What is a Po' Poet Laureate?

by Staff Writer

Who is considered a great scholar? How is scholarship attained? How is greatness honored? One of the ways literary greatness has been honored for many years is in a tradition borne from the greco-roman word Laureate or Wreath, which was, literally, a wreath given to great "men" of science, literature and art.

Traditionally, the title of Poet Laureate was bestowed on people who were considered literary scholars, who due to their prolific literary works, awards and formal scholarship were considered "worthy" or "deserving" of the Laureate. Only recently have the awards been given to anyone who is not linked to an old-school literary canon, ie, Ivy league schools and their presses such as: Harvard, Yale, Wellesley and Brown to name a few. Which means until recently the majority of poet laureates were priveleged men of European Descent

At POOR we have a very different notion of scholarship, who deserves it, how it is attained and how it is used. We have established a new kind of scholarship, The Scholarship of Poverty. This scholarship has a new canon with new designations for greatness. Survival itself, through extreme poverty and crisis, houselessness, racism, disability and welfare to name a few are what you need to qualify for poverty scholarship. Conversely, a person who is formally educated with a Masters Degree and no poverty scholarship would be considered inexperienced and therefore should not be writing, lecturing or legislating on issues that impact communities in poverty. With this new canon in mind POOR has established the Po Poet Laureate title which we will bestow on very low-income, youth and adult, literary scholars every six months and publish their work as a monthly column on PNN.

Like other Poet Laureate’s nominated by Formal Educational Institutions and City Governments, The Po’ Poet Laureates will use their poetry to comment on issues. Unlike other poet Laureates though, The Po Poet Laureates will comment on issues specifically impacting communities struggling with poverty and racism. Through this new project, POOR’s hope is to offer up this new scholarship to ALL communities in an attempt to shatter the lies and myths, while also redefine the solutions for poor folk locally and globally.