BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The last two years have brought a lot of ups and downs for the Queen City and its surrounding cities.
From COVID-19, to the businesses trying to regain momentum post-pandemic, the Tops mass shooting, Buffalo's once-in-a-generation blizzard.
Buffalo has truly been hit with unprecedented events but a glimmer of hope was put on by the city's first-ever poet laureate.
Jillian Hanesworth was appointed in March 2021.
As her term comes to an end once the clock strikes midnight into 2024, she sat down with me as she looks back at her poetic career in which she tells me began in 2016.
"We deserve that type of reference for the art of storytelling and preserving our own history through spoken word," Jillian Hanesworth told Pheben Kassahun.
After seeing other cities across the nation create poet laureate roles, Buffalo native Jillian Hanesworth asked "why not Buffalo", and began to pave the first-ever role in the Queen City.
A poet laureate is a role appointed by the government to compose poems for special occasions.
Just like any role that is essentially serving the public, Jillian Hanesworth was met with some unprecedented challenges once appointed, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A lot of it was still virtual stuff and then of course, the mass shooting at Tops on May 14th, the deadly once-in-a-generation snow storms. It just kind of seems like Buffalo and the community has been hit constantly," Hanesworth said.
Hanesworth was asked to write a poem following the Tops mass shooting. That poem is now displayed inside the Tops on Jefferson. Read her poem, "Water", here.
RELATED STORY: African symbols added to Jefferson Tops
However, she shared this has made her into a better person, a better artist, and a better community member because of it.
"For me, being a poet laureate at that time has been challenging because I'm being challenged to use my art to turn pain into beauty. I thought I was going to be turning my love for the city into poetry, and it turned into something that I didn't expect, something that no one expected," she shared.
While the role calls for emphasizing on the city's mood through art, she also organized protests, rallies, community events, vigils and started "Buffalo Books".
"I also started Buffalo Books, which is a program where I built library boxes and I buy books from local authors, get new books donated and put them out throughout the east side. I also run free bookstore pop-ups, where people can come and get a bookstore shopping experience," the poet shared. "I have lived on the east side and the west side. The east side of course, that's my heart. That's where my family lives. Growing up, that's where my school and my church and my friends and my family we all were. It definitely has a really, really special place in my heart as does the Black community here, obviously as a Black woman."
Essentially being able to feed her community the best way she knows how.
"My advice to the next poet laureate would be to figure out what you stand for and then stand on that regardless. There have been times where the things that I have had to say or the beliefs that I have had kind of went against what City Hall or leaders of nonprofits or people like that would want me to say," she added.
Most importantly she asks that the city show love for the incoming poet laureate.
"I just want to thank everybody in the community for supporting me and really implore everybody to support the next poet laureate the same way you did me. Give them the same energy, book them. Make sure you create opportunities for them," Hanesworth told Kassahun.
Hanesworth's role ends on Dec. 31.
In the state of New York, poet laureate terms last two years.
Follow Jillian's journey here:
- Facebook: Poet Jillian Hanesworth
- Instagram: poet_jillian_hanesworth
- X: @SocJustice_poet
