s4e16 May 21, 2026
Malaya Ulan served as the 2024-2025 Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Ulan is a community-based multidisciplinary poet whose identity as a Filipino American shapes her craft. She has recently delivered a TEDxTalk at TEDxPenn’s 2025 Conference: Volta on poetry as activism and healing. Ulan has spoken at the United Nations Headquarters during the Fourth Review Conference of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. She is the co-founder of the performance collective AniMalayaWorks—a 2025 NEFA National Theatre Project and 2022 MAPFund awardee. Ulan’s poetic documentary “Something About These Waters” was also featured in the Color Congress: Resistance and Joy National Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Ulan hopes to continue her work bridging communities through storytelling and poetry as the 2025 Northeast Regional Youth Poet Laureate.
