Theresa Lola is finishing up her 18-month term as the young people's laureate for London, time she has spent encouraging young Londoners to express themselves in words. Lola is a woman of color who moved from Nigeria to the UK at the age of 13. She began writing poetry as a teenager and says it allowed her to express her identity during those tricky transition years. Among her most popular workshops are those in which the students are tasked with writing about their identity. For young people of color, identity is both personal and political There's hope in being able to share what you're going through and your view of the world. Poetry isn't just about writing things the way they are -- we can also imagine the way we want things to be. There's something almost miraculous about that kind of act.

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