Cassidy Lynn Martin

Cassidy Martin is a poet, teaching artist, and researcher who believes in the power of story as both survival and resistance. Since the very genesis of their education, their mother single handedly raised them with “what happens in this house, stays in this house,” with a roof over their head or not. For years, that meant carrying stories that had no place to be spoken—until poetry gave them one.

In spoken word workshops with Southern Word at the Nashville Public Library, Cassidy found a space where being outspoken, sensitive, and vulnerable was not punished, but celebrated. There, they were affirmed in their queerness, respected in their identity, and encouraged to make what john lewis called “good trouble," using their voice to name what is often oppressed into silence. Through poetry, they began sharing their story with others, across classrooms, communities, and stages nationwide, including as a National Youth Poet Laureate finalist.

Today, Cassidy carries that work into the classroom as a teaching artist, creating spaces where young people can tell their own stories and be heard on their own terms. Alongside this work, they are pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Southern California, where their research grows out of their lived and teaching experiences, focusing on how arts education can expand access, affirm identity, and disrupt narrow definitions of who gets to belong and succeed.

(December 2025) Judge for Tennessee Youth Poet Laureate 2026 at State of the Word

(Spring 2022) Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program 

(Spring 2022) Alex and Demiana Hanna Pride Scholarship 

(Fall 2019) First Wave Scholarship Program, 12th Cohort

(2018) National Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador for the South East

(2017) Nashville/Tennessee Youth Poet Laureate

• Martin, L. C, (2017, April). Green a book of poetry