MARBLEHEAD — Molly Blander is 12 years old, with a socially conscious mother who is also a writer.
So it’s only natural that Molly had the footsteps in which to follow. But where Leigh Blander writes prose, Molly is making her mark with poetry. Their similarities lie in what they write about — hot-topic issues. And the two are also similar in another way. Neither has any compunction about poking and prodding people to get them to understand.
“For me, I like to call myself an activist for social and racial justice,” Molly Blander said. “I’ve always been very passionate about those things.”
Last month, she was a finalist in an international Pulitzer Center poetry contest — the youngest of the 18 remaining contestants out of 1,000 who applied.
The contest was called “Fighting Words,” and it asked young people to think about how journalism and poetry can help make sense out of today’s events. Students wrote poems or essays based on stories not often reported that were picked from the Pulitzer site.
Blander chose the ordeal of asylum-seekers and right off the bat, the poem’s title — “Home Sweet Home — An Oxymoron” — reflected its tone. It is angry, yet compassionate — as is reflected in the following excerpt:
Request for asylum drifts out the window/Like the smoke from a snuffed out candle/Along with a desperate dream for safety and stability./Rocked./Collapsing,/Like a child walking for the first time./Walking./Grudgingly walking back to the land they hoped to escape.
If this seems like heady stuff for a 12-year-old, it really isn’t, Blander said. All you have to do is consider her upbringing.
“My parents are very active,” she said. “What my parents have done for me is create an environment where I can educate myself.
“I watch the news and read articles,” she said. “I’m someone who really sees what’s going on. I think I have that in me. When you know what’s happening, it’s really hard to ignore it.”
One of the causes she’s devoted herself to is “Black Lives Matter.” Another is anti-Semitism.
“A lot of the issues I fight for involve anti-Semitism,” she said. “I hope to be able to educate people — especially those my age — to kind of understand what’s going on through various social-media platforms. I try to convince my friends to watch the news.”
Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, a human-rights activist, led a protest on the North Shore centered around “Black Lives Matter,” and Blander took part.
“He is an incredible man,” she said. “His words are so powerful. I went on one driving protest that went through Lynn and Salem and ended at (Gov. Charlie) Baker’s house.
“We dropped off a list of things the government can take action on,” she said. “I’ve done another walk through Salem and Swampscott.”
OK. When does she have time to be a kid?
“It’s hard,” she said. “As a kid, you want to do kid things. Hang out with your friends. Things like that.
“But our world has gotten to the point where you have to take action,” she said. “I hate to sound cliche, but we are the future. It’s hard to be a kid and learn about the real tragedies in the world. But you have to. We are the ones who can change it.
“The part about being a kid is you have no control over anything,” she said. “But when you speak out about it, you have some sort of control. You’re doing your part. You’re doing what you can. But it’s definitely hard as a kid. You can’t do as much as adults, but you do what you do.”
These days, she — and others — have to do those walks and protests with a mask on, thanks to COVID-19. She agrees it can be difficult, but bemoans the fact that the mask, itself, has become a hot-button issue.
“I think it definitely makes it a lot harder for protests,” she said. “It’s really hard to raise awareness about things when there’s a deadly disease. Plus it’s become its own political issue and it takes people’s focus off things.
“It’s political in some twisted way,” she said. “There’s so much polarization it just makes things harder. The messages we’re trying to send are simple — the way the country is run is not.”
She feels she has a soulmate in Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish climate-change activist who was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2019.
“I’m a real big Greta fan,” she said. “I admire the way she persists. Even our president has come after her. She takes it all in. She continues what she does. She hears all the criticism, but she keeps going.”
