Trapeta Mayson

Last updated
Trapeta B. Mayson
Born1967
Monrovia, Liberia
Occupation
  • Poet
  • educator
  • social worker
  • non-profit administrator
GenrePoetry
Notable worksShe Was Once Herself, Mocha Memories, By the Roadside

Trapeta B. Mayson (born 1967) is a Liberian-born poet, teacher, social worker, and non-profit administrator residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US. Her writing primarily centers on the experiences of immigrants to the United States, the struggles of people dealing with conflict in Liberia, and the daily lives of average people, especially women and girls. [1] She received a Master of Social Work from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA from Villanova University. [2] She was selected as the fifth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2019. [1]

Contents

Education and early life

Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Mayson immigrated to the United States in 1975 with her family at the age of eight and settled in Philadelphia. [2] [3] She grew up in the North Philadelphia and Germantown neighborhoods. According to Mayson, she considers herself to be a "sum of two continents... two countries, two sets of powerful people: my birth country of Liberia, and my beloved Philadelphia.” [4]

She received her undergraduate degree in political science from Temple University in 1993. [3] [5] Mayson is a licensed social worker and received her Master of Social Work from the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in 1995. [2] [6] In addition, she holds an MBA from the Villanova University School of Business. [1] [3]

Career and writing

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “Outbound Poetry Festival: Trapeta Mayson & Monnette Sudler (1/4)", April 15, 2017, , Part 1 of 4, Philadelphia Contemporary
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg "A Poem by Trapeta B. Mayson - Experience", "Father", May 18, 2009, WHYY Education
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “GCabaret 2008 - Trapeta Mayson and Vena Jefferson", November 11, 2008, Leewayfoundation

In the early 2000s Mason was the vice president of education and family learning at the Please Touch Museum, a museum focusing on creating tactile learning experiences for younger children via "purposeful play" that also correlates to local and state educational standards. [7]

From 2014 to 2018, Mayson served as the executive director for Historic Germantown, an historic preservation collective that manages and promotes 16 historic houses in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. [8] [9] During her tenure there, she worked with former Poet Laureate of Philadelphia Yolanda Wisher on various poetry events along with an initiative to bring artists into Historic Germantown with the goal of helping teens to engage with the historic properties and learn about Philadelphia and American history. The 2015 program, named Culture Keepers, partnered with the Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice to pilot a program of historic site visits where students engaged in photography, captioning photos in Instagram, geocaching, and conducting oral history interviews with local elders. Later, local writers guided the high-schoolers in creating poems reflecting on their learned experiences, which the students presented live at a Historic Germantown open house. [10]

Since 2019, concurrent with her poetry readings and outreach as Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Mayson has worked as the program officer for a mental health service agency in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. [4]

Mayson is a member of the Green Street Artists Cooperative, a multicultural artistic community in Germantown. [11] [12] Her written work has been exhibited at the Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia. [13] Some of her poetic verses are part of a mural by artist Ife Nii Owoo at the Logan Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. [14]

The author has collaborated with jazz guitarist Monnette Sudler on the Sisters in Music project since 2000. [5] They have multiple recordings, including two recent poetry and jazz pieces, "Scat" and "How we got through". [15] In their spoken and sung word and music collaboration, Mayson extolls her female viewers to "Keep climbing" as "You can only go up from here." and to "Fly, girl, fly." despite their struggles against various oppressions, while Sudler encourages them to "Step up to the plate." in a softball-themed metaphor for life. [16]

Mayson taught at the Art Sanctuary for 8 years, [17] along with serving as an artist in residence at Art Sanctuary's after-school teen arts program, and Painted Bride Art Center’s ArtLAB Youth Poetry Series. [2]

Her experience as an immigrant and a social worker has directly informed her writing, where she focuses on social issues such as immigration and mental illness, often with a perspective on gender and race, using a first-person, “everyday voice” that sometimes utilizes Liberian English. [3] Her second chapbook, She Was Once Herself, tells the story of her mother's immigration from Liberia to the United States, her struggles and triumphs in adapting to a new country, the family's problems obtaining citizenship, and later her nervous breakdown with subsequent diagnosis of schizophrenia. [18]

