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About

Ariana Lee (she/her/她) is a Taiwanese and Chinese American writer from Houston, TX. She is an inaugural Public Poets Fellow with Youth Speaks and has previously served as the 2022-2023 Houston Youth Poet Laureate. She is a two-time member of Meta4 Houston, the youth slam poetry team ranked #1 at Brave New Voices 2023. In recognition of their being the first team from Houston to win the title, the City of Houston proclaimed August 15th, 2023 as Meta4 Houston Day. 

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Lee has written and performed original work for NASA; Stop AAPI Hate; the NCAA Men's Final Four Legacy Project presented by Degree; the Aspen Institute; choreographer Sorah Yang; the Houston Mayor's Office, and more. She is the Emerging Writers Winner from Button Poetry's 2024 Video contest and a 2024 YoungArts Winner in the spoken word and poetry categories. Lee has opened for U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and is honored with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition and a proclamation of September 9th, 2023 as Ariana Lee Day in the City of Houston.

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She has curated zines for Youth Speaks' Power Lab, Kundiman South, and the International Human Rights Art Movement, and taught writing workshops in Texas and California. Her work appears in or is forthcoming in Poetry, The Offing, Button Poetry, Hanging Loose, and elsewhere. 

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She is a student at Stanford University.

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Select Experience

Positions

Artist-in-Resonance, Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University | 2025-2026

Public Poets Fellow, Youth Speaks | 2024-2025 (inaugural cohort)

Youth Poet Laureate, City of Houston | 2022-2023

Youth Fellow, International Human Rights Art Festival | 2022-2023

Performances

  • From Connection to Action: Trusted Messenger Convening, OCPSC | Sacramento, May 2025

  • Grantee Leadership Convening, Cowell Foundation | Santa Cruz, April 2025

  • Empowering Women of Color Conference | UC Berkeley, March 2025

  • Poetry Live! (featuring Safia Elhillo and Jamila Woods) | Stanford University, March 2025​​​

  • SOCAP Global | San Francisco, October 2024

  • Bay Area Together, San Francisco Foundation | San Francisco, October 2024

  • Wait What: Masters of Scale Summit | San Francisco, October 2024

  • International Day of the Girl, Together Women Rise | October 2024

  • Faces of Community | Stanford University, September 2024

  • Get Lit Prose Bowl | Los Angeles, July 2024​

  • Poetry International Festival 2024 | Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 2024

  • ​Museum as Muse: Poetry at the Anderson Collection | Stanford University, May 2024

  • Earthtones Environmental Justice Festival | Stanford University, April 2024

  • Third State Books | Palo Alto, March 2024

  • Solar Eclipse, NASA Johnson Space Center | October 2023

  • Aspen Institute | Colorado, October 2023

  • Powerful Poets, Children's Museum Houston | September 2023

  • "Out of Many, One: Immigration's Hope and Humanity," Houston Public Library | September 2023

  • Freedom Over Texas 2023 4th of July Show | Houston, July 2023

  • BIPOC Book Fest, Asia Society Texas Center | Houston, May 2023

  • Good Times 2023 (with Sorah Yang) | San Mateo, May 2023

  • Earth Day HTX , Houston Mayor's Office | Houston, April 2023

  • Exploring the World of Asian American Poets, Houston Public Library | Houston, April 2023

  • NCAA Men’s Final Four Legacy Project Presented by Degree | Houston, March 2023

  • Inprint Houston Reading with US Poet Laureate Ada Limón | Houston, March 2023

  • Black is Primary Festival (featuring Rudy Francisco) | Houston, June 2022

  • Grand Slam (featuring Brandon Leake) | Galveston, June 2022

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