Brod Bagert | |
---|---|
Born | Broderick Bagert 1947 |
Alma mater | Loyola University |
Occupation | Children's poet |
Brod Bagert (born 1947) is a children's poet from New Orleans. He has written 19 books of poetry for children, young-adults, and adults. [1] His work has received numerous awards including the International Reading Association's prestigious Young Adults Choices award, the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award, the Independent Publisher Gold Book Award, and Mom's Choices Gold Medal. [1] He lives in New Orleans with his wife Debby; they have four children. [1]
Bagert was born and raised in New Orleans. In high school, he studied classical literature in the original Latin and Greek, wrestled and boxed. [1] Bagert attended Loyola University in New Orleans for both undergraduate and Law School, from which, in 1971, he received his Juris Doctor.
Bagert practiced as a trial attorney in Louisiana from 1971-1992, and served as an elected official from 1976-1980. In the summer of 1992, Bagert decided to leave his law practice to become a full-time, professional poet. [1]
Bagert was elected to the New Orleans City Council in 1976 for a partial term representing District D, and was subsequently re-elected to a full term in 1977. While serving as Councilman, Bagert introduced legislation to designate Esplanade Avenue and a large portion of the New Orleans area referred to as the Treme as a historic district. [2] As Councilman, Bagert helped create the New Orleans Home Mortgage Authority and shepherded the issuance of $85-million in single-family mortgage revenue bonds to fund loans for low to moderate income, first-time home owners. [3]
In October 1980 Bagert left the City Council to accept an appointment to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. [4]
After leaving political office, Bagert remained active in utility-related consumer issues. He pursued litigation against Louisiana Power & Light (LP&L) for the return of $1.9 billion dollars in fuel cost adjustment overpayments. [5] He also became one of the lead proponents for the acquisition by the City of New Orleans Public Service Inc. (NOPSI), in a long dispute over the introduction of the cost of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station into the rate structure applicable to New Orleans rate payers. [6]
Bagert's life as a children's author began when his eight-year-old daughter asked him to write a poem for her to perform in her school elocution program. [7] To make the poem more performance friendly he wrote it in his daughter's voice, the voice of an eight-year-old girl. That was the beginning of what would eventually become one of the identifying characteristics of Bagert's poetry: poems are written in the voice of the audience for whom the poetry is intended. [1] In a poem for kindergartners, he writes in the voice of a kindergartner. In a poem for sixth-graders, he writes in the voice of a sixth-grader. The result is a body of performance-friendly poetry in which children hear their own voices, engage their own thoughts, and discover their own innermost feelings. [1]
Title | Year Published | ISBN | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
If Only I Could Fly: Poems for Kids to Read Out Loud | 1984 | ISBN 978-0961422806 | Juliahouse Publishing Company |
Alaska: Twenty Poems and a Journal | 1988 | ISBN 978-0961422837 | Juliahouse Publishing Company |
Chicken Socks: And Other Contagious Poems | 1993 | ISBN 978-1563978616 | Boyds Mill Press |
Helping Your Child Learn to Read: With Activities for Children from Infancy Through Age 10 | 1993 | ISBN 978-0669376722 | U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Research and Improvement |
Let Me Be... The Boss | 1995 | ISBN 978-1563975240 | Boyds Mills Press |
Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe | 1995 | ISBN 978-0806908205 | Sterling Publishing |
Throw Me Somethin’ Mistuh! | 1995 | ISBN 978-1887746021 | Juliahouse Publishing Company |
Rainbows, Head Lice, and Pea-Green Tile: Poems in the Voice of the Classroom Teacher | 1999 | ISBN 978-0929895284 | Maupin House Publishing |
Elephant Games: And Other Playful Poems to Perform | 1995 | ISBN 978-1563978623 | Boyds Mill Press |
The Gooch Machine: Poems for Children to Perform | 2004 | ISBN 978-1590783153 | Boyds Mill Press |
Giant Children | 2005 | ISBN 978-0142401927 | Puffin Books |
Hormone Jungle: Coming of Age in Middle School | 2006 | ISBN 978-0929895871 | Maupin House Publishing |
Shout! Little Poems That Roar | 2007 | 12359887978-0803729728 | Dial Books for Young Readers |
School Fever | 2008 | ISBN 978-0803732018 | Dial Books for Young Readers |
Steel Cables | 2008 | ISBN 978-1934338155 | Maupin House Publishing |
A Bullfrog at Cafe Du Monde | 2008 | ISBN 978-1934338179 | Maupin House Publishing |
The Poet and the Professor: Poems for Building Reading Skills, Grade Level 4 | 2010 | ISBN 978-1425802387 | Shell Educational Publishing |
The Poet and the Professor: Poems for Building Reading Skills, Grade Level 5 | 2010 | ISBN 978-1425802394 | Shell Educational Publishing |
The Poet and the Professor: Poems for Building Reading Skills, Grade Levels 6-8 | 2010 | ISBN 978-1425802400 | Shell Educational Publishing |
Moon Edwin Landrieu was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th mayor of New Orleans from 1970 to 1978. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New Orleans' Twelfth Ward in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966, served on the New Orleans City Council as a member at-large from 1966 to 1970, and was the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under U.S. president Jimmy Carter from 1979 to 1981.