In her poem "We Are All Trees Here", Mayson relates how immigrants to the United States feel as they are labeled as enemies in their new country and experience fear from being undocumented, using the metaphor of sapo trees for family members struggling for survival in forests that are threatened by clearcutting. [19] In "Father", the poet creates a vignette of a nattily-dressed older man who was laid-off from his workplace after many years, and must now work multiple low-wage jobs to support his family. [14] In "First Job Advice", an older Liberian immigrant gives advice to her recently arrived compatriot about how to serve as a cleaning woman for an upper-class family, so that the other woman can earn money and send for her children to come to the United States in order that they "won't have to know the first jobs we do". [20]

Mayson's tenure at Historic Germantown provided background for some of her poetry honoring African-American slaves, such as her poem "Happy birthday Dinah" about a slave named Dinah who resided at the Stenton Mansion in the Logan section of Philadelphia, and was enslaved by family members of statesman and former mayor James Logan. [17]

Her experience in mental health care has prompted Mayson to seek out new partnerships that use writing to educate the public about mental health issues, such as recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month, or considering suicide rates and creating "healing verse" for communities. [17] In past workshops, the author has fostered the creation of toolkits for healing that she calls "Recipe For", in which participants reveal the key issues impacting their lives, and facilitators assist them to create a list of writing "ingredients" that they can use independently to promote self-healing. [17] In addition, she has conducted poetry and writing workshops with LGBTQ communities, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated people, women survivors of domestic abuse, and sex workers, among other marginalized groups, in which her purpose is to provide a platform to empower people to speak who often do not have the opportunity to have their voices heard. [17]

In January 2021, Mayson launched the Healing Verse Philly Poetry Line, a toll-free phone number where callers can hear a 90-second poem authored by a poet connected with Philadelphia, as well as obtain information about how to access mental health care in the city. [21]

Works by Trapeta B. Mayson

Books of poetry

Contributor to periodicals and anthologies

Mayson has also published in periodicals such as Aesthetica magazine; the American Poetry Review; Aura: A University of Alabama Literary Journal; Cave Canem's Literary Review; Epiphany Literary Journal; Margie: The American Journal of Poetry and Strong Medicine: American Journal of Poetry. [23]

Awards and honors

Mayson was chosen as the fifth poet laureate of Philadelphia in 2019, under the auspices of the Free Library of Philadelphia. According to the selection committee, the poet was chosen because of her ability to balance a full-time poetic writing practice with participation in many local Philadelphia organizations. [4] According to the poet, in her role she aspires to “touch base with social service agencies, particularly those pertaining to mental health, in [Philly’s] communities.” [1] She considers the role to be “...like a poetry ambassador for the city, ... Engaging communities, young people, people from all over the city, and engaging them in the creation of poetry, appreciation of poetry.” [24]

In 2019, she was awarded an Aspen Words Emerging Writers fellowship from the Aspen Institute. [11] She also served as a juror for the 2019 Scholastic National Writing Awards from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in the category of Poetry. [25]

The author was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016. [4]

From the Leeway Foundation, she received both an Art and Change Grant in 2014 and a Transformation Award in 2007. [26]

The poet was a 2002 fellow of the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. [9]

She was a fellow of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts in both 2000 and 2004. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Clifton</span> American poet (1936–2010)

Lucille Clifton was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Naomi Long Madgett was an American poet and publisher. Originally a teacher, she later found fame with her award-winning poems and was also the founder and senior editor of Lotus Press, established in 1972, a publisher of poetry books by black poets. Known as "the godmother of African-American poetry", she was the Detroit poet laureate since 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano poetry</span> Subgenre of Mexica-American literature

