Aitina Fareed-Cooke, ’12, ’16
- Buffalo Poet Laureate
- Get Fokus’d Productions Founder
At Bengala 2024, Aitina Fareed-Cooke, ’12, ’16, performed her spoken word piece “A Letter to My Younger Self.” She left the audience inspired and energized as she urged her younger self to realize her dreams. Fareed-Cooke, the poet laureate for the City of Buffalo, agreed to create an abridged version of her original letter.
In her abridged version, she keeps the same tone and energy, but urges her younger self to “imagine a place.” In collaboration with her company, Get Fokus’d Productions, and Buffalo State University, Fareed-Cooke's inspiring and authentic letter to her younger self became the foundation of Buffalo State’s newest creative theme – “Imagine a place…”
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About Aitina Fareed-Cooke ’12, ’16
For two decades, Aitina has dedicated her efforts towards designing and implementing a variety of project-based educational programs, presentations and performances, apprenticeships, practical income-generating opportunities and career development experiences within the creative arts sector to a collection of emerging artists, aspiring young creatives, entrepreneurs, and more.
Aitina has served as an adjunct professor at Buffalo State, community schools navigator with Say Yes to Education, artworks director and teaching artist at Young Audiences of Western New York, and youth services site coordinator at N.U.R.T.U.R.E. Academy. She has designed curriculums to boost program retention, youth and parent participation, community engagement, formed partnerships with organizations, and secured grant funds for program sustainability.