Calgary names its newest poet laureate
Posted Apr 28, 2014 6:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi named Calgary’s newest artistic ambassador at the start of Monday’s council session.
Local poet Derek Beaulieu has been named as the city’s poet laureate for the next two years.
Beaulieu is the city’s second ever laureate taking the poets pen from Kris Demeanor.
Beaulieu saw his role as one of engagement with Calgary’s literary community.
“When you look around the city, poetry has a reputation of not being read very often, but when we take the train, when we walk the streets, we’re familiar with logos we’re familiar with street signs, we’re familiar with all of the writing that goes on around us” he said. “I try to create work that responds to that. That looks like the writing we encounter on a day-to-day basis.”
His work will be a part of the city’s landscape Monday and Tuesday.
To celebrate his appointment his poem ‘Prose of the Trans-Canada’ is expected to be projected on to the side of the Calgary Tower Wednesday or Thursday.
