Our latest community-building conversation is now available on YouTube! In an effort to tell the important local stories taking place in Santa Clara and San Mateo county, we host an ongoing series of conversations in which we invite diverse groups of leaders, creators, and activists to engage with one another in a storytelling exchange. In our most recent production, Celebrating Young Poets, San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto is joined by a group of young poets who answered her invitation to write this past challenging year. The student poets read their work aloud and connected with one another in an effort to process the chaotic past year. Some of these students even had the honor of seeing their work published in a book titled I Have a Dream: Inaugural Poems for a New Generation, which came out after President Biden was inaugurated this year.

This collaboration with the San Mateo Poet Laureate and local student poets was arranged by Half Moon Bay High School’s Advanced English Teacher James Ward. Mr. Ward attended the recording of this episode to talk about writing. Ms. Cassinetto herself also presented a poem at the end of the program. It was a moving experience that reminded us of the rich, unique perspective that our youth can bring to the conversation on our rapidly changing and often unpredictable world. The Midpen Media Center is grateful to have had the opportunity to produce this program through the R. Lacey Civic Engagement Initiative.