmother, Sarla Prakash, to be one of her greatest inspirations.
“The two of us share a really big love of writing,” Prakash told MoCo360. “She’s always loved language and from when I was little … she’s always really pushed me. She’s the first person I share a lot of my work with and she just kind of gets my love of language.”
After a childhood spent swapping stories with her grandmother, the 18-year-old Prakash was named Maryland’s first-ever youth poet laureate this spring.
“I think broadly I just want to get writing out there and elevate other people’s voices,” Prakash said, speaking about her goals for the position. “I’m also really excited to just work with other youth poet laureates across the country.”
Prakash is a rising senior at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. Late last year, she was named 2024 Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate by Words, Beats & Life (WBL), a hip-hop-centric, arts-based educational nonprofit based in the District.
Prakash earned her second title as Maryland Youth Poet Laureate in April and began her one-year term in June.
The Maryland Youth Poet Laureate program is overseen by WBL and poetry-focused arts and activism nonprofit DewMore Baltimore. The two organizations partnered with New York-based nonprofit Urban Word, founders of the National Youth Poet Laureate program, to establish the designated position for the state.
In a February Instagram post, DewMore said the nonprofit partners were “proud to help usher in this new statewide initiative for youth voice and literary art as a part of the ever-expanding national network dedicated to the power of poetry through the National Youth Poet Laureate program.”
According to DewMore, the new role is open to Maryland residents aged 13-19.
In April, both WBL and DewMore congratulated Prakash on Instagram for her selection as Maryland’s first youth poet laureate out of five finalists. “Congrats to the current Montgomery County Maryland Youth Poet Laureate for picking up her second title in one year,” WBL wrote April 25.
Prakash said her new role unites creative writing with community impact and service.
“It’s … not only [about] pursuing poetry and going deep into creative writing, but also bringing that to others, so a big goal of mine isn’t just to perform my own work, but to inspire others to do the same,” Prakash said. “It’s definitely [about] social justice, showing the power of poetry [and] all these ways poetry can be used as a tool–and more broadly creative writing.”
As the first Maryland Youth Poet Laureate, Prakash said she will have the opportunity to perform her work at the Library of Congress, White House and U.S. Capitol. She has already performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in her role as Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate and will perform at the Brave New Voices Festival in the District later this month.
“I think poetry is just really powerful,” she said. “It can do a lot of things other forms of communication can’t … like how it can get through to people. It’s just a really powerful way to communicate about issues that really separate people because it kind of transcends those differences in a way.”
Deepening connections
On a personal level, Prakash says poetry has helped deepen her connection with her grandparents.
“Both sets of my grandparents live less than 10 minutes away, so I see them a lot,” she said. “Watching them age and decline in health has been definitely challenging for me because I’m really close to them especially. So I’ve written a lot of poetry trying to process that and sharing it with them has brought me closer to them as well.”
Prakash describes much of her writing as observational. In her middle school years, she kept a trio of notebooks titled “Things That Have Happened to Me, Funny and Fascinating, and Quotes,” where she would jot down her daily observations.
“That kind of like really solidified my habit of observation, of listening to overheard conversations, and then that would become where I would draw from for poetry and fiction writing,” she said.
For Prakash, writing is a communal experience.
“So many people think of writing as this solitary thing that you just do in your room alone, but for me it’s like the opposite,” Prakash said.
“I would definitely say I always try to surround myself with people who also love writing and are willing to give me feedback, and I can do the same, and who just kind of get my work in a way that other people don’t.”
Prakash credits the encouragement of her sixth-grade teacher Becky Farnum at Sidwell Friends and her involvement with an organization called Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop as crucial touchpoints in her development as a poet and creative writer.
Free Minds is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that aids incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths using books, creative writing and peer support, according to the organization.
“[Free Minds is] an incredible organization,” said Prakash, who participated in one of the group’s events as a ninth grader. “They help incarcerated persons interact with poetry, so I was able to see, like, all the ways that poetry can be so powerful.”
Write to Right
In August 2022, at age 16, Prakash started her own nonprofit called Write to Right. She describes the organization as a means “to teach youth creative writing as a tool for social justice.”
Since its founding, Prakash says Write to Right has hosted six year-long and summer workshops free of charge, as well as open-mic and poetry events with incarcerated persons. According to Prakash, the nonprofit holds its youth workshops at schools and local libraries and focuses on teaching elementary and middle school students.
“I had noticed so many kids just didn’t have access to creative writing,” she said. “And especially for me, at that point in ninth grade, writing had been so life-changing and powerful for me and so I wanted to bring that to others.”
Write to Right originated as Prakash’s service project to become an Eagle scout as a member of a Northern Virginia Boy Scouts troop. She said the positive reception from student participants and teachers convinced her to continue the nonprofit even after she received her Eagle rank.
“I think Write to Right definitely helped me get the [Maryland Youth Poet Laureate] position because it just showed my engagement in social justice, using writing to do more than just write myself,” Prakash said.
With college applications and high school graduation on the horizon, Prakash said poetry, creative writing and civic engagement will continue to play significant roles in her life.
“I’m kind of thinking of myself still as the poet laureate even after my term ends,” she said. “The responsibilities in terms of combining poetry with activism still continue.”
