As she stood in front of 3,000 people at The Anthem in D.C., sophomore Elana Ernst read the first few words from her poem “Wounds Like These” about her feelings surrounding the ongoing war in Israel.
Writing poetry is a way for Ernst to manage her emotions and deal with challenges that come up in her life. She does this by writing things that she feels unable to express any other way.
While Elana wrote some poetry for fun before the COVID-19 pandemic, her passion for poetry blossomed during National Poetry Writing Month in April 2020, when she participated in a challenge to write a poem every day.
“That was the first time that I was not just like, ‘Oh, I feel like writing a poem,’” Ernst said. “It was, ‘Okay, I’m gonna sit down and write a poem.’”
In 2022, Ernst was named the Montgomery County Youth Poet Laureate (YPL), which is an ambassador of poetry who is focused on justice and excels in both writing and reading works. This title led Elana to perform her poems at the Warner Theater, teachers’ galas, mentorship programs and at the Marvin Gaye Memorial concert at the Kennedy Center.
While writing became a bigger part of her life during COVID-19, Elana has had a passion for storytelling since she was young.
“We didn’t know she had it in her,” Elana’s father Jeff Ernst said. “When we first read her stuff we were like ‘Wow, that’s really amazing.’”
Over the years, Elana received multiple Scholastic Art and Writing awards at the regional level, including three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal. She also earned a silver medal at the national level.
Through her position as Montgomery County’s YPL, Elana met Patrick Washington, Poetry Director of the organization Words, Beats and Life. Washington helped Elana edit her poems and attain more performance opportunities throughout her year as YPL and beyond.
Washington was one of five judges who selected Elana to be the YPL after reading a description of her community work and extracurricular activities, some samples of her work and watching a video of her reciting one of her poems.
“Her youth and her energy was very infectious,” Washington said. “She had a real powerful drive and a love of words and a social conscience that really belied her age.”
In May 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Elana called Washington, upset, and said she wanted to do something about it. With his help, Elana compiled and edited a poem addressed to the leaders of the United States titled “America, Are You Listening?” Washington said he was very moved by this action from such a young person.
“That’s a perfect example of the type of young person that she is,” Washington said. “She saw a need, she was touched by it and made sure that she reached out and touched others.”
Elana also has role models who inspired her to capture the positive things as well as the struggles in the world. One of these inspirations is poet Sarah Kay, who Elana thinks is able to translate universal experiences and beautiful things into poetry very well.
“When I was younger, I would look at other writers in their work and be like, I could never do that,” Elana said. “And I don’t know if I’m doing that now, but I think writing is kind of like an instrument, which is something people don’t realize. And if you practice and work on it a lot, it really makes a big difference.”
