On the heels of the announcement of Donald Hall”s appointment to the position of U.S. Poet Laureate, Seattle has announced its list of contenders for the title of Seattle Poet Populist. The press release follows. There”s more to this post than an announcement of yet another poet to be honored and handed the responsibility of bringing poetry alive. Or perhaps it is about it being “yet another poet”.

Last month, Duluth named a Barton Sutter as its official Poet Laureate after Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed legislation to create an official state Poet Laureate. There are currently 37 states that honor a Poet Laureate, and several others that confer another title on a state poet of some sort.

In Chicago, children”s poetry is being posted in the city”s busses and train stations. In Providence, Boston, Worcester, Augusta, in San Francisco and Austion and Taos and Houston and 72 other cities around the country, hundreds of poets are entering the final competitions to choose representatives of their cities and towns to the National Poetry Slam. This weekend in Boston, a seventeen year old girl won the title of Boston”s Youth Poet of the Year. Spoken Word is featured in television ads, and open mikes are flourishing across the country. Poetry is in the newspapers, on the subway walls and declaimed in schools and coffee houses from sea to shining sea.

This morning, I attended a middle school graduation. The commencement address was delivered by someone you won”t have heard of unless you attended Sullivan Middle School this year, but her address was possibly the most interesting and enjoyable one I”ve ever heard. She addressed nearly every child in that auditorium by name, and referenced their dreams and hopes and futures. Among the future astronauts and chemists and peacemakers and scientists, she also named one girl who will be, she predicted, the Poet Laureate of the United States one day.

Credit hip hop or rap, slam or cowboy poets, Ted Kooser or Garrison Keilor or Maya Angelou or any of the dozens of others for the resurgence of interest in poetry. Poetry is moving back into center stage, into a role in the daily life of the people. It”s poetry to the people and for the people, and it”s about time.

SUBJECT: Seven Poets Vie to be Seattle Poet Populist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
6/19/2006 10:25:00 AM FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Frank Video (206) 684-8803
Jackie O”Ryan (206) 684-8159

SEVEN POETS VIE TO BE SEATTLE POET POPULIST
Winner to be announced at Bumbershoot

SEATTLE -Seven Seattle poets have been nominated by the city”s literary community, but only one will become the 2006-2007 Seattle Poet Populist. Seattleites can cast their vote (one per person, please!) at www.seattlepoetpopulist.org until August 21st.

“We”re looking forward again to another great year,” said City Council President Nick Licata. “Last year, people participated who might not otherwise have ever paid attention to poetry. That”s what I love about this – it extends poetry beyond traditional boundaries.” Licata launched the Poet Populist program in 1999, inventing it as an alternative to conventional poet laureate titles offered in other places.

This year”s seven nominated poets (and their nominators) are Anna Maria Hong by Eleventh Hour Productions, Lynn Coffin by PEN Washington, John Burgess by the Washington Poets Association, Joannie Kervran Stangeland by Rose Alley Press, Jourdan Keith by from the ground up reading series at Richard Hugo House, Barbara Petite by the Cancer Lifeline Reading Series at Third Place Ravenna Books, and Crysta Casey by It”s About time Writers Reading Series, also at Ravenna Third Place Books.

The nominated poets will read from their work at the downtown Central Public Library on Sunday, July 16th at 2:00 pm in the Microsoft Auditorium (1000 Fourth Avenue, 1st floor).

The winner of this year”s Poet Populist election will be announced on the Literary Stage at Bumbershoot Arts Festival on Saturday, September 2nd at 12:30 pm and will receive a cash prize of $500.

The Seattle Poet Populist program is sponsored by the Seattle Public Library, Council President Nick Licata and Bumbershoot.

For more information, please visit the official Seattle Poet Populist Web site at www.seattlepoetpopulist.org.