There’s more to serving as St. Louis’ poet laureate than creating and reciting original works. Since the role’s introduction in 2014, appointees have served as literary ambassadors, leading writing workshops and hosting poetry readings. St. Louis’ newly installed poet laureate, Pacia Elaine Anderson, told St. Louis on the Air that she’s ready to continue to uplift the city’s culture around poetry and activism.
“St. Louis poets are built different because we build differently. … You can’t just do art for art’s sake,” Anderson said. “It’s more than just promoting literacy and promoting poetry. It’s giving a voice to the voiceless. It is speaking truth to power. It’s holding self and others accountable. It’s doing the activities. It’s also bringing the challenge. It’s listening, but it is also asking the questions.”
St. Louis’ history with poets laureate is relatively new. The measure to introduce the position was presented in 2014 under former Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed. With delays in appointing a new poet laureate in 2017, Reed’s resignation and subsequent prison sentence in 2022 and the COVID-19 pandemic, several years have passed since Anderson’s appointment – which is a reboot to the honorary role – just last month.
“There's lots of [lessons from] previous poets laureate, whether it was during their tenure or in the decades leading up to their tenure, of how we strategize, how we're proactive, how we react." But ultimately, Anderson said, her job during her two-year term “is to just do. Stop thinking about it so much and just go do it. Go do the thing.”
Now that it’s Anderson’s turn to “do the thing,” she’s got a vision board of ideas to keep her busy. Anderson added she will continue to look to her predecessors and their experiences to guide her through the next two years.
“There are three buckets I think that everything can fit into. One is story keeping…What is the story of the poets of St. Louis? Second is an education piece, a skill-sharing piece and skill building ... working with young people, doing writers workshops, developing and elevating the craft.” The last bucket, Anderson said, goes back to inaugural St. Louis poet laureate Michael Castro, who “was all about, which is the convening [and] bringing all of us together.”
“Whether you publish a literary magazine, host a spoken word open mic, coach a slam team or have a writer's workshop in your living room and y'all meet once a year under the waning gibbous moon on the fourth Saturday of the third year,” Anderson said and laughed, “however, you engage with [poetry], we’re coming together out of our silos and doing it collectively.”
For more with St. Louis’ poet laureate Pacia Elaine Anderson, including specific lessons she’s learned from her mentors and friends who have served as poets laureate in the past, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
