Windsor Youth Poet Laureate has ‘outsider-become-insider’ perspective

Originally from Romania, 22-year-old Alexei Ungurenasu is the City of Windsor’s new Youth Poet Laureate.

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Alex-Andrei (Alexei) Ungurenasu may have only come to Windsor a few years ago, but the 22-year-old university student hopes that perspective translates to a distinct appreciation for the city in verse.

Ungurenasu — who prefers the non-binary gender pronouns they/them — has been named Windsor’s new Youth Poet Laureate.

“I am thrilled and honoured. I would never have expected this when I moved here,” said Ungurenasu, who is currently in the last year of their undergraduate degree in English and philosophy at the University of Windsor.

“I’m really excited to make the best of this opportunity, and I see it as a responsibility: I want to make the city proud, and the youth of the city proud.”

Born in the city of Iasi, Romania, Ungurenasu emigrated to Toronto at the age of 12, and arrived in Windsor for post-secondary education at the age of 18.

Ungurenasu self-describes as an “outsider-become-insider,” when it comes to Windsor.

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“This is how I hope to inspire my peers who were born and raised in Windsor: to encourage them to experience the city and its features poetically,” Ungurenasu stated in a City of Windsor release.

Ungurenasu began writing poetry in high school, drawing on influences such as e. e. cummings, Leonard Cohen, Walt Whitman, William Blake, and John Milton.

Ungurenasu will serve as Windsor’s Youth Poet Laureate until 2023.

The Youth Poet Laureate is meant to be an ambassador role for literary arts among local youth.

Ungurenasu’s future plans include virtual and in-person showcase projects for Windsor youth poetry, collaboration opportunities for youth poets and artists, and readings and workshops with local schools.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens — who enjoys composing poetry as a hobby — said he hopes the choice of Windsor’s Youth Poet Laureate shows how the role “can be a vehicle to increased inclusivity, and a greater understanding and appreciation for our diverse, multicultural community.”

South of Detroit — a poem by Alexei Ungurenasu

I’m blessed by coincidences
connections, contradictions

Everything that happens
between two red neon signs

I’ll show you
what it’s like

To be a sunflower
in the city of roses