Harvard Authors Profile: Ailin Sha ’29 on Uplifting Others Through Art

Ailin Sha ’29 was recently named Boston’s newest Youth Poet Laureate in early Feb. by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. An avid arts lover, Sha has a clear passion for writing that not only manifests itself through her creative talents, but also through her unique desire to uplift others through art.

Sha was born in Beijing and moved to Boston at age 11. This unique childhood — a blend of Chinese heritage and an American upbringing — has naturally influenced her writing. Her heritage is both a source of inspiration and influence, while the amalgamation of experiences from her two cultural backgrounds continues to inspire her poetry.

“Growing up in China, for Chinese class, we were required to memorize a lot of these ancient poems by famous Chinese poets, and I thought it was very interesting and constructive to my education and character because it’s not just something that’s limited to the language and to the subject,” Sha said in an interview with The Crimson.

Looking back, the impact of these lessons for Sha extended beyond just simple memorization.

“There’s a lot of cool lessons, emotions, and life experiences that are expressed in those poems. A lot of wisdom. And even as a kid, I could almost appreciate the depth of many of these poems, the beauty,” Sha said. “I thought it was very valuable even though I didn’t always have a great time trying to memorize these Chinese poems.”

It wasn’t just the multifaceted meanings from these ancient texts that spoke to Sha, though.

“I think initially I was drawn to the rhythmic and rhymed aspect of poetry and how it would be easy to memorize both in English and Chinese,” Sha said.

Sha embodies the insightful meaning behind every one of her words, as exemplified by her poem “Sand,” which she wrote and then performed for both the 2026 Massachusetts Poetry Out Loud competition and during the Boston Youth Poet Showcase, where she was announced as Youth Poet Laureate.

“It’s about the norm of especially many East Asian and Asian people in general, as the model minority,” Sha said.

The title of the poem itself is also partially inspired by her Chinese name.

“In Chinese, my last name is ‘Sha,’ which means sand, desert, and whenever my parents tell me the story about how they came up with my name, I always think it's really interesting and beautiful, and I wanted to incorporate a bit of myself into the poem and into the title,” Sha said.

Leaving her Chinese heritage behind, Sha’s move to Boston placed her into an entirely different environment and new experience.

“It was definitely a sort of whiplash, especially at first,” Sha said.

Even though the two cultures are different, an appreciation for the contrasts ultimately shaped Sha’s writing.

“It's different, going from this kind of, definitely more, I guess what you would call homogenous society and culture from Beijing to the Boston area, and everything from hearing a variety of languages when you’re walking around, being able to try so many different food, cuisines, and seeing these celebrations of culture and people’s identities was very new and very beautiful,” Sha said.

Sha’s writing is inspired by the idea of juxtaposition and an exploration of the mundane aspects in life.

“I like exploring a variety of topics, forms, but I think a lot of my work so far has to do with juxtapositions, like a juxtaposition between expectation and reality or just finding the similarities and differences between different things, mundane things, and finding something beautiful in that,” said Sha.

Drawn to creative expression, Sha’s engagement with the arts spans film, music, and visual art. Her interactions with these art forms — from a note in a song or a paragraph from a written piece — have served as inspiration for Sha’s own work.

“Art specifically has the capacity to move people and inspire you to create your own art, and I think that’s really amazing,” Sha said.

Her passion for art has led Sha to being chosen as Boston’s latest Youth Poet Laureate, a ceremonial position that uplifts youth voices in the arts through bringing poetry to Boston’s classrooms, libraries, and neighborhoods through their work. Getting selected for the role left Sha feeling very excited, grateful, and wanting to make better programming available for all youth.

“I think sometimes when we think of youth, I feel some groups of people are left out of the picture, and so I want to make sure that when we say uplighting youth voices in Boston, we're truly trying to make that accessible,” Sha said.

When asked about the message she hopes to convey to others of both similar and different backgrounds, Sha promotes both encouragement and acceptance.

“Celebrate, celebration of yourself and of other people, like respecting and welcoming these different voices,” Sha said.

Sha’s mindset of embracing differences also shapes how she interacts with artwork.

“It’s important, I think, to be conscious of that, and to ask questions about the art you’re consuming and making,” Sha said.

For Sha, meaningful interactions with creative work is of the utmost importance.

“It’s also very valuable to engage with art, and I think it makes you more informed and a better artist, better creator,” Sha said.

At Harvard, Sha is a member of the Harvard Advocate’s poetry board, where she continues to explore and develop her passion for verse.

“Even though I’ve only been here for less than a year, I’ve been lucky enough to read such a wide variety of poetry and at such a high caliber,” said Sha. “There’s so many things I like about each poem that I think I can explore more and incorporate into my own voice.”

For the launch of the Advocate’s Spring 2026 issue, Sha invited a featured artist, Indovina, to come and read his poem entitled “The Hunters Are Here.”

“I think good art like that makes me feel very, very warm and inspired,” said Sha.

Even in her day-to-day college life, Sha’s creativity shines.

“The other day I saw this very beautiful flower. It was a huge orchid, a bright magenta orchid, just lying on very drab brick ground near the Smith [Campus Center], and I've been thinking about that,” Sha said. “Maybe I'll write a poem about it. It wasn’t mundane in the sense that you don't really see a huge, beautiful flower lying on the sidewalk every day, but it just seemed very accidental, like serendipitous.”

Sha is still finishing her first year at Harvard, but she is already thinking about her next steps. She intends to double concentrate in English and Economics, and potentially a secondary in Art, Film, and Visual Studies. Her aspirations for her writing are similarly broad and free from constraint.

“In the future I would love to explore more types of writing, maybe more blending across disciplines,” said Sha. “I would love to learn more about screenwriting and potentially write a screenplay, and I definitely would like to explore more nonfiction writing and essay writing.”

Regardless of her other creative pursuits, poetry is still very dear to Sha.

“I’m very glad that I’m in this position where I can explore and uplift it for young people in a city, in our city,” said Sha.

When asked if she could give one piece of advice to youth new to exploring Boston’s poetry and arts scene, Sha’s message is short and sweet: “Be bold.”