New York Times Introduces Olivia Gatwood, YouTube Poet and Social Justice Crusader

Gatwood is the author of Life of the Party, a poetry collection which "revolves around violence against women," writes Times journalist Adriana Balsamo. She's co-author (with Mahogany L. Browne and Elizabeth Acevedo) of the forthcoming children's book, Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice. More: 

Gatwood started performing poetry in high school; soon after graduating, she was part of Brave New Voices, a poetry festival that has been featured on HBO. But many of her fans found her through YouTube, where she has cultivated a mostly female audience with performances of poems such as “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” and “Ode to My Bitch Face” that have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. A children’s book she wrote with Mahogany L. Browne and Elizabeth Acevedo, “Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice,” is scheduled for release in March.

Gatwood grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., a city with more than its share of violence (its metro area had one of the United States’ highest murder rates in 2018). The city’s struggles, she said, affected her from a young age. In her poem “BODY COUNT: 13,” she describes the West Mesa murders, an unsolved case involving the disappearance and murder of 11 women and a fetus whose remains were found on the outskirts of Albuquerque a decade after they were buried. She was 17 when the bodies were discovered.

Learn more at the New York Times.