Royal Oak’s Artist Laureate Roberta Brown Makes Ordinary Extraordinary with Poetry
(Lilly Crossley, Aug 28, 2023)
Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak has presented their 2023 Artist Laureate – poet Roberta Brown. This program honors one artist, whether that be a musician, dancer, writer, or visual artist, for a year, providing a unique opportunity to share their work, along with a stipend.
Brown has been writing in a variety of genres ever since she was a kid, but she started writing poetry around 25-30 years ago. At the time, she was reading a book by Eric Maisel, which said that every writer should consider writing poetry. “I thought ‘oh I’m not a poet,’ but I was out walking my dog one day, and just like that a poem hit me,” Brown says. She went home to write down the poem, and has been writing poetry ever since.
Brown likes writing accessible poetry, which are things about the everyday, as well as things she observes. “I’ve had people tell me that I make the ordinary extraordinary,” Brown explains.
She is the second Artist Laureate in Royal Oak history. A call for applications was posted online, and anyone in the arts that lived in Royal Oak was eligible to apply.
“People normally think of visual arts like painting or sculptures, but they also indicated poetry or other writing as an eligible art,” Brown says. In order to apply, Brown had to submit a portfolio of some of her work. The applications went through the Royal Oak Commission for the Arts, and it was narrowed down to three applicants. After reviewing the final three again, it ended up being a unanimous vote for Brown to be considered for this position. The Commission for the Arts then reported to the Mayor and City Commission, who also unanimously appointed Brown as the Artist Laureate.
Each Artist Laureate has a project that they complete by the end of their term that represents the Royal Oak community. The project is proposed in the application process, and Brown’s project is called “Poetry in Public Places.”
The idea of this project is to create events that expose more poetry out into the public. One event that has already taken place is an art walk, in which Brown presented alongside other artists. She shared her ekphrastic poetry, which is when a writer looks at a piece of art, such as a painting, and writes a poem about what they think the piece is saying. “You could have ten different poets in the room all looking at the same painting, and they will all be writing different things because that particular piece of art says something different to each of them,” Brown said.
Some other plans Brown has for this project is to create workshops at the public library, as well as participating in ESL groups. She also hopes to work with the teen librarian and create teen workshops.
The ultimate goal for this project is to get other people to write poems about Royal Oak, and with their permission, Brown will put them all together to create a book. This collection will be presented to the Royal Oak Public Library, as well as the Royal Oak Commission for the Arts. The book would also be available for sale.
Over the winter there will be poetry workshops at the Royal Oak Library. And much of the work will come to fruition in April 2024, which also happens to be Poetry Month.
Brown has proven that it is possible for anyone to write poetry, and with her story and “Poetry in Public Places” project, she will hopefully inspire other people to write their own poems as well. The City of Royal Oak will give updates as events are announced, and readers can find out more about the Artist Laureate program at https://www.romi.gov/1411/Artist-Laureate
Check out some of Brown’s poetry:
“Torn” on Poetry Society of Michigan
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