Speaking her truth: UTM student named Mississauga’s youth poet laureate
Tahira Rajwani was just 15 years old when she first stepped on stage to perform her original spoken word poetry, but she says it immediately felt like home.
“I was nervous, but the way my poem came out just felt so natural,” says the third-year University of Toronto Mississauga psychology student.
Spoken word became an outlet to explore social justice issues and reach people who might not otherwise engage with them. “The way people talked about how my performance resonated with them told me that this was an art form that I could make an impact with,” says Rajwani.
She hopes to build on that impact and create space for other underrepresented voices in her new role as Mississauga’s youth poet laureate, after being selected by the city to serve as a literary ambassador for young people.
“It was something I’d been thinking about for a long time,” she says of the two-year honorary role. “It was a really exciting moment when I found out.”
A prolific reader and short-story writer since early childhood, Rajwani’s passion for poetry was first sparked by a YouTube channel called Button Poetry, where spoken word performances rack up millions of views.
“Watching those videos was a transformative experience for me,” says Rajwani, who was captivated by the wide range of issues the artists addressed.
Initially, Rajwani’s poetry was more personal than political. “I wrote for myself in the beginning as a way to cope with teen angst,” she says with a smile.
These days, her work tends to focus on women’s empowerment and diaspora.
“Spoken word is rooted in oral storytelling traditions and lends itself very well to marginalized stories,” she says. “It often expresses narratives of oppression, but also of resilience. And it feels more accessible than written poetry for many people. It was definitely that way for me.”
Rajwani, a South Asian Canadian, says she writes for two audiences. “I aim to speak to communities that have similar experiences of being part of a diaspora, so they feel seen and heard and represented, but I also want to share those experiences with people who have never encountered these struggles.”
Sometimes, audience members tell her they had little or no interest in poetry until they heard her perform.
“It’s really special to me because I'm able to help redefine the medium for folks and show the community that it’s something they can enjoy and use to tell their own stories,” says Rajwani, who was recently shortlisted for the 2024 League of Canadian Poets Spoken Word Award and earned second place at the 2025 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam in Vancouver.
Aside from a few performances at UTM, Rajwani has kept her academics and her art mostly separate. But she says her studies have deepened her understanding of the human experiences she explores in her writing. “The same thing that drives my interest in psychology drives my interest in poetry — understanding, helping and building relationships with people.”
As youth poet laureate, she hopes to get fellow students excited about poetry. he points to her predecessor’s visit to UTM’s first spoken word course as an example of the kind of engagement she’d love to build on.
One of Rajwani’s first priorities will be reviving an open mic series she helped launch called Sauga Poetry, which has been on a brief hiatus. She says spoken word artists in Mississauga often have to travel to Toronto or other major cities to find performance venues.
“I want to give youth here a platform to share their work and connect with other artists,” she says. “It’s something that I wished I had when I was coming up as a poet.”
