Angelique Palmer, a performance poet and teacher, has been chosen as Fairfax County’s new poet laureate.
ArtsFairfax announced yesterday (Monday) that Palmer will serve as its poet laureate from 2024 through 2027. Succeeding Danielle Badra, Palmer will be the third person to hold the title, which was created in 2020 to celebrate poetry and promote it to a wider local audience.
“It means everything to me to be named the Fairfax County Poet Laureate,” Palmer said in the announcement. “This honor will change my life, and I want to use my time to change the lives of others, too. Over the next three years, I will share freely with everyone how much I love my chosen art form of poetry!”
In addition to performing poetry, Palmer works as a kindergarten teacher and a spoken word instructor for the creative writing graduate program at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. She has published two books and has seen her poetry featured in a variety of publications and anthologies, including The Mud Review and “The Queer Cookies Poetry Cookbook.”
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, she has lived in Virginia since 2010 and in Fairfax County since 2017, according to her official bio.
As poet laureate, Palmer will champion poetry reading and writing through a community service project focused on “the intersection of poetry with various artistic mediums,” ArtsFairfax says.
For her community service project, Badra collaborated with the Fairfax County Park Authority for a “Poetry in the Parks” program that included free readings, workshops and the addition of interpretive signage.
Inaugural poet laureate Nicole Tong’s “Poetry Lives Here” project celebrated living poets with virtual poetry readings and a residency at the Fairfax County Juvenile Detention Center.
“Angelique’s vision to demystify the art form and encourage a new community of artists to interact with poetry aligns with the ArtsFairfax mission to make arts participation more accessible to Fairfax County residents,” ArtsFairfax President and CEO Stuart Holt said. “Through the Poet Laureate program, we celebrate, honor, and promote the poets and writers in our community.”
More on Palmer and the poet laureate program from ArtsFairfax:
ArtsFairfax operates the Fairfax County Poet Laureate program and oversees the open call and selection of the Poet Laureate through a competitive process and deliberation by an independent panelist of reviewers. The nonprofit also funds and facilitates public programs conceived by the Fairfax County Poet Laureate. Through designated funding provided by Fairfax County, the Poet Laureate receives an honorarium of $5,000 per year.
Ms. Palmer’s first full length book, The Chambermaid’s Style Guide, debuted on Sargent Press in 2016. Her second book is the 2021 follow-up Also Dark on Etruscan Press. Honored to be a part of such anthologies as The Queer Cookies Poetry Cookbook, and Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition, she has also published online in Drunk in A Midnight Choir; Wus Good?: A POC Magazine; Borderline; and The Mud Review. The New Orleans native and Florida State University Creative Writing graduate has called Virginia home since 2010 and Fairfax County home since 2017. She makes her own ice cream, shares kindness freely, and never hesitates to bond with anyone over “The Golden Girls.”
The Fairfax County Poet Laureate is available for select weekend visits to libraries, community events, readings, workshops, conferences, and more. Requests must be made at least one month in advance on the ArtsFairfax website: ArtsFairfax.org/Poetry.
