City Council approves development of a poet laureate position for Holyoke

The City Council discusses and approves developing a poet laureate position for the city.
Photo credit: Holyoke Media

HOLYOKE — Holyoke’s arts and culture scene has just been elevated after a recent City Council vote.

During its April 21 meeting, the body approved an order to explore the creation of a poet laureate position for the city.

City Councilor Anne Thalheimer filed an order in January that the city should begin developing the position, and the City Council’s Public Service Committee has been discussing the position for the last few months to help develop the responsibilities and funding.

The Public Service Committee most recently discussed the position at its April 9 meeting before sending it to the full City Council for recommendation.

The order states that, “A poet laureate is a poet appointed by a government or other conferring institution who uses the role to foster public appreciation of poetry and literary arts, and to advance culture, literacy and creative expression. Many of our neighboring communities have named poet laureates through their arts organizations; Holyoke’s could be a collaborative effort between the Holyoke Local Cultural Council, the Mayor’s Office, the Tourism Advisory Committee and/or other community organizations.”

Thalheimer has publicly spoken about the position for months while gathering feedback from the public.

“I have received an incredible amount of positive feedback on this, and we had someone actually on zoom at the Public Service [Committee] meeting who spoke to this,” Thalheimer stated.” We have multiple previous other city poet laureates who live in Holyoke; one of the people who worked on the statewide poet laureate program lives in Holyoke. This, I think, is a no-brainer and a slam dunk.”

Thalheimer explained that the position “in it’s vision is going to be funded through a grant from the Holyoke Local Cultural Council.” The funding for the position will not be coming out of the city’s budget.

“This is in keeping with other places, as well,” Thalheimer explained. “Northampton, other places, this is usually often funded through a grants proposal or some other thing so, not city money.”

Besides Northampton, Easthampton, West Springfield and Springfield have poet laureates, according to Thalheimer.

“We do not yet have one, and I think it is time,” Thalheimer stated.

Thalheimer also laid out how she views the process of hiring a poet laureate. Now that the City Council has approved the position, volunteers from the community will form an advisory board.

From there, the board will decide the parameters and decide about whether the position will be appointed, nominated or application-based.

Thalheimer said that traditionally, if the city pays for a position, the mayor makes the designation. However, that path will not be proposed because the position will be grant-funded.

Besides Thalheimer, City Councilors Richard Purcell, Patti Devine, Juan Anderson-Burgos, Israel Rivera and Jenny Rivera also co-signed the order.

Rivera also spoke in favor of the city developing the position.

“I think for us … [the] community that has a lot of stories to tell, just from different perspectives in the community,” Rivera stated. “I think the most important piece is trying to provide that opportunity or platform for people to voice, whatever it is that they want to voice through this form of communication.”

The City Council unanimously approved adopting the position. Thalheimer said she will keep the community and City Council in the loop on the process going forward.