Poets' Academy picks out fresh fellows in its latest round
In an exciting development, the Academy of American Poets is funding 23 poet laureates across the United States, with a total of $1.1 million, to launch a variety of projects aimed at encouraging people to appreciate poetry and recognise the value of poets' work.
One of the recipients, Kweku Abimbola, the poet laureate of El Segundo, California, is inviting others to join his project, "The Land Remembers." This initiative aims to bring more nuanced dialogue towards conversations of climate change, particularly in Los Angeles, a city prone to forest fires. Abimbola's project focuses on restoring neighborhoods burned by wildfires, with a special emphasis on Los Angeles.
Abimbola's project is not alone in its mission. The funding is for wide-ranging projects, including those supported by nonprofit organizations. For instance, the project "Sharing Tree Space" by poet laureate Coggin partners with Hot Springs National Park staff to lead BIPOC and LGBTQ+ high school students on natural world hikes, combining outdoor education with generative writing exercises.
The projects funded by the Academy are diverse, designed to engage communities in poetry and civic life. These include poetry festivals, anthologies, curated poetry nooks, cookbooks, toll-free poetry hotlines, prison workshops, public beach poetry readings, and billboards displaying poetry. The goal is to use poetry as a transformative and engaging medium for community connection and civic engagement across both large cities and small towns throughout the United States.
Ruelaine Stokes, the poet laureate of Lansing, Michigan, is taking a unique approach. She is installing poetry in public spaces as part of a "Poetry Pathways" project. The poetry lectern signs will be installed along walking paths in a beautiful wetlands inside the city, inviting people to engage in conversations about nature and the Earth in a new way.
The Academy's fellowship program emphasises poetry's role in free expression, cultural insight, and fostering civic participation by funding projects that connect poets and diverse communities in meaningful ways. The aim is to excite the imagination of communities and get them involved in poetry and civic life. Stokes, too, shares this vision, inviting those who don't consider themselves poets or writers to engage in these conversations.
- These philanthropic projects, backed by the Academy of American Poets, not only promote poetry but also nurture sustainable living, as Kweku Abimbola's "The Land Remembers" initiative in Los Angeles aims to restore neighborhoods affected by wildfires, focusing on climate change.
- The education and self-development sector is also witnessing a poetry-based revolution, with projects like "Sharing Tree Space" by Coggin, which integrates outdoor education, generative writing exercises, and poetry to foster personal growth among high school students from diverse backgrounds.
- Recipients of the Academy's funding, such as Ruelaine Stokes in Lansing, Michigan, are creating innovative community projects, like the "Poetry Pathways" initiative, which installs poetry in public spaces to stimulate discussions about nature, Earth, and personal growth, encouraging non-writers to participate.
