Celebrating Poetry Month with Chapter 510: Writing Our Roots

April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate the power of words and the voices that shape our communities. At Chapter 510, poetry is a way for young writers to declare their presence and to imagine the futures they will create. This month, we invite you to join Chapter 510 and the center’s powerful youth by contributing to its fourth-annual Write Your Roots, a multigenerational collaborative poem.
About Chapter 510
Through poetry, storytelling, and publishing, Chapter 510 creates spaces where Black, brown, and queer youth can bravely write. Over the past ten years, it has worked with over five thousand young Oakland authors and published more than one hundred youth-penned books. Its work is driven by the belief that when young people tell their own stories, they not only change their own lives—they change the world around them.
About Write Your Roots
Since 2019, Chapter 510 has hosted Write Your Roots in partnership with the Oakland Roots. It is an annual poetry project which invites everyone to write a collaborative poem to be woven together and published as one piece. This year they are inviting you to write about the future you want to be a part of.
The year is 2053. What does the future look, sound, and feel like? Have gas stations been replaced with urban gardens that feed the people? Are cars powered by poetry? Does every school have a movie theater?
Participating in Write Your Roots is simple: Just fill out the online poetry form here. Chapter 510 will then weave your lines into the poem to be shared this coming September.
Support Chapter 510
If you believe in the power of youth storytelling, here are ways you can learn more and support Chapter 510.
- Attend an April Benefit
- Pulp & Prejudice: A Defense of Romance Novels (Saturday, April 19)
- The World As It Could Be: A Benefit with Nnedi Okorafor (Tuesday, April 29)
Donate. Chapter 510 is on its way to its goal of raising $250,000 from 510 donors. Donate between now and June 30 and have your gift matched by the Quest Foundation. Donate here.

About Valeria Reyes Ruiz

Valeria Reyes Ruiz is a student at MetWest High School. She grew up in Oakland, California. During the summer before eighth grade, she became interested in writing. She keeps journals full of poems, and her phone’s notes app is also full with them. She enjoys nature, music, poetry (obviously), literature, and spending time with her family and friends.
She believes in true love and that words and actions have meaning. She is inspired by nature, words and phrases, and personal experiences. Valeria has participated in GSA, Leadership, and Arts & Crafts clubs.