Chicano poetry is a subgenre of Chicano literature that stems from the cultural consciousness developed in the Chicano Movement. Chicano poetry has its roots in the reclamation of Chicana/o as an identity of empowerment rather than denigration. As a literary field, Chicano poetry emerged in the 1960s and formed its own independent literary current and voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Harjo</span> American Poet Laureate

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 member 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Limón</span> American writer (born 1976)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Van Leer Earle Coates</span> American writer and poet (1850-1927)

Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates was an American poet, and women's rights advocate whose prolific output was published in many literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with whom she maintained a lifelong friendship. She was famous for her many nature poems, inspired by the flora and fauna of the Adirondacks, where she lived. She was also an advocate for women and equality. She would be elected poet laureate of Pennsylvania by the state Federation of Women's Clubs in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samiya Bashir</span> American writer

Samiya A. Bashir is a queer American artist, poet, and author. Much of Bashir's poetry explores the intersections of culture, change, and identity through the lens of race, gender, the body and sexuality. She is currently the June Jordan visiting professor at Columbia University of New York. Bashir is the first black woman recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize in Literature. She was also the third black woman to serve as tenured professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Bass</span> American writer

Ellen Bass is an American poet and author. She has won three Pushcart Prizes and a Lambda Literary Award for her 2002 book Mules of Love. She co-authored the 1991 child sexual abuse book The Courage to Heal. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014 and was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2017. Bass has taught poetry at Pacific University and founded poetry programs for prison inmates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Martínez</span> American writer

Valerie Martínez is an American poet, writer, educator, arts administrator, consultant, and collaborative artist. She served as the poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico from 2008 to 2010.

Molly Fisk is an American poet and radio commentator. She has been teaching writing since 1994 and runs the on-line workshop Poetry Boot Camp. Her most recent book is Naming Your Teeth: Even More Observations from a Working Poet. She was honored as an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted Bride Art Center</span> Arts center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Painted Bride Art Center, also known as The Bride, is a non-profit arts and culture organization bringing together artists, audiences, and communities to push the boundaries of how art is created and experienced. It is located at 5212 Market Street in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Harris (poet)</span> American poet

Judith Harris is an American poet and the author of Night Garden, Atonement, The Bad Secret, and the critical book Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self Through Writing. Her poetry has appeared in many publications, including The Nation, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Slate, Southern Review, Image, Boulevard, Narrative, Verse Daily, and American Life in Poetry. She has taught at the Frost Place and at universities in the Washington, D.C. area.

Becky Birtha is an American poet and children's author who lives in the greater Philadelphia area. She is best known for her poetry and short stories depicting African-American and lesbian relationships, often focusing on topics such as interracial relationships, emotional recovery from a breakup, single parenthood and adoption. Her poetry was featured in the acclaimed 1983 anthology of African-American feminist writing Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith and published by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. She has won a Lambda Literary award for her poetry. She has been awarded grants from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to further her literary works. In recent years she has written three children's historical fiction picture books about the African-American experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airea D. Matthews</span> American poet

Airea D. Matthews is an American poet. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and the co-director of the Creative Writing Program at Bryn Mawr College. She was named the 2022–23 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolanda Wisher</span> American poet

Yolanda Wisher is an American poet, educator and spoken word artist who focuses on the experience of being African-American. She is a graduate of Temple University and was selected as the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. L. Lang</span> American poet (born 1983)

Diana Lucille Lang, known professionally as D. L. Lang, is an American poet. She has published twelve full-length books of poetry, and served as the Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raquel Salas Rivera</span> Puerto Rican poet

Raquel Salas Rivera is a bilingual Puerto Rican poet who writes in Spanish and English, focusing on the experience of being a migrant to the United States, the colonial status of Puerto Rico, and of identifying as a queer Puerto Rican and Philadelphian of non-binary gender. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and was selected as the fourth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2018. He currently lives in Puerto Rico.

