At 9, Kayden Hern caught national attention with a moving message at New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s inauguration. Three years later, the 12-year-old Harlem poet laureate has released his first book, “Who Am I?”

Hern has been signing and reading copies of the book at events across the Tri-State area. The soon-to-be eighth grader teamed up with Scholastic on the project, which is based on a poem he wrote.

In 2023, Hern received a personal invitation from Hochul to recite an original work at her inauguration.

The Harlem activist addresses issues tied to race, police brutality and crime in the Black community. His work centers on equality.

“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.

Hern said kids his age often respond warmly to him.

“They give me high fives and sometimes say I’m cool,” Hern said.

His grandmother, Jacqueline, has helped raise him and works with him on ideas.

“We walk down the street and people are like, ‘I know him,'” she said.

Jacqueline said she wants Hern to learn from what she experienced growing up in the South.

“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.”

Hern plans to write a second book in the next year.

“wherever the road takes him.”

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