HARLEM, Manhattan — His moving message during New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s inauguration gained him national attention at just 9 years old.<\/p>\n
Three years later, the poet laureate is continuing to impress with a new accomplishment.<\/p>\n
In the game of life right now, Kayden Hern is scoring big, especially with kids his age.<\/p>\n
“They give me high fives and sometimes say I’m cool,” Hern said.<\/p>\n
The 12-year-old signs and reads copies of his first book, “Who Am I?” at events all across the Tri-State area.<\/p>\n
The soon-to-be eighth grader teamed up with Scholastic for this deeply personal, powerful project based on a poem Hern wrote.<\/p>\n
He knows how to command a room, even if it’s on his tippy toes.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Hern got a personal invitation from Hochul, serving as poet laureate to recite an original work at her inauguration.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
His biggest cheerleader is his grandmother Jacqueline.<\/p>\n
“We walk down the street and people are like, ‘I know him,'” she said.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline helped raise Hern.<\/p>\n
The two brainstorm and collaborate. Hern cherishes her pearls of wisdom.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n