WE DID IT!

I am just beside myself with joy and love and excitement for this grand role I have been given the honour of taking on! For the next four years, I will be your humble Poet Laureate of Windsor! I am following in the fine footsteps of Mary Ann Mulhern, Windsor’s second Poet Laureate, and will be working and writing with Poet Laureate Emeritus Marty Gervais, and Youth Poet Laureate Alexei Alexei Ungurenaşu. *PLUS* The City of Windsor has added two new ambassadorial roles: Multicultural Storyteller and Indigenous Storyteller. The inaugural storytellers are Teajai Travis, Multicultural Storyteller, and Theresa Simms, Indigenous Storyteller – both of whom have been engaging our community with stories for decades! Together we are a force of creative love in community outreach!

I have been dreaming about what this opportunity would be like…and now it’s here and my tummy is a butterfly colony on hatch day! My mind is zipping with logistics and lists and schedules. My heart has grown in size to accommodate the outpouring in poetry it will do…and I cry about forty times a day, overwhelmed with the gift that is poetry in our lives, in my life.

I am putting the finishing touches on new website dedicated to my Poet Laureate adventures. I’m having loads of fun making stickers, business cards, postcards and other fine swag for this role. You know it’s not real until you have a sticker that says it is! Here are some…

Change is here. I’ve been twirling around in a limbo since my interview for this glorious position in early April. The future was…unclear. But now…oh baby! The path is poetry, my friends! More poetry! More engagement! More community love! How this will play out is forthcoming. I can pretty much guarantee that my schedule is gonna get super wild. I’m ready! I’ll keep you updated on all the details!

Thank you to the City of Windsor for bestowing me with the incredible honour. Thank you to all the friends/writers/poets who wrote support letters for my application, and those who continue to support me in the joys and struggles of daily life as a mother, writer, lover…and now Poet Laureate!