Photography by Tony Lewis, Jr.
Maryland’s 10th and 11th Poets Laureate stand together: oldest and youngest, White and Black, united in their commitment to support those who have been silenced and to encourage those who have important things to say. The poems of Grace Cavalieri and Lady Brion embrace the spectrum of modern poetry, from the traditional “page poem” to “spoken word”—performance, or slam poems. Like bookends, their lives and their approaches to poetry support and embrace what is creative and powerful in the Arts.
What’s all the fuss about?
Grace Cavalieri, 10th Poet Laureate, and Lady Brion, 11th Poet Laureate, come to this public role already accomplished and renowned as poets. They share a passion for performance. Cavalieri first as a playwright and later as a “page poet.” Lady Brion as a performance poet from childhood. Both see the role of Poet Laureate as another avenue for supporting poetry and the arts, and as cultural ambassadors for and representative of Maryland’s unique and complex history and culture. Both poets are activists—sharing their poetry and the poetry of others, shining lights on poetry through audio and video performances.
Let me explain the role of Poet Laureate. The title identifies a poet who is recognized by a state or the nation for outstanding creative and intellectual achievement. Maryland’s first Poet Laureate was appointed in 1959, Maria B. Croker, who spoke of the impact of poetry on the human soul. Maryland’s third Poet Laureate was Lucille Clifton, a recipient of the National Book Award and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her powerful poems use clear and simple language to point out injustice and suffering and to bring about change in attitudes and express long suppressed viewpoints. Several of Clifton’s collections of poems deal directly with social injustice and racism.
Photography by Tony Lewis, Jr.
What have these two poets been up to?
And so, we come to our recent and current Poets Laureate. The oldest, Grace Cavalieri began her Laureateship at age 87 and stepped aside at 92. But long before her role as Poet Laureate, she was showing the State and the world how poetry can open doors and minds. In 1977 she helped found WPFW-FM, the renowned jazz and talk-radio station in Washington, D.C. Cavalieri brought to her radio listeners the works of poets, some of whom had been unrecognized and under-represented. Through her radio interviews, listeners came to hear and appreciate regional poets and thinkers.
Cavalieri continued her championing of poets with The Poet and the Poem broadcasts—recorded interviews with poets from across America. She has recently completed the 47th year of the interview program, now broadcasting from the Library of Congress. Every United States Poet Laureate has been interviewed by Cavalieri for The Poet and the Poem. In some instances, hers are the only extant recordings of renowned poets reading their own work.
Lady Brion, Maryland’s 11th and youngest Poet Laureate, knows her way around the media and recording studio, too. Renowned as a spoken word or performance poet, often referred to as slam poetry, Lady Brion became the “Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion” in 2021.
Performance videos of her dramatic poetry presentations display her commitment to social justice and poetry’s power to change for the better individuals and society. She intends that spoken word poetry reclaim its rightful place in our arts culture. She is a spokesperson for Black artists, particularly Black women, in Maryland and across America. Since her Slam Championship, Lady Brion has organized and brought to Baltimore three “Women of the World Poetry Slams.” Since she was a ninth-grader she has performed her own poems at public functions including State events, in churches, and at gatherings of performance poets called Poetry Slams. She has organized poetry workshops in prisons and group homes across Maryland, and has managed teaching-artists who work with middle and high school students in the greater Baltimore area.
Photography by Tony Lewis, Jr.
And where does the Poet Laureate fit into Maryland’s arts scene?
The September 16th ceremony announcing Lady Brion’s appointment as Maryland’s 11th Poet Laureate was held in the Lucille Clifton House & Museum. This setting honored the former Poet Laureate whom Lady Brion identifies as one of her greatest poetic influences. During the ceremony, First Lady Dawn Flythe Moore spoke about the Moore administration’s commitment to the arts. “Wes and I understand the value of the arts. The arts create opportunity. The arts build community. And the arts boost the economy…This year, we’re [the Moore Administration] investing over $35 million into the arts through the Maryland State Arts Council.” A touching coincidence was the attendance of one of Lady Brion’s high school principals, now Maryland’s Secretary of Appointments, Tisha S. Edwards.
Both Maryland’s outgoing and incoming Poets Laureate have been accustomed, as artists and community organizers, to doing important work with very little money or support. Both poets have undertaken projects to encourage the under-represented and under-appreciated artists, even before Cavalieri and Lady Brion became official ambassadors for the State’s artists.
“Voice As a Bridge” has been one of Grace Cavalieri’s important projects for over a decade. She and poet-composer-educator Wing Chi Chan of Washington, D.C., organized annual poetry readings that brought together poets from different cultures, often writing in different languages. For many years Cavalieri’s own publishing company, Forest Woods Media Productions, has brought hundreds of poets to the public’s attention, often publishing collections of poetry by poets from diverse cultures. Most recently, Forest Woods published a collection of poems by Korean poets whom Cavalieri has been mentoring.
In 2019, Lady Brion established the Black Arts District in Baltimore. The district provides sponsorship and funding for arts projects and supports artists who might otherwise be silenced. Since 2013 she has curated Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, “…a grassroots think-tank which advances the public policy interest of Black people, in Baltimore, through: youth leadership development, political advocacy, and autonomous intellectual innovation.” In 2015 Lady Brion served as the program manager for DewMore Baltimore setting up programs in the public schools and training teaching-artists to engage with students. One of her commissioned spoken word poems is about the Bill of Rights. Lady Brion refers to the work she does as artivism, pairing art and activism.
