Richmond, VA
Richmond has a new poet laureate: Joanna Lee, leader of the Richmond writing group River City Poets, who has a background in healing and creativity.
The announcement was made Saturday night at the second Poetry Fest at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, celebrating poetry and Richmond’s vibrant writing community.
The two-day event included readings from Richmond-based poets like Rae Whitlock, Emily Okamoto-Green and Ty Phelps; free workshops taught by local writers such as Rosa Castellano and Lauren Miner; and spoken word performances by the Writers’ Den and Richmond’s inaugural poet laureate, Douglas Powell, artistically known as Roscoe Burnems.
During his time as poet laureate, Burnems launched two major poetry outreach programs. The first was a poetry project called “If These Walls Could Talk” that was introduced in tandem with Mending Walls RVA, a public art project headed by Richmond muralist Hamilton Glass that created a series of murals around Richmond touching on issues of social justice. The second project was a youth poetry slam tournament that he launched with Richmond public high schools.
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Links:
Richmond Times-Dispatch | Joanna Suzanne Lee |
Visual Arts Center of Richmond | RVA Poetry Fest
