LYNN — Less than a month ago, Lynn Classical graduate Nayellie Estrella recited one of her poems for the first time at Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company in Lynn. This weekend, Estrella will read her newest poem “Repressed…Representation,” on WGBH News’ Outspoken poetry series.
From 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday, Estrella will recite two poems, one of which, she said, was about how Lynn helped her embrace her culture as a Latina.
“It’s essentially about how important representation is and how I didn’t really know how to be unapologetically Latina until I became a part of the Lynn community,” Estrella said. “Lynn is definitely the city I call ‘home.’ ”
Estrella, now in her junior year studying sociology at Suffolk University, moved to Lynn from Revere at the age of 12. She started writing poetry her freshman year of college but had not read to a crowd until March 3, when she performed a poem she’d written about her father at the cafe’s Speak Up Open Mic event.
“I decided to take a leap of faith, go to an open mic and recite two poems — one of them being about my father and the other one about resilience,” Estrella said. “First, when I grabbed the mic, I told them ‘I’m not a poet. I’m just taking this leap of faith.’ ”
The leap of faith paid off when the event’s featured poet, Amanda Shea, pulled Estrella aside and offered her a paid opportunity.
Shea, who was Boston Music Awards’ spoken word artist of the year in 2022, added Estrella to a group chat with 18 other poets, all of whom were asked to write two poems about “what mattered to them.” WGBH chose Estrella, along with seven others, to perform on Saturday’s show.
Being new to reciting poetry in public, Estrella said that she was nervous to recite her work on Saturday.
“It feels really surreal, like my stomach does cartwheels, because it all happened within a month. It’s really shifted the way I view myself,” Estrella said. “When I get further, I want to give other people, other young people within the community the same opportunities I was given. I want them to find confidence in themselves the way Amanda Shea helped me find confidence within myself.”
