22 Poets Awarded $50,000 Grants for Innovative Community Projects

The Academy of American Poets, an organization with a 90-year history, has revealed its latest round of grants through the Poet Laureate Fellowship Program. Twenty-two poets across the United States will each receive $50,000 to fund innovative community projects.

Since its inception in 2019, the program has distributed $6.55 million in grants, with an additional $440,000 in matching funds. This initiative, supported by the Mellon Foundation, one of the largest benefactors of arts and humanities in the country, aims to promote poetry's role in civic engagement and cultural transformation.

Among the recipients is Nandi Comer, Michigan's poet laureate. Comer's project involves a billboard campaign featuring excerpts from Michigan poets, complete with QR codes linking to the Library of Michigan's website. This innovative approach combines poetry with technology, utilizing QR codes that have been in existence for three decades.

In Kansas, a state with a century-old poet laureate tradition, Traci Brimhall plans to create a community cookbook that brings together chefs and poets. This project echoes the long-standing American tradition of community cookbooks, which gained popularity during the Civil War.

Angelika Brewer, representing Ogden, Utah, a city of approximately 87,000 residents, will focus on developing a local archive. Other notable recipients include Julia Bouwsma from Maine, where the poet laureate position has existed for nearly three decades, Andrea Gibson from Colorado, a state that established its laureate position over a century ago, and Joseph Rios from Fresno, California, a city renowned for its raisin production.

These projects demonstrate the diverse ways poetry can intersect with community life, from public spaces to culinary arts. The use of billboards for poetry harkens back to the early days of outdoor advertising in the 1830s, while the combination of poetry and cooking reflects a rich history of literary and culinary fusion.

Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation, emphasized the importance of these initiatives:

"These exceptional writers share the distinctive responsibility of advancing action, advocacy, and civic transformation in their communities through the power of poetry. We at Mellon are pleased to provide them with the additional resources needed to carry out this mission, building further appreciation of and engagement with the written word across the United States."

This funding not only supports individual poets but also contributes to the broader goal of integrating poetry into everyday life, fostering community engagement, and preserving local cultural heritage.