What has each one done or plan to do as Poets Laureate?
It’s evident that these two women, 6 decades apart in age and experience, share a commitment to supporting poetry and poets. During Grace Cavalieri’s tenure as 10th Poet Laureate she completed a collection of recorded interviews showcasing Maryland’s poets, both the little known and those of renown, “Voices of Maryland’s Poets.” Another of Cavalieri’s projects was taking poetry into schools, focusing on teenagers and encouraging them to try expressing their feelings in poetry. Another of her projects during her Poet Laureateship and beyond is “Women in the Room.” Both Cavalieri and Lady Brion are determined that women poets receive the recognition their work deserves. Cavalieri has written extensively on under-appreciated women artists and thinkers, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Madame de Stael, and Anna Nicole Smith. Through Cavalieri’s project “Women in the Room” she mentors poets, encouraging and guiding their development. Cavalieri helps women share and publish their poems.
Lady Brion is setting out now with her amazing ardor and life experiences to put her mark on her Poet Laureateship. She notes, “Lucille Clifton [3rd Poet Laureate of Maryland] is my inspiration…I first read her poem ‘won’t you celebrate with me’ in 9th or 10th grade and was moved by Clifton’s powerful words.” Another important influence for Lady Brion has been nationally renowned muralist Ernest Shaw, Jr. “He gave me my first commission, to write a poem to accompany one of his paintings. He changed my attitude about what I was doing and could accomplish.”
Lady Brion wants to make a difference in the lives of young people too. She intends to carry her talent and experience as a performance poet into parts of Maryland that might be unfamiliar with spoken word poetry. As she’s done in Baltimore, she will encourage youth, particularly young Black students and artists across Maryland to raise their voices in beautiful and creative ways. On the State level, Lady Brion expects to be an advocate for poets and performance poetry. In the words of First Lady Dawn Moore, “She [Lady Brion] is an ambassador for those who need hope. She is an advocate for those who need a fighter. And she will be a champion for all Marylanders, no matter their background, zip code, or personal story.”
And what happens now?
As poets and performers, both Grace Cavalieri and Lady Brion look to performance as a validation; the audience can see and hear and understand the world from a fresh perspective through the diverse forms poetry can take. For these two poets, poetry may be page poetry (traditional forms,) performance or spoken word poetry.
Lady Brion is intrigued by the “intersection of poetry and theater.” Her “Bucket List” includes acting on a stage, singing in a musical (she has a rich and beautiful singing voice), and working with theater groups, as she has with Baltimore’s Center Stage, to adapt literature for performance poetry and create contemporary reimaginings of great literature as spoken word poems.
Let me bookend this brief encounter with our gifted Poets Laureate with Grace Cavalieri’s observation, “My life has been a life-long ribbon of poetry.”
To learn more check out the...Poet Laureate page on the Maryland State Arts Council website: http://msac.org/programs/poet-laureate. Grace Cavalieri’s website: https://www.gracecavalieri.com/. Lady Brion’s website: https://www.ladybrion.com/
Photography by Tony Lewis, Jr.
Maryland’s Youth Poet Laureate
I bend down to kiss the grass and call it prayer.
This first line of Tara Prakash’s poem, “On Erosion,” reflects her maturity and love of the natural world. Prakash is Poet Laureate for Montgomery County and the first Youth Poet Laureate of Maryland. At 18, she is an award-winning author of short fiction and poetry as well as a busy senior attending Sidwell Friends School in D.C. Prakash works to expand poetry’s appeal for young writers and to deepen her own writing. She participates in writers’ workshops, including the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshops and Youth Poet Laureate Institute Workshops.
A serious student and poet, Prakash credits her grandmother Sarla Prakash with her love of language. “She [Sarla Prakash] gets me and my work.” Tara’s sixth grade teacher, Becky Farnum, helped Tara gain respect for her own poetic voice. In the larger world of poetry, poets whose work she admires and studies include Ocean Vuong, Keith Leonard, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Tara Prakash has interned since 2022 with Free Minds, a nonprofit organization. One of her projects has been encouraging incarcerated poets and critiquing their work. Last summer she taught an on-line poetry workshop with teens in India. And as her Eagle Scout project, she designed a creative writing workshop for children, Write to Right. The program has grown in popularity, and children in 12 states and four countries now participate in the workshops Tara designed.
Prakash meets regularly with other youth poet laureates via Zoom. These YPL Institutes invite guest writers and teachers to discuss the craft of writing poetry with these young poets from across the country.
Recently, Tara has become interested in Performance Poetry. In April of 2024, she participated in the D.C. Youth Slam Team performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The team is overseen by WBL [Words, Beats & Life] a hip-hop-centric, art-based educational nonprofit. WBL works with DewMore Baltimore, a nonprofit whose focus is on the arts and activism. Overseen by Maryland’s Poet Laureate Lady Brion, DewMore Baltimore works statewide to help young people experience the power of poetry and of their own voices as poets.
As Maryland’s first Youth Poet Laureate Tara Prakash’s dedication and talent both as artist and activist set a high standard for future Youth Poet Laureates. Learn more about Prakash at her website, taraprakashwrites.com.
