Velshi Banned Book Club: 'The Poet X' by Elizabeth Acevedo

National Young Person’s Poet Laureate Elizabeth Acevedo’s “The Poet X,” a National Book Award-winner and a New York Times best-seller, follows the story of Xiomara, a rising tenth grader in Harlem. The novel explores the beautiful and ugly realities of female adolescence and what it means for faith, family, sexuality, self-preservation, self-love, and self-expression. Written utilizing free verse that changes and shifts throughout the book to mirror our protagonists’ feelings, it’s a coming-of-age story that feels both familiar and entirely fresh. “Poetry is in many ways some of our first languages,” Acevedo tells Ali Velshi, of the way in which poetry is used for the protagonist’s self-actualization. “There’s nothing wrong with returning to poetry.”July 13, 2024