Cough, cough…so, what does a city Poet Laureate do?
- At September 26, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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Cough cough. My asthma combined with a bronchitis and sinus infection have conspired to keep me at home with my inhaler and antiboitics, so I thought this would be a good time to post on a subject that, well, I’ve been asked about a lot since I became Redmond’s Poet Laureate. What exactly does a Poet Laureate of a city actually do?
There was a bit of a dustup recently when LA announced they would pony up 10K for a city Poet Laureate. Predictably, some folks grumbled that a city as low in funds as LA was just throwing money away at the arts, and other people defended the decision.
So let me tell you what I’ve done this week for my Poet Laureate job, despite being laid low by my upper respiratory infection:
–Scheduled a high school class visit
–Solicited donations of food and drink for my October 6th Inaugural Reading, Art Exhibit and Reception at SecondStory Reperatory Theater. (Believe me, my budget does not stretch to a lot of extra food and drink, so every little donation helps.
–Talked to a neighboring city’s council member about how they might start a Poet Laureate Program.
–Set up and post on social media (twitter account and blog posting)
–Had my husband put up posters around town about our quarterly events (the Inaugural reading, a library reading program and book group, and a talk on social media and e-publishing for poets, so far.)
–E-mailed back and forth with Redmond’s Arts Council members about such things as the PR, payment, and details about planning next quarter’s events.
–E-mailed back and forth about setting up a teen workshop at the local Teen Center next quarter.
–Met with artist Michaela Eaves to go over the art exhibit content and planning.
–E-mailed with local librarian contact about getting more copies of our “Redmond Reads Poetry” first quarter book choice.
So you see, nothing earth-shattering, but lots of little things, planning, trying to get folks together in the name of the arts. (And all while periodically going to the doctor, sucking on my inhaler, and manically gulping hot drinks with honey and soup! I am like a sickly superwoman!) Some weeks are harder – like, when I was asked by a local group to judge a limerick contest(don’t ask), or when I had to present a budget plan to city council.
So, is it important that a city devote a bit of their monetary resources to someone who cares about getting more poetry into schools, libraries, and the community? I think it is. But what do you think? What would you do if you were Poet Laureate of your city?
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
