HARLEM, Manhattan — Kayden Hern was just 9 years old when his stirring words at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s inauguration put him in the national spotlight.
Now, three years later, the young poet laureate is drawing attention again with another milestone.
At 12, Hern is making a big impression in the game of life, particularly among kids his own age.
“They give me high fives and sometimes say I’m cool,” Hern said.
The 12-year-old has been traveling to events across the Tri-State area, reading from and signing copies of his debut book, “Who Am I?”
The soon-to-be eighth grader partnered with Scholastic on the deeply personal and powerful project, which grew out of a poem he wrote.
Hern has already learned how to hold an audience’s attention, even when he has to rise up on his tiptoes to do it.
In 2023, he received a personal invitation from Hochul to serve as poet laureate and recite an original piece at her inauguration.
The Harlem activist is leaving his mark, addressing a wide variety of complex societal issues tied to race, police brutality and crime in the Black community. He’s doing it all as he writes as a Black male child wanting to live and not afraid to die. The common theme: equality.
“Honestly, we just have to keep emphasizing it, cause eventually, hopefully people will listen and start realizing what has been done in the past is not right,” Hern said.
His biggest cheerleader is his grandmother Jacqueline.
“We walk down the street and people are like, ‘I know him,'” she said.
Jacqueline helped raise Hern.
The two brainstorm and collaborate. Hern cherishes her pearls of wisdom.
“The things that I didn’t do or couldn’t do or what I saw growing up in the south, I want him to be aware of those things and not to worry about those things,” Hern’s grandmother said. “This is a changed world right now, and me telling you what I did and how I did it, I don’t want you to go through those struggles.”
As for what’s next for Hern – he plans to write a second book in the next year, or as he told Eyewitness News… “wherever the road takes him.”
You can buy a copy of Hern’s book online.
