Helping Houstonians Find Their Voice

UH alumna Aris Kian is strengthening the community through the principles of poetry.

By Ania Hodges

Aris Kian with her hair in braids in a bun and wearing a dark turtleneck shirt pictured on a sky blue background looks skyward with optimism.

At 26 years old, Aris Kian is Houston’s youngest poet laureate and an ambassador for the city’s culture and diversity. Here, Kian discusses the connective power of poetry and language and how she hopes to inspire Houstonians to use their voices to spark change, advocate for their needs and shape a new reality.

HOW HAS POETRY INFLUENCED YOUR COMMUNITY ORGANIZING?

In 2018, I joined CoogSlam on campus, and it was a lovely, brilliant space where community members and students gathered once a month to do open mics and slams. Through that space, we were sharing our story and community, showing up and speaking out. That level of bringing people together, hearing their stories and advocating for the individual and collective voice taught me so much about community organizing.

HOW DOES LANGUAGE STRENGTHEN A COMMUNITY?

So much of participating in this world is knowing you have the agency to do so, and poetry spaces advocate for that literally using language. Language is what allows people to feel compelled to express themselves, and not only to say, “This is how I feel,” but also, “This is what I want,” “This is what I dream,” “This is what I imagine.”

Language is one of the tools we have to communicate how we want to show up in this world, how we want the world to show up for us [and] how we want to show up for one another. This means so much to me, especially for young people who are just figuring out what they want and being able to advocate for themselves.

HOW DO YOU TAP INTO THE DIVERSE VOICES OF THE CITY?

Houston is very siloed—people are split by highways and segregated into neighborhoods—so, by design, it’s easy for communities’ collective power to be di- minished. When I think about the spaces that I wish to cultivate, I think of multi-generational, -cultural, -lingual spaces that ensure accessibility for all so we can collectively think about what we need to thrive as a community, address individual issue areas, find the ones that overlap and seek greater understanding. One of the best ways to do that is by gathering over the art of language, expression and communication.

WHAT THREE THINGS DO YOU WISH TO ACHIEVE DURING YOUR TWO-YEAR TERM AS POET LAUREATE?

My long-term goal is to put on a full-scale multilingual, interdisciplinary art and poetry exhibition that thinks through power structures and Afrofuturism in Houston. I also want to introduce multilingual poems to different Houston libraries, workshops and community organizations that can appeal to and serve multilingual audiences. Thirdly, I’d like to spread the good word of abolition through poetry.

Aris Kian in three quarter profile standing in a green field with a tree in the background. She has her braids piled in a bun and is wearing a turtleneck shirt, and her hand is lightly touching her face

MY WORDS

QUESTIONS pt. 6
How do I like
to be held?
Who would I be
with an abundance of time?
Have I outlined
my no’s, even to myself?
Am I greater
than I can imagine?

-ak.

FORESIGHT
I exaggerate my dreams so they’re big enough
for the both of us—me, & the me I will become.

-ak.

Aris Kian graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Sociology in 2019 and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 2022. In the spring of 2023, Mayor Sylvester Turner awarded her the title of poet laureate, the youngest ever in the City of Houston. Kian is also a digital content strategist for Code BLK and a narrative change and media manager for Houston in Action.