Alexandra Huỳnh & Lori Bongiorno | 2021 MAKERS Conference Finale

Lori Bongiorno, General Manager of Yahoo News, Lifestyle, Entertainment and MAKERS, interviews Alexandra Huỳnh, the 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate has an honest conversation with Lori Bongiorno, discussing art, identity and intersectionality.

Video Transcript

LORI BONGIORNO: Hi, Alexandra. Welcome. Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring poem. There's so many things I want to ask you about, but I'd love to start with what was the inspiration.

ALEXANDRA HUYNH: First, thank you for having me. I wrote this poem during the pandemic. And at that point, I had spent a year doing everything virtually. So the second half of my senior year was cut short, and I was taking classes on Zoom. And after that, I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my summer.

And I realized that I hadn't really taken time to sit down and reflect on how everything that I experienced impacted me. And when I took time to process that, I realized that there was a theme of constant go, go, go in my life pre-pandemic. Before everything shut down, I always used my responsibilities, my commitments as an excuse to not take time to check in with myself.

And during the pandemic, all of that kind of fell away. And I realized that when I know myself, there is really nothing to fear, because I understand what my strengths are and I understand what my weaknesses are. None of those solely define me. And so this poem was a way for me to kind of lay those out-- lay what I've learned out, reframe my weaknesses into superpowers of sorts, and also to gain clarity on how I want to take these experiences to move forward in a way that feels true to me.

LORI BONGIORNO: Yeah, what a beautiful way to process the past 18 months. And I can definitely relate to the go, go, go and distraction of it all. One thing that struck me is this line that said, there is a word for how I feel, and I am not afraid to know its name. So what is the word for you? What is the word that you're talking about there?

ALEXANDRA HUYNH: I think that when I was writing that poem, I was thinking about this article in the "New York Times" by Adam Grant where he talks about the concept of languishing, which is an emotion that a lot of people experienced during the pandemic where they had this sort of stagnation. They didn't feel like they were thriving, but they weren't necessarily depressed.

And my personal experience with this was that I kind of used it as a way to invalidate how I was feeling. I didn't feel like there was a particular-- I had an excuse for being unhappy. But what I realized was feeling unhappy doesn't make me ungrateful, and that my emotions were a completely human reaction to the circumstances.

It is OK to feel terrible. But at the end of the day, putting a name to these kinds of emotions, negative emotions broadly, or even joyful ones, is a way for me to separate myself from them and understand that, while I can feel those emotions, I'm not those emotions. And they will always pass.

But there's something permanent about me that I really love. And that's a way for me to hold on to that, to be truly accepting of all the ways that I am human.

LORI BONGIORNO: Yeah. That article spurred and made a lot of people feel better. I had so many friends texting me and saying, that is the word. That is the word I've needed to describe the way that I feel. You know what? You have said that it's important for you to express all the aspects of your identity.

And I was wondering as I was reading about you and watching many videos, like, what does intersectionality mean to you? And why is it important, and authenticity also important?

ALEXANDRA HUYNH: Well, I think for young people in particular, it's important to portray intersectional narratives because growing up, I noticed in my own communities and with my peers that there is this pressure to choose a lane-- to go into college, for example, know what you want to major in, and follow that path, when, in reality, no one actually knows what they're doing. So I think the best way to wayfind is to be open to all of the ways of knowing.

And that comes from being a part of different communities, from learning things from different fields, and using that to inform an idea of how you want to move in the world. So for me, I never want to be put into a box. And I want people to understand that I think my success as a poet has come from being things that are other than a poet, if that makes sense.

So I'm kind of leaning into the fact that I'm never going to be any one thing, and no one is because there's no simple story. And in accepting that nuance, I think we open up a lot of possibility for radical compassion and for empathy, because intersectionality is where we're going to find the stories that feel most human to us, but also where we're going to find solutions that work best for everyone.

LORI BONGIORNO: Yeah. That totally makes sense. And it's those combinations that make each person unique, in many ways. And you're combining, you know, poetry and engineering now, which is also really interesting. My last question for you is so you have this national platform, right, as the youth national poet laureate, and you're also studying engineering at Stanford. There's so much possibility ahead. What impact do you hope to make?

ALEXANDRA HUYNH: I think my answer to this question changes a little bit the more time I spend in this role. Initially, I had the concept of sharing my community stories as my North Star, per se. And that was definitely still at the forefront of my mind. I am so grateful to be able to represent the Vietnamese-American community, to be a second generation student, to show that the arts scene in Sacramento, California is absolutely beautiful.

But more than that, I realize that the political nature of my work isn't necessarily in what I say, but the fact that I'm willing to say it. I want to show to young people that it's OK to speak in a way that's authentic to you. And the thing I love about poetry is that there really are no rules, and that even if someone doesn't ask for your opinion, there are many people who very much need to hear it.

And so what I want to do is to be my most vulnerable self in order to empower other young people to speak up, because I don't want my voice to be at the forefront of all of our national conversations. I am the national youth poet laureate, but there are so many other amazing poets in this nation that perhaps haven't been given the platform or resources that I have been lucky enough to have. And so if I can keep opening up those spaces and uplifting those voices, then I think we're going to be able to get a better picture of what's going on in the world of youth and create solutions that are actually tailored to their needs.

LORI BONGIORNO: What an amazing vision. And, yes, I think the youth holds a lot of possibility. And I personally want to thank you for spending your time with us today. And I cannot wait to see the adventure you have ahead of you. So thank you, thank you-- really, really great to meet you and have you here.

ALEXANDRA HUYNH: Thank you so much, Lori.