Michigan poet laureate to speak alongside Ypsi youth poet laureate at Ypsi library event

The public is invited to a free, intergenerational poetry event featuring Michigan’s poet laureate at the Ypsilanti District Library‘s Michigan Avenue branch, 229 W. Michigan Ave. in Ypsi, on Oct. 18. The event, which will take place from 3-5 p.m. in the library’s program room, features Michigan Poet Laureate Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd, Ypsilanti Youth Poet Laureate Ruth Mella, and local poet Leslie McGraw, who will serve as facilitator of the event.

Boyd is a recently retired distinguished professor in African American Studies at Wayne State University, and was named the state’s third poet laureate in February of this year, while Mella is Ypsilanti’s first-ever youth poet laureate.

YDL Adult Services Librarian Aaron Smith, who organized the event along with co-worker Ellen Steves, says Boyd is Michigan’s first poet laureate after a long hiatus during which the state had no poet laureate. He says poetry seems to have experienced a “resurgence of support” among the public in the last few years. 

Smith notes that Michigan’s first two poet laureates after the revival of the poet laureate program were both Black women. He says Boyd is especially interesting because of her connection to the Detroit Poetry Movement of the ’60s and ’70s. The Detroit Poetry Movement is associated with poet Dudley Randall and his Broadside Press, which published many notable Black authors of the time.

When Smith wrote an application requesting that YDL be a stop on Boyd’s tour, he says he emphasized the intergenerational aspect of the event YDL staff were planning.

“Melba is retired and at the end of her legacy looking backward, so we wanted to bring in a younger generation,” he says of adding youth poet laureate Mella to the lineup. McGraw serves as the middle generation between the other two poets, Smith says.

The event will include readings from all three women, a panel discussion, and a question-and-answer session. There will also be a book display dedicated to the three poets’ works.

“We thought it would be beautiful to have three generations of black women poets to talk about their own work and share their views across generations,” Smith says.

The event is free and no registration is required. More information is available on the Ypsi District Library’s event page.