Philly’s youth poet laureate

Otter Jung-Allen, Philadelphia’s Youth Poet Laureate, performs a poem called “Praise,” about their father. Otter Jung-Allen is a seventeen-year-old genderqueer poet and performer from West Philly. They are the coach of Science Leadership Academy’s Slam League team, a 2015 Brave New Voices International Champion, the 2015 Liberty Unplugged Champion, and the 2016-17 Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Jung-Allen was inducted as the fourth youth poet laureate in July 2016; their recently announced signature project, Voices of the East Coast, will publish original work by young poets ages 14 to 19 from Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York City, Hampton Roads, and Atlanta in a joint production with the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, the National Youth Poet Laureate program, Urban Word, and Penmanship Books.

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