Q&A with Sainey Ceesay: Youth Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County, MD
For six years, Patrick Washington and Neville Adams have led the charge behind the Youth Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County. With the assistance of the Prince George’s County Office of Community Relations as well as the Prince George’s County Arts and Humanities Council, Patrick and Neville have been able to support six talented young poets.
This year’s Prince George’s County Youth Poet Laureate is Sainey Ceesay, and we were lucky enough to sit down and learn from Sainey, Patrick, and Neville. Let’s take a look at some of that conversation, shall we?
(Note: Some questions have been rearranged for the sake of reading clarity. Be sure to listen to the full conversation anywhere you stream podcasts!)
Poet Life: So when did you start performing?
Sainey Ceesay: My first little transition into trying to breathe more life into my poems and kind of listen to how my poems wanted to be delivered came from my poetry club. My first poetry club captain showed me how alive a poem can become. And I think I’ve improved a lot in how I deliver things through being a dialect poet -- I was a poetry ambassador last year -- and you guys have really helped me to think about how I’m saying my poems and how I deliver them. Over the summer, I was in the Brave New Voices competition, and Pages really helped us to smooth out our poems and how we want to say them and how we want them to sound, and getting back into that space of remembering why we wrote it. So it’s a mix of all these people along the way who have really helped me to elevate how I do my poetry and how it performs.
Poet Life: Where do you get your inspiration when you write poetry?
Sainey: I do like to educate myself by reading into different topics. But a lot of times, especially when it comes to activism and theory and all of that, I find that those concepts already are working and applying in my life. So more than anything, I inform my own work.
Poet Life: How quickly do you write and commit to memory?
Sainey: I never know how long the process is going to take. Sometimes the majority of the poem and concept is done in an hour or two. Sometimes it takes days for me to really figure out how I want to structure things and how I want to say them. So I never really know how long it’s going to take for me to finish a poem. Recently, I’ve been writing a lot more and having a bit of a faster turnover, but I really don’t know how long. And then there’s also poems that I want to write about, but I’m still in the process of taking things in and processing my emotions. That’s also part of the process, so all of those things kind of come together before a poem comes onto the page.
Poet Life: So what made you apply to be the PG County Youth Poet Laureate?
Sainey: When I was a poet freshman year, I went to this poetry competition, and the 2017 poet laureate was on the final stage. I found out that they were the poet laureate of Prince George’s County, and I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that it was something I wanted to do. It just so happened my senior year that things finally lined up to where I could take it on and apply.
Poet Life Podcast: What was the process like?
Sainey: There’s a three-step process to becoming a poet laureate or ambassador.
You have to submit five of your best poems. Patrick looks for civic engagement and being involved in your community, as well as artistic achievement. Then it’s a point system.
Then the second step is an interview. They ask different questions about your work, your art, what you hope to do to create change with your poetry, and what art means to you. Then that’s another point system.
Finally, there’s the performance.
Poet Life: Do you have events or projects planned in your mind that you want to make happen this year?
Sainey: I have a couple of things that I plan on doing. One of those things includes trying to create a youth slam that’s PG County-wide for all of the high schools, because that was an experience that was really important to me. I want to bring slam back to PG County and have other people experience that. That’s what helped me to really fall in love with poetry and specifically spoken word.
Poet Life (directed towards Neville Adams): What is she going to be faced with in this position, Neville?
Neville Adams: She’ll be faced with being a voice for teens and being the person who gets called on for events, especially formal events. They will look up on her as the voice of all teens in Prince George’s County. Something that comes with it’s something that with it comes an air of responsibility with what she'll be saying and the fact that she needs to be cued into her peers because she’s going to be representing them. There are going to be some things that she’ll want to bring up. And she’s in a position that is even a semi-political position as well.
Poet Life (directed at Patrick Washington): Patrick, do you all have set things in place for her to do or are all three of you brainstorming then figuring out what the calendar looks like for 2021?
Patrick Washington: Yeah, so there are certain pre-set events we have. Prince George’s Arts and Humanities has their Festival of Literary Arts every year, and she is to participate in the Library of Congress to perform during poetry month. There are certain big events that are pre-set, but aside from there, we still have to sit down and find out what issues and things she wants to focus on.
Poet Life (directed at Sainey): What are your parents saying?
Sainey: They are very proud. It took them a little bit to come around. It also took some time to really stand in and claim that I’m an artist, and this is something that I care about and want to do. It was always kind of like the conversation of “Are you going to be able to make something of yourself? Like maybe you should to do something more practical.” But they’re seeing how serious I’m taking it and the opportunities that open up, and are becoming more encouraging of it.
Poet Life: How has this year been with COVID?
Sainey: You know, a lot of ups and downs. I lost my grandfather earlier this year to COVID, and I’ve had a couple of health scares. I was the graduating senior class of 2020, so we missed out on prom and graduation and those things. I think a lot of blessings have also come out of quarantine for me personally. Being able to log on virtually and go to different events. I’ve been able to meet a lot of different people that I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. I’ve been to a lot of different open mics across the U.S. and internationally. That’s connected me to a lot of people. Also on Instagram, there’s a whole poetry community, and I’ve been able to meet some poets that I look up to that I may not have been able to because of COVID. It’s helped me build a lot more community, especially in the poetry world than I had before. ... It’s really comforting to be around other poets and share our stories and our work and to listen to other poets speak to things that maybe you haven’t touched on yet or had the time to find words for. And just being amazed at the work other people do. I love to be with other poets and talking art.
Poet Life: If you can leave something for the people, the youth, what would you say?
Patrick: Continue to be good listeners. She’s a wonderful artist because she listens, she takes different things from different people and art forms then creates something new and fresh and something that is heard.
Neville: Study, study, study. No half stepping. I believe that whatever you’re doing, in order to be the best, you have to get it down pat, stand up and speak out loud.
Sainey: Honestly, what I’m about to say might be a little bit cheesy, but follow your passion. Your passion unlocks your purpose. You know what it is that you care about and what you want to do. Don’t let other people tell you it’s not possible because you can make it possible.
Sainey Ceesay is the 2021 Prince George’s County Youth Poet Laureate and a student at Prince George's Community College where she has an arts concentration and is a recipient of the Dual to Degree scholarship. She is Alumni of Eleanor Roosevelt's class of 2020, And Joe's Movement Emporium’s Creative Works Class of 2020. Sainey was also a 2020 Youth Poet Ambassador representing Greenbelt, MD and the Winner of the 2020 Words Beats and Life slam season, becoming a part of their DMV slam team. She has performed for Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam, the Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian and has been featured in several virtual slams and open mics during COVID.Her poetry touches on topics like mental health, their blackness and identity as a Gambian-American, Gender Issues, and social injustice. She seeks to find and build community through her poetry and help others to be encouraged to write. Aside from poetry, Sainey also has interest in sewing and photography, and works with the digital media collective known as “The Media Buru''. She also volunteers with PG Mutual Aid as a way to help better her community.
