Tennessee Voices, Episode 300: Alora Young, poet and author of 'WALKING GENTRY HOME'
Alora Young remembers wanting to be a poet from the time she was 2 years old, and she wrote her first poem at 7 called "Stars of Sorrow, Moving Tomorrow."
The poem reflected her sadness at her family moving to Nashville, and she has always sought to tell the truth in her work, even when it pains her.
Young likes to say, she's "telling the truth with pizzazz."
Since then, the Hillsboro High graduate has served as the 2020 Youth Poet Laureate of Nashville and the 2021 Youth Poet Laureate of the Southern United States.
On this, the 300th episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, Young spoke about her artistic journey, her creative influences and what drove her to write her book.
"WALKING GENTRY HOME: A Memoir of My Foremothers in Verse" tells 270 years of her family history told in verse and based on long interviews with her family members to recreate the stories of her living and long-departed ancestors.
The book talks about what it means to be a Black woman in America and that Black women have always been part of American history.
She read from the section about her ancestor Gentry during this episode.
Young, now a student at Swarthmore College, is practitioner of rhythmic poetic and compares her style to a modern-day West African griot.
We talked about art capturing the human experience and her poems in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Her book comes out on Aug. 2 and she will be talking about it that evening at Parnassus Books. The event is free, but registration is required.
More: Youth poet laureate Alora Young's reflection on inequity, tragedy, fear and friendship | Opinion
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The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Capturing the human experience with poet Alora Young