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is an American politician who served as the 55th governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Jindal previously served as a U.S. representative from Louisiana from 2005 to 2008, and served as chair of the Republican Governors Association from 2012 to 2013.
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of The Times-Picayune by the New Orleans edition of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Victor Hugo "Vic" Schiro, was an American politician who served on the New Orleans City Council and as Mayor from 1961 to 1970.
The New Orleans mayoral election of 2002 was an election for Mayor of New Orleans; the primary round of voting was held on February 2, 2002, followed by a runoff on March 2. It resulted in the election of Ray Nagin as mayor.
The Supreme Court of Louisiana is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Robert Nye FRSL was an English poet and author. His bestselling novel Falstaff, published in 1976, was described by Michael Ratcliffe as "one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade", and went on to win both The Hawthornden Prize and Guardian Fiction Prize. The novel was also included in Anthony Burgess's 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (1984).
Karen Carter Peterson is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a member of the Louisiana State House from 1999 to 2010, then as the state senator from the 5th district until her resignation in 2022. She also served as the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party from 2012 to 2020, becoming the first female chair of the state party. In 2008, Peterson became as Democratic National Committeewoman for Louisiana. In 2017, Peterson was elected vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation for the Democratic National Committee.
Oliver M. Thomas Jr., is a Democratic politician, actor, writer, and poet who has served on the New Orleans City Council since 2022. He previously served on the city council from 1994 to 2007. On August 13, 2007, Thomas resigned his council seat after pleading guilty to bribery charges. On December 11, 2021, Oliver Thomas again won election to the city council.
Bruce Henricksen, American author, scholar, and editor, grew up in the town of Wanamingo, Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis.
Angus Lind is retired American journalist. He retired in July 2009 after 39 years with the Times-Picayune and the now-defunct afternoon States-Item newspaper. He began as a general assignment reporter for the States-Item in 1970 and covered the biggest local news stories of that decade, including the plane crash of U.S. Rep. Hale Boggs (D-LA) in Alaska, the Downtown Howard Johnson sniper incident, the Rault Center fire in which five women leaped to their deaths, the Upstairs Lounge fire, and the construction of the Louisiana Superdome.
Jared Christopher Brossett was a member of the New Orleans City Council from February 2014 to January 2022 representing District D. He served as Chair of the New Orleans City Council's Budget, Audit and Board of Review Committee. He also served on the Transportation, Utilities, Government Affairs, Economic Development and Special Projects, and Community Development committees.
Francisco Xavier Alarcón was a Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the United States. His poems have been also translated into Irish and Swedish. He made many guest appearances at public schools so that he could help inspire and influence young people to write their own poetry especially because he felt that children are "natural poets."
Pearl Rivers was an American journalist and poet, and the first female editor of a major American newspaper. After being the literary editor of the New Orleans Daily Picayune, Rivers became the owner and publisher in 1876, after her elderly husband died. In 1880, she took over as managing editor, where she continued until her death in 1896.
John K. Lawson aka JKL is an American Contemporary visual artist and poet, also known as the "Hieronymus Bosch of Beads," and is known for using salvaged Mardi Gras beads and items reclaimed from the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina in his art.
John Gery is an American poet, critic, collaborative translator, and editor. He has published seven books of poetry, a critical work on the treatment of nuclear annihilation in American poetry, two co-edited volumes of literary criticism and two co-edited anthologies of contemporary poetry, as well as, a co-authored biography and guidebook on Ezra Pound's Venice.
LaToya Cantrell is an American politician serving as the Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana since May 7, 2018. A Democrat, Cantrell is the first woman to hold the office. Before becoming mayor, Cantrell represented District B on the New Orleans City Council from 2012 to 2018.
Johnny Jackson Jr. was an American politician, who served as a Louisiana State Representative, for district 101, between the years of 1971 and 1985, and a New Orleans City Councilman, for District E, between 1986 and 1994.
Royce Duplessis is an American attorney and politician serving as a member of the Louisiana State Senate for the 5th district. He assumed office on December 6, 2022. On November 8, 2022, Duplessis defeated Mandie Landry in a special election to fill the vacant 5th district seat.