A New Page: HSPVA Creative Writer Achieves Title of First Houston Poet Laureate

Andrew White, a senior at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts, was recently named the inaugural youth poet laureate in Houston. (Photo: WITS)

This year, a collaboration consisting of the City of Houston, Writers in the School and the Houston Public Library System had its first Youth Poet Laureate competition, naming HSPVA senior Andrew White as the winner. I caught up with him to ask him about this novel experience.

SB: Give me a little intro about yourself.

AW: My name is Andrew White. I am a senior here at HSPVA, the high school for the performing and visual arts. I am a poet, a bassist, a theatre enthusiast and an amazing person.

SB: So what do you want to do after high school?

AW: After high school, I would love to continue in a creative writing career whether that’s through dramatic writing, screenplay or playwriting or actually through poetry or short fiction; I just want to continue writing.

SB: So how did you learn about the Houston poet laureate competition? 

AW: It was actually through my mom originally. She was listening to an NPR story, and they were talking about how there was a Houston Youth Poet Laureate thing going on and my mom turned to me and said, “You should really do it,” and I said, “No, I’m not really a poet.” And when I came to school, Ms. Switek, the creative writing department chair, had a flyer out and was like “You should totally do it,” and I thought, Maybe I should do it.

SB: So you call yourself a poet now; was it because you were able to understand yourself through the competition?

AW: I won’t say I discovered myself as a poet through the competition. I will say that I ventured into new aspects of my poetry through the competition, but I somewhat knew where I was as a poet prior to this competition though HSPVA Creative Writing.

SB: So, give me a little synopsis of your poem.

AW: A synopsis of a poem?

SB: Just the main meaning behind it, what it means to you and what it means to a greater purpose.

AW: As in poetry in general?

SB: No, your poem-

AW: -That I wrote

SB: Yeah.

AW: Well one of the poems that I started-

SB:-So it was a series? 

AW: Yeah, the poems I submitted were a series called Sartatia Road, which was basically just a love poem, or a series of poems, dedicated to Houston and my feelings towards Houston. 

SB: So what aspects of Houston? Because there’s not much to like.

AW: (laughs) Honestly, that’s a lot people’s point of view. It was just me noticing the aspects of Houston that I loved from just walking down the streets of Montrose or West Alabama or Westheimer and just kinda seeing – one of the lines in the poem is seeing broken glass on the sidewalk and at the same time juxtaposing the beauty of sitting next to one of those ever-present puddles and a lamppost and it’s that rustic imagery of Houston that I tried to capture that’s just so unique and inspirational. 

SB: Delving outside the world of poetry, are there any explicit things you would like to say about Houston?

AW: Besides the imagery? I would just say the diversity of Houston - because well I’ve been to a lot of cities around the United States and around the world and though Houston isn’t the most “racially diverse” or the most “socio-economically diverse” there’s a lot of other cities, like say Chicago or New York, where people are given like parts of town like you know in Chicago East side is White, Southside is Hispanic, and it’s still kinda segregated but in Houston we don’t have that. I can’t tell you who lives in Montrose or what race lives in West Alabama, but there is a very certain diversity in Houston that I just love.

SB: So before this interview, you mentioned you couldn’t do this without your coffee. Could you not have been able to write your poem without your coffee?

AW: Absolutely not. I feel that coffee is the lifeblood of all writers, whether they admit it or not. 

SB: So going along the path of this off-topic question, what kind of coffee?

AW: Oh this is cold-brew.

SB: No, not the coffee right now, but what you drank when you wrote.

AW: Oh, espresso, all the time.

SB: Shot after shot?

AW: Shot after shot, I mean like six shots a day. Keep it going.

SB: I hate to break this to you, but recommended caffeine per day is about four cups of coffee/espresso.

AW: Oh really? Well uh, I’m living the espresso lifestyle, keepin’ it on the roll. Fast lane. 

(A teacher comes and tells him no food in the library)

SB: How do you feel about our administrators, especially after this most recent coffee bust?

AW: Oh I love ’em, I love ’em all. Well, only the ones I’ve had because there’s two sides to every coin, but from Ms. Stovie, who was the one who just reprimanded me for drinking coffee in the library, but at the same time, whenever I ask her if I want a cup of coffee and she has her coffeemaker on, she would totally give it to me while I have a conversation with her. The administration in creative writing is completely and totally helpful towards my writing career. They’ll help me whenever and whatever the situation. 

SB: Do you think that the administration and the general atmosphere of this school in particular helped you nurture your writing, especially towards you putting out the poems for the Laureate?

AW: Absolutely. I think HSPVA is a very unique school in that we are allowed to do our art in the means that best expresses it. And from that just being in this environment where everybody is doing art constantly - extremely inspiring and influential. Besides just the writers themselves, the artists themselves, it’s really just being able to do my art today, every day. I really don’t think I’d be anywhere close to the writer I would be today without HSPVA.

SB: So when you first found out that you won the competition, how did you feel?

AW: Oh I was overtly giggity. 

SB: Do you want me to quote you on that? “Overtly Giggity”

AW: Yes, “overtly giggity.” 

SB: So when you read this interview on paper, you mind at all?

AW: I think it would capture my feelings at the time perfectly. I was actually in a coffee shop when I found out and I got an email from Deborah Mouton, who’s a little like my representative.

SB: Could you spell Mouton for me?

AW: Yeah, M-O-U-T-O-N. She’s a fantastic poet, fantastic person, but she sent me an email that said “You need to call me whenever you get the chance” and this was prior to me finding out, so I was really upset, I didn’t know why she wanted me to call her for and so I called her, and she answers the phone and she says “Hi is this Andrew?” and I was like “Yes, this is Andrew, did you need to talk to me.” And she goes “Well Andrew, the mayor decided today, sorry to have to let you know, but um… you’ll have to spend the next year as the Youth Poet Laureate.” And I started cracking up instantly and started thanking her profusely and it was so, so awesome. 

SB: Has this stoked your confidence as a writer?

AW: Absolutely, I think that I kinda knew I wanted to be a writer prior to the competition, but now it’s a bit like “Oh, I have proof that I have the potential to be a writer,” so it’s definitely stoked me more to become a writer. 

SB: Are there any other competitions you plan on entering?

AW: In terms of competitions and the like I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m already excited for all the experiences and activities WITS provided me such as giving me a book deal, having an internship with Houston Poet Laureate Robin Davidson - I mean, that’s awesome in itself, as in writing events, I will be giving tours across the city and the Houston Public Library system, reading my poetry. I’ll also be having readings in Houston. If there’s any competitions, let me know, other than that, I plan to keep on writing.

SB: So what college do you plan on attending?

AW: Colleges, there’s a lot of potentials, especially right now.

SB: So Harvard, Yale?

AW: Oh yea, Harvard, Yale, all the Ivy’s, but no, in particular I’m looking at UT Austin, NYU, Fordham University, Emerson for Dramatic Writing, University of Iowa, those are my top choices. 

SB: Any parting words?

AW: Keep writing, see you soon, keep it real. Everybody needs to keep writing and be inspired by their community.