City of Boston Poet Laureate
The City’s Poet Laureate raises the status of poetry in the everyday consciousness of Bostonians.
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Events
EventsMeet the Poet Laureate
Meet the Poet Laureate
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
Boston Poet Laureate
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah (they/he) is a Ghanaian American poet, editor, and educator living out the diaspora in Boston, Massachusetts. For six years they taught 11th grade English at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and prior to that served as a teaching artist at organizations throughout Boston. They have very recently (September 2023) transitioned from teaching high school English, and are currently working as a school librarian at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester, Boston (it's a K-8!). While they miss their high schoolers, Emmanuel says the transition to working with littles, particularly kids growing up in the city they themself grew up in, has been incredibly joyful and life-giving. The pursuit of joy, and that which sustains life, is essential to their creative practice, and to their practice of living. Emmanuel's first chapbook, "not without small joys" (published in 2021 by Game Over Books Press) explores the centrality of joy as an animating force, especially in the face of human suffering. In their free time, they enjoy hot carbs, afternoons spent playing board games, and the long sigh at the end of a good book.
Oppong-Yeboah is Boston’s fourth Poet Laureate, following Porsha Olayiwola, Danielle Legros Georges, and Sam Cornish, all of whom helped elevate the city’s poetry scene through this role.
Read Emmanuel's Work
'Boston Sonnet'
I’ve been seeing Boston a lot in the news lately, so much so I’ve even mistaken someone else's Boston for my own
'Practicing Prophecy: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Vision for Integration'
Read the full text of Boston Poet Laureate Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah's keynote speech from "A Celebration in Honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." at Faneuil Hall on January 19, 2026.
About the program
Boston's Poet Laureate is a significant fixture in Boston's cultural and artistic arena. The Poet Laureate learns, teaches, and embodies the great literary traditions of Boston. This role is a ceremonial appointment.
Please contact Thomas Johnston at 617-635-3911 or thomas.johnston@boston.gov. Remember to describe the nature of the event, plus its time, location, and duration. You should also tell us the role requested. For example, is this an appearance, a reading, a workshop, or something else.
Former Poets Laureate
Former Poets LaureatePorsha Olayiwola was the City of Boston’s third Poet Laureate. Porsha is a native of Chicago who writes, lives and loves in Boston. She is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. Olayiwola is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the founder of the Roxbury Poetry Festival. She is Brown University's 2019 Heimark Artist-In-Residence as well as the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American poets. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College and is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too. Her work can be found in or forthcoming from with TriQuarterly Magazine, Black Warrior Review, The Boston Globe, Essence Magazine, Redivider, The Academy of American Poets, Netflix, Wildness Press, The Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.
Danielle Legros Georges was the City of Boston’s second Poet Laureate. During her influential tenure the Haitian-born professor, writer, and editor who grew up in Mattapan represented Boston internationally, and spearheaded initiatives including City of Notions: An Anthology of Contemporary Boston Poems (published by the Mayor’s Office in 2017), "Raining Poetry" with Mass Poetry and the Mayor’s Mural Crew, which had poetry appearing on city streets when it rained; "The Languages We Live In,” a multilingual collaboration with the Rose Kennedy Greenway which celebrated Lawrence Weiner's mural "A Translation From One Language to Another"; and a poetry workshop program for seniors in several Boston eldercare facilities, where she coordinated and compensated teaching artists to lead classes.
Sam Cornish was Boston’s inaugural Poet Laureate. Sam, who passed away in 2018, was an educator at Emerson College and other Massachusetts schools; he was an editor, reviewer, bookstore owner, and author of ten poetry collections, including “Dead Beats” (2011) and “Folks Like Me” (1993). Sam was associated with the Black Arts Movement and wrote extensively of African-American history in his poetry. In addition to serving as Boston’s Poet Laureate, Sam was a member of Boston bluegrass band, The Lemonshiners.
Youth Poet Laureate
Boston's Youth Poet Laureate works with the Poet Laureate in raising the status of poetry in Boston.
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