Mongtomery County student earns Maryland’s first Youth Poet Laureate title

CHEVY CHASE, Md. ( DC News Now ) — Rising high school senior Tara Prakash from Chevy Chase became Maryland’s first-ever youth poet laureate at age 18.

The poet has performed at the Kennedy Center and earned various accolades through her rhymes, including previously being named the Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate.

“Poetry is just like a really powerful tool,” Prakash said. “I feel like it can do a lot of things that other forms of communication can’t and kind of like [bring] people who are divided and kind of [transcend] those differences.”

Turning emotions into verses that resonate well with diverse voices is a lifelong mission for the rising Sidwell Friends School senior. She said that her ultimate goal is to touch on themes of unity, resilience and hope while teaching others that it’s “ok to be different” and “ok to be bold.”

“I really want to… inspire other people to use their voice. Like a big part of my role is performing, but I feel like the greatest satisfaction is like talking to people afterward and explaining to them why I love poetry, and how accessible it can be,” Prakash told DC News Now.

The Chevy Chase native credits much of her success to her grandmother, Sarla Prakash, who she said inspires her to be unique and evoke feelings through words.

“She and I have always kind of shared a love of language,” Prakash said. “She’s always kind of gotten my love of words and of reading like no one else has.”

The award-winning poet said she looks forward to using her new title to expand her platform to inspire and help others from disadvantaged communities through her non-profit, Write to Right.

“What I love the most is the community and just how everyone comes together,” Prakash said, as she noted the “best feeling ever” is when people find a safe haven through the magic of words.

She shared many of her ideas in her poems —  including one of her favorites “On Erosion,” which intersects the themes of aging and nature — come from first-hand experiences that have helped her become the young woman she is today.

“I’ve kept like these three notebooks and they’re called like, ‘Thing That Have Happened to Me; Funny and Fascinating; and Quotes. [In] there, I kind of just wrote down like things around me that then became the fodder of my work.”

Prakash who hopes to use her tenure as Maryland’s first Youth Poet Laureate to invoke positive messages across her community said she may consider running for the title of National Youth Poet Laureate — the same title Amanda Gorman earned, who acclaimed notable fame at President Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

But for now, Prakash said she’s focused on helping her community and processing the news of becoming the first youth ever to hold such a title in her home state.

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