The City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department . Selects Sixth Poet Laureate: Darryl Lorenzo Wellington
The City of Santa Fe Arts Commission is pleased to announce the selection of Darryl Wellington as the city’s sixth Poet Laureate. Established in 2005, the Poet Laureate is an honorary position that is both ceremonial and educational, with the goal of promoting the presence of poetry in the city. Wellington will serve as Poet Laureate through June 2023, during which time he will make public performances marking important civic occasions as well as present educational seminars for the public.
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a poet, playwright, performance artist, essayist and journalist who has lived in Santa Fe for 10 years. Mr. Wellington has over twenty years of experience as a freelance journalist and essayist publishing magazine feature articles, political commentary, poetry, and book reviews appearing in publications such as Dissent, The Nation, The Progressive, The Washington Post, The Crisis (The NAACP magazine,) The Christian Science Monitor, The Progressive, The Common Review, Boston Review, ABZ Magazine, Drum Voices, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education N+1, amongst others.
His poetry chapbook Life’s Prisoners received the 2017 Turtle Island Quarterly Chapbook Award. Wellington has been featured on the Travis Smiley Radio Show. He also writes a syndicated editorial column for The Progressive Media Project. Since 2016, he has been a Writing/Communications Fellow with Center for Community Change, a Washington DC-based organization that supports low-income people of color.
Through the Poet Laureate program, the City wishes to enhance the literary arts presence in Santa Fe by creating a focal point for the expression of Santa Fe’s culture through the literary arts. The program raises awareness of the power of poetry and the spoken word while celebrating the spirit of the people and unique qualities of our city. A key component of the program is the promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration through the literary arts. The Poet Laureate receives an annual honorarium of $5,000 funded by the Arts & Culture Department and they serve a two-year term.
Interviews with Mr. Wellington may be arranged upon request.
The City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department (ACD), an agency within the municipal government of the City of Santa Fe, provides leadership by and for City government in supporting arts and cultural affairs. The ACD also recommends programs and policies that develop, sustain and promote artistic excellence in the community. For more information contact the ACD at 505-955-6707, email artscommission@santafenm.gov, or by fax 505-955-6671