Kids with Cause II

Here it is. The second anthology of youth voices, "Kids With Causes II." This book is the second installment of a project proposed around two years ago when I applied for the City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate. I wanted to create a space, both on the page and on the stage, where young voices would be heard and honored. In this book, the kids write about what it's like to experience the world around you and enact change. They have written poems of power, prayer, meditation, activism, and awareness. Once again, I am astonished at the pure truthful nature and courage that these young people demonstrate through their original poetry. In this book, you will find students from John Adams Middle School mentored by Ms. Marisa Silva, the Native American Community Academy NACA Radical Poetry Club/Elective that I have taught now for the last two years, the NACA Sisterhood Class taught by Ms. Wysper Carpenter-Kish, an ekphrastic poem written by a member of the ABQ Museum of Art and History school, and more. This book is a love poem, strung together like beads on the same necklace. It is a chorus of harmonized voices that celebrates the youth. It is with much love and respect that I thank the young poets and their mentors for these most necessary and inspirational poems.