The smell of coffee grounds mixes with the sound of quiet chatter and flipping pages inside Sidekick Coffee and Books. From table to table, children and adults alike study for final exams, finish work assignments and dive into a new book plucked from one of the bookstore’s endless shelves. But today, Sidekick doesn’t just serve as a place to grab coffee or a perfect study spot — it’s the site of a reading session for Josie Nabhan-Warren ’27, the Iowa Student Poet Ambassador. Followed by fellow West students Joaquin Gomez ’26, Endrit Ramku ’27 and Lydia Cruce ’27, Nabhan-Warren read several of her most recently written prose and poetry pieces with the goal of spreading the love of writing and literature to a young audience.
Starting with pieces titled “Susan’s Life of Sevens” and “The 4th,” Nabhan-Warren stepped up to the mic for the first time that afternoon. For Nabhan-Warren, writing inspiration can be found everywhere, from her love of her family to her day-to-day experiences.
“My family and friends inspire my writing the most. A lot of my poetry especially is themed for love and devotion. I dedicate a lot of my poetry to my parents and my family abroad — they’ve really encouraged my writing journey,” Nabhan-Warren said.
Gomez, the second student to read, echoes Nabhan-Warren, adding that he draws most of his inspiration from the world around him. For his portion of the reading, Gomez read two poems, an excerpt from Stephen King’s “On Writing” and a short story titled “Sunday Morning.”
“For me, inspiration comes from everywhere in my life: the people I talk to, the media I consume and my reflections I have on the world around me,” Gomez said. “My brain is constantly moving, and I feel like I always have something to think about, and therefore something to write about.”
Ramku, the third student to read, began his portion of the event with an essay titled “Pizza Ranch, Rubber Ducks and the American Dream,” reflecting on how the childhood experience of going to Pizza Ranch changed his perception of coming from an immigrant family.
“I wanted to write something that represented what being an immigrant means to me,” Ramku said. “For some, that’s describing family dinners. For me, it’s Pizza Ranch.”
Along with a crowd of students and parents in the audience, Darien Robins, an English teacher at West, attended the event to support Nabhan-Warren, whom he had for the first time in creative writing class this year. He adds that along with being a talented writer, Nabhan-Warren is also a dedicated student, contributing to her success as the ISPA.
“Josie sits quietly in the back and smiles and is a perfect student, but she is very reserved. Then she hands in writing that demonstrates that she was paying sharp attention to every single second of class, which was really fun and surprising. The first time that she turned in things I went, ‘Whoa, who’s this kid?’” Robins said. “She grows so fast. It’s a fun and exciting surprise every time she hands in something. You see what she has processed and the ways that she’s grown.”
Returning to the mic, Nabhan-Warren concluded the event by reading three poems that inspired her writing journey, as she hopes events like these will inspire other students in the future. One of Nabhan-Warren’s goals as the ISPA is to build a comfortable environment for students to express themselves, starting with opportunities like this one.
“I plan to create a strong community of brilliant young writers in Iowa City, which is why I had this event,” Nabhan-Warren said. “I think that Lydia Cruce, Joaquin Gomez, Endrit Ramku and I are a good, stable starting block for that, and I really want to create more opportunities for youth and the arts.”