Poet Laureate of Philadelphia is a civic position in the City of Philadelphia. The Poet Laureate has been described as an "Ambassador of Poetry". The holder of the position is expected to actively promote literacy and encourage expression in the city. As part of their position, they participate in service work, workshops and readings. One of their commitments is to mentor the Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

Sounds of Liberation was an American jazz collective formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the early 1970s. They got their start in the progressive neighborhood of Germantown, Philadelphia. The band had close ties to the Black Arts Movement of the time, using their music to help spark social activism, with tremendous impact on the African American and jazz community in Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley M. Jones</span> American poet

Ashley Michelle Jones is an American poet and activist. She is the first Black Poet Laureate of Alabama (2022–2026) and the youngest person to hold this position. She is the Associate Director of the University Honors Program at UAB and a Core faculty member at Converse University’s MFA Program. Her poetry explores the impact the Deep South has on Black individuals and aspires to expose Black stories that were left behind due to Alabama’s historical enslavement of Black men and women. She is the author of three books: Magic City Gospel, dark//thing, and Reparations Now!.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Harden, Brandon T. (12 December 2019). "Trapeta B. Mayson named next poet laureate of Philadelphia" . Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Moonstone Poetry Series Presents Trapeta Mason & Quincy Scott Jones – Moonstone Arts Center" . Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Historic Germantown welcomes Liberia native Trapeta Mayson as its new executive director". WHYY. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Nonprofit leader by day, artist by night: Meet Philly's new poet laureate Trapeta B. Mayson". WHYY. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  5. 1 2 Mancinelli, Lou (2013-09-06). "Award-winning poet: From Liberia to G'town, with love". Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  6. ↑ "Trapeta B. Mayson, M.S.S. '95, Named Philly's New Poet Laureate | Bryn Mawr College". www.brynmawr.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  7. ↑ "Please Touch Museum rises as thought leader for early childhood development". www.flyingkitemedia.com. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  8. ↑ "About | Historic Germantown". 2015-09-01. Archived from the original on 2015-09-01. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  9. 1 2 admin (2016-11-30). "Trapeta B. Mayson". The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  10. ↑ Mayson, Trapeta; Wisher, Yolanda (2017-02-21). "CPCP Catalyst Initiative: Philadelphia". Issuu. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  11. 1 2 "EMERGING WRITER FELLOWSHIPS". Aspen Words. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  12. ↑ "Members Gallery - Greene Street Artists Cooperative". 2020-02-10.
  13. ↑ "Artists Page". The Colored Girls Museum. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  14. 1 2 "Blog: A New Poet Laureate for Philadelphia..." Free Library of Philadelphia. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  15. ↑ Mayson, Trapeta. "POET Performer Teaching artist Consultant". Trapeta B. Mayson. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  16. ↑ Contemporary, Philadelphia (2017-05-23), Outbound Poetry Festival: Trapeta Mayson & Monnette Sudler (1/4) , retrieved 2020-02-10
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 "Getting to know Philly's new Poet Laureate". Artblog. 2019-12-20. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  18. ↑ "Trapeta Mayson March 14 – Kadija Sesay". Kadija Sesay - Literary Activist. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  19. ↑ "We Are the Enemies from Love Jawns: A Mixtape". www.stitcher.com. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  20. ↑ "Trapeta B. Mayson - First Job Advice (1972)". Sable Lit Mag. 2014-01-14. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  21. ↑ Harden, Brandon T. (2021-01-06). "Healing Verse is Philly's new poetry hotline". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  22. ↑ "WH Calendar: May 2004". writing.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  23. ↑ "Poetry Reading w/ Irène Mathieu, Trapeta Mayson, & Raquel Salas Rivera | Penn Book Center". www.pennbookcenter.com. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  24. ↑ "Philly's new 'poetry ambassador' champions creativity, engagement". KYW. 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  25. ↑ "2019 National Writing Jurors – Scholastic Art & Writing Awards" . Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  26. ↑ "Trapeta B. Mayson". Leeway Foundation. Retrieved 2020-01-26.

Selected Poems

Interviews

Performances and recordings

Exhibitions

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.