Elgin's poet laureate win national fellowship that will allow her to create community poetry program - Chicago Tribune

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Elgin’s first Poet Laureate Chasity Gunn is one of 23 poets to be named a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. As part of her fellowship, she’s creating a community poetry program. (Chasity Gunn / HANDOUT)

Elgin’s first Poet Laureate Chasity Gunn is one of just 23 people from around the country to be named as a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets.

With the title comes a financial award that will help her bring poetry to the Elgin community.

Gunn called her selection “very humbling,” especially since many of those chosen are poets whose work she’s read and admired.

“I was just really blown away,” said Gunn, an English professor at Elgin Community College and author of “How to Create a World.”

The Academy of American Poets is awarding $1.1 million to the fellows and $100,000 to 14 nonprofit organizations supporting the fellows’ proposed projects, a news release said. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provides the funds for the program.

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“These 23 Poets Laureate Fellows will lead an extraordinary range of public poetry programs,” Mellon Foundation President and poet Elizabeth Alexander said in the release.

“We are delighted to support them as they create their own poems, collaborate with other artists, and center poetry in their engagement with communities across our vast country, from urban to rural counties, while we collectively begin to process and reflect on the exceptional crises of the past year.”

Gunn’s project is called Sanctuary Poets, inspired by June Jordan’s “Poetry for the People.” A six-week poetry seminar she’s launching in September, the basic concept is “you take poetry out of academia and bring it to everyday people in ways they can embrace and enjoy poetry,” Gunn said.

It will be open to anyone 16 and older, and experience in writing or reading poetry is not a requirement, Gunn said. In fact, she hopes to have people join who have never read, written or performed poetry.

“I think one of the beautiful aspects of diversity is you can benefit and learn and grow from all types of people,” she said. “There’s a fresh eye that people who have never read poetry before that brings to the table, then there’s a refined eye.”

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Part of the project is a poetry reading with visual art, a collection of poems on a common theme and an audiobook of poets reading their work, Gunn said. The project is a collaboration with Atrocious Poets and Hamilton Wings, a nonprofit that promotes learning and leadership through the arts.

“She’s extremely professional,” said Hamilton Wings Executive Director Rise Jones, who has worked with Gunn on other projects. “She’s extremely gifted.”

Jones is also a fan of Gunn’s poetry. “I love the way that she has such a gift for writing. She can heighten the sensory experience for the listener and is able to take us on a journey,” she said.

Gunn is planning to make sure participants have access to transportation and childcare, she said.

The project is important for Elgin, Jones said.

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“I think that it is so critical to recognize everyone’s humanity. I love Gwendolyn Brooks’ quote, ‘Poetry is life distilled,’” she said. “It gives the opportunity for everyone to share their story, their narrative. It gives us insight on each other’s humanity and can only serve to bring us closer through that understanding.”

Gunn was named Elgin’s first poet laureate in 2019, a two-year appointment that was extended for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In her role, she’s done poetry writing classes for the community, written poems for organizations and events, and held public readings.

In her interaction with residents, Gunn has learned there’s “a sizeable portion of the Elgin community that used values poetry, values lyrics, values the arts being used as a voice for social justice. It’s one takeaway I have definitely learned,” she said.

She recognizes that she’s also become a role model, she said.

“I believe the children of any community deserve different types of people to look up to and admire,” Gunn said. “In my role, as an African American woman, I’ve had parents say I brought my child here because I wanted them to see someone like you in this role. So, representation is vital.”

Gunn is going to chronicle Sanctuary Poets through a blog, which will include information on how to participate.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

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