Ailin Sha is a young woman of many talents. A virtuosic writer, a burgeoning activist and a sharp violinist, the 18-year-old plans to put her creative skills and global life experience to good use as Boston’s newest Youth Poet Laureate.

The Boston Youth Poet Laureate role is a two-year position during which a young poet works to bring poetry into classrooms and civic spaces. Sha was selected from a pool of six finalists from around Boston ranging in age from 13 to 18. In powerful verse, she reflects on her experience immigrating to the United States from China at age 11. She is now a freshman at Harvard University studying English and economics with a minor in film.

Her experience as both a Bostonian and an immigrant struck a chord with the selection panel.

“Ailin’s poems move like light through uncertainty, carrying questions of home, language and belonging,” said Angela Veizaga, chief of Youth & Family Engagement at the Boston Public Library and member of the selection panel. “Writing as a young Chinese immigrant, she gives voice to identity at a moment when it is being publicly tested, meeting that pressure not with fear, but with clarity and quiet bravery.”

The Boston Youth Poet Laureate was established in 2019 and is powered by a multi-prong collaboration between the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the national youth literary organization Urban Word and local youth literary organizers from the Boston Public Library, Mass Poetry, Fine Arts Work Center, 826 Boston and GrubStreet.

The role is fresh. Sha began her appointment on Feb. 1, and she already has big plans. The poet hopes to launch a youth poetry workshop series at the Boston Public Library, an accessible space where young people can explore poetry as a means of connection, self-expression and advocacy.

“It’s truly an honor to be named Boston’s fourth Youth Poet Laureate,” Sha said. “I’m excited to use poetry to connect young people to one another and help strengthen access to the arts throughout our city.”

Sha will be out in the city over the next two years hosting workshops, speaking on panels and working closely with Boston Poet Laureate Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah, who performs a similar function on a larger stage as the city’s official poetic ambassador.

“Ailin wears her heritage as a badge of honor and it shines through her writing,” said Oppong-Yeboah. “As a proud Asian American immigrant, Ailin writes to celebrate all the aspects of her layered identity — her poetry is moving, lyric, and insightful. …She will be a phenomenal Youth Poet Laureate for our city.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more about the Youth Poet Laureate program at boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/boston-youthpoet-laureate