By Sena Christian

When Brooke Noble was 14 years old, she got invited to her first book release party as an author. She had been writing once a week for a whole semester, using different prompts, and a piece of her writing had been published in a student anthology produced by 916 Ink.

She thought it was pretty cool that her writing was published in a book, but the true significance didn’t really sink in until the party. She invited her mom to accompany her, and upon arriving at the venue — the since-closed Brickhouse Gallery in Oak Park — they realized this was actually a big deal. The nonprofit organization 916 Ink had rolled out the red carpet for the youth writers. She felt like a celebrity and seeing her writing in the book was “surreal,” she says. “I was like: Am I famous?”

Noble had only thought about being part of the book in terms of how it affected herself; now she realized her written words were going out into the world for other people to read. “My writing, especially at 14, oh my god, was just personal, emotional. Also, being asked to read something at the book release party — [it was] very scary.”

But, ultimately, she was proud. And eager to keep writing more. Noble has since been published in more than 20 anthologies, most of them produced by 916 Ink, where she works as the at-promise youth coordinator for Find Your Voice. This is a creative writing workshop series for youth in third through 12th grades, whose work is published and celebrated at book release parties.

Noble grew up in an artsy family and danced ballet for about a decade. She attended Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School, a small medical-based school located in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood, interested in one day pursuing a job in the medical field. She joined a creative writing club hosted by 916 Ink. “I had an amazing creative writing teacher who just drastically impacted my life in the best way possible,” Noble says. “I was in that club for four years.”

She graduated in 2018. A year later, she took a job as a “wordslinger” at 916 Ink, which is basically a creative writing facilitator, and in 2022 became the program coordinator, working with students deemed “at-risk” of being unhoused, failing classes or facing other challenges. Noble graduated from Sacramento State in 2023 with a degree in social work, and says she plans for her career to always involve working with foster youth, incarcerated youth and those who are unhoused.

Noble continues to write, describing her poetry as emotionally-based with social justice themes. This writing form gives her a way to express herself, she says, when maybe she feels like she can’t speak the same thoughts out loud. 

She also hosts poetry open-mics. Through her own poetry, her work with students and open-mics, she wants people to see that while poetry can be intimidating, “it is what you make it” and it doesn’t have to be inaccessible. She wants people to feel like they can make poetry how they want it to be.

“It definitely feels like a relief of pressure or stress or expectations,” she says of writing a poem. “But if it comes time to share, I definitely have stage fright. Unless I’m emceeing. I think I’m a good MC. I love to do it. But, yeah, definitely sharing my personal writing with anybody that’s not my students, I would say is very nerve wracking. But after I do it, I’m also still again — like at 14 — very proud afterwards.”

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.