Jacalyn Eyvonne | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Academy of Art University at San Francisco [1] |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Title | Poet laureate of Vallejo, California |
| Term | 2024-2025 |
| Predecessor | Jeremy Snyder |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | poetry |
Jacalyn Evone Robinson known professionally as Jacalyn Eyvonne is an African-American poet and filmmaker. [2] She serves concurrently with Kathleen Herrmann as poet laureate of Vallejo, California. [3]
Jacalyn Eyvonne is the author of 3 books, and her poems have appeared in anthologies in North America and the United Kingdom. [2] In 2022 she placed second in the Jackson Book Festival poetry competition. [4] In the 1990s she edited the magazine In the Company of Poets based in Oakland, California. [3] [5] [6] Eyvonne is influenced by the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni. [7] Eyvonne serves concurrently with Kathleen Herrmann as poet laureate of Vallejo, California. [3] Like their predecessors, Herrmann and Eyvonne hosted the Poetry in Notion poetry circle at the John F. Kennedy Library in Vallejo. [8] The two also launched a new poetry open mic series called Tea House Poetry. [9] The co-poets laureate plan to create a youth anthology in cooperation with the Vallejo Unified School District. [10] [11] They held events for youth including a chalk art festival [12] and literacy awareness night. [13]
Since being named poet laureate, Jacalyn Eyvonne has performed at the 2023 Mad Hatter Holiday Festival, [8] a Black History Month event at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, [14] [15] Art Walk, [16] Alibi Bookshop, [17] [18] the Earth Daze Festival, [19] at a climate change themed art exhibit at Vallejo Art Lofts Gallery, [20] [21] on the Vallejo waterfront, [9] the Solano County Fair, [22] a Black History Month event at the Vallejo library, [23] with fellow poets laureate at the Fairfield Library, [24] and at a Juneteenth flag raising ceremony. [25] Eyvonne and Herrmann hosted an event at the Empress Theater encouraging voting. [26]
Eyvonne earned her B.A. in Motion Pictures & Television from the Academy of Art University at San Francisco. [1] She is a television producer at Vallejo Community Access Television, and the station awarded her film Arc Angels with Best Feature in 2018. [27] Eyvonne is the founder of the Poetry and Monologues [3] and KidsNFilm film festivals. [28] On February 13, 2017, she was honored by the Indiana House of Representatives in Indiana House Resolution 18 for her film Stripes when it appeared at the Bill Johnson Black Film Festival. [29] She served as a judge for the 2017 North Bay Art & Film Festival. [30] Eyvonne has also worked as a playwright and realtor. [31]
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) of Arezzo were the first to be crowned poets laureate after the classical age, respectively in 1315 and 1342. In Britain, the term dates from the appointment of Bernard André by Henry VII of England. The royal office of Poet Laureate in England dates from the appointment of John Dryden in 1668.
Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
Nina Serrano is an American poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer who lives in Vallejo, California. She is the author of Heart Songs: The Collected Poems of Nina Serrano (1980) and Pass it on!: How to start your own senior storytelling program in the schools (Stagebridge). Her poems are widely anthologized, including the literary anthology, Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Writers from California, and three anthologies of peace poems edited by Mary Rudge from Estuary Press. She has also translated two chapbooks from Peruvian poet Adrian Arias. She currently leads storytelling workshops at senior centers and elementary schools through Stagebridge.org. She is the former director of the San Francisco Poetry in the Schools program and the Bay Area's Storytellers in the Schools program. A Latina activist for social justice, women's rights, and the arts.
Kwame Senu Neville Dawes is a Ghanaian poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He is now Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and editor-in-chief at Prairie Schooner magazine.
Lorna Gaye Goodison CD is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a leading West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now Professor Emerita, English Language and Literature/Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, previously serving as the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017, serving in the role until 2020.
Imtiaz Dharker is a Pakistani-born British poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
Ada Limón is an American poet. On July 12, 2022, she was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress. This made her the first Latina to be Poet Laureate of the United States. She is married to Lucas Marquardt.
Gregory Leo O’Brien is a New Zealand poet, painter, author and editor. He is also an art curator and writes art history and criticism for both adults and children.
Patricia Schonstein, who also writes under the name Patricia Schonstein-Pinnock, is a South African-Italian novelist, poet, memoirist, author of children’s books and curator of anthologies. Schonstein, whose novels variously employ the genres of magical-realism, meta-fiction and narrative fiction, is famous for novels such as Skyline and A Time of Angels.
Nathan Brown is an author, singer-songwriter, and award-winning poet who served as the Oklahoma Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2014.
Diana Lucille Lang, known professionally as D. L. Lang, is an American poet. Her poetry is anthologized in over 60 anthologies. She has published 16 full-length books of poetry, and served as the Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California.
KZCT is a radio station in Vallejo, California founded in 2006 by David Martin and Katie Martinelli. The station broadcasts a variety of community content including rap, reggae, classical, jazz, poetry, religious programming and sports. Notable artists who have appeared on KZCT since its inception include H.E.R., Nef the Pharaoh, Nina Serrano, and D.L. Lang. It has a silent disco party bus it dubs the Twerkulator.
Dr. Genea Brice is an American poet. She was the first Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California.
Joel Fallon was the first Poet laureate of Benicia, California. He is the namesake of the Joel Fallon poetry scholarship awarded annually since 2015 to high school students in Benicia, California. He was a founding member of the Benicia First Tuesday Poets, which meets at the Benicia Library monthly since 2003, and also helped begin the Benicia Love Poetry Contest and the annual Poets’ Picnic. He was named Benicia's first poet laureate in 2005. He helped Genea Brice advocate for a poet laureate program in neighboring Vallejo, California. He also served as a vice president of Arts Benicia. Fallon began writing poetry while serving overseas in the United States Army. He was influenced by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Charles Bukowski.
Jeremy Snyder is an American poet. He served as poet laureate of Vallejo, California from 2020 through 2023.
Mary Susan Gast is the eighth Poet laureate of Benicia, California. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and Chicago Theological Seminary. She edits a poetry column for the Benicia Herald entitled "Going the Distance."
Quentin Roosevelt Hand, Jr., known professionally as Q.R. Hand, was an African-American poet.
Kathleen Herrmann is an American poet. She serves concurrently with Jacalyn Eyvonne as poet laureate of Vallejo, California.
