In partnership with Westchester County Executive George Latimer ArtsWestchester announced that Westchester County”™s inaugural Poet Laureate will be B.K. Fischer of Sleepy Hollow. She was one of 23 applicants whom a panel of poets, writers and county representatives unanimously deemed her application to be the strongest. She will serve a two-year term beginning now.
Fischer is the author of five books of poetry as well as a critical study, “Museum Mediations: Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary American Poetry.”
A teacher of poetry for more than 25 years, Fischer has been active with volunteer teaching and outreach in the public schools of the Tarrytowns and performances at Hudson Valley MoCA. Outside of Westchester County, she is an adjunct professor at Columbia
University and previously spent six years as poetry editor at the Boston Review.
Fischer sees the role of poet laureate as one in which she “would strive to serve and amplify the diverse voices of our communities. She believes all
poetry is dialogue ”” a conduit not only for expression but for collective
energy, empathy and connection.”
“Support for our creatives is more important than ever during this pandemic,” explained Janet T. Langsam, CEO of ArtsWestchester. “The concept of a poet laureate is an affirmation that in our present-day society words matter and that it is important that these words be truthful, poetic and emblematic of our principles and our aspirations”¦.”
