CITY OF BIRMINGHAM POET LAUREATE INITIATIVE
ANNOUNCING SALAAM GREEN AS THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM POET LAUREATE
The City of Birmingham is pleased to announce the appointment of Salaam Green as the inaugural 2024-2025 City of Birmingham Poet Laureate. This prestigious position recognizes Ms. Green’s outstanding contributions to the literary arts and her commitment to fostering a deeper appreciation for poetry within our community.
Selected through a rigorous nomination and evaluation process, Green emerged as the ideal candidate to serve as Birmingham’s Poet Laureate. As the founder and director of The Literary Healing Arts and a Road Scholar for the Alabama Humanities Alliance, she has spent over 16 years working as an arts educator, healer, and community leader in Birmingham. Green is a published author whose work has been featured in the book Peaches the Perfect Poet, and the Alabama Arts Journal.
Create Birmingham, in partnership with the City of Birmingham and funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Birmingham City Council’s Cultural Arts Committee, invites Birmingham-based poets to apply to be Birmingham’s inaugural 2024-2025 Poet Laureate.
The City of Birmingham Poet Laureate will serve as an ambassador for poetry in Birmingham. This is an honorary position and roles and responsibilities include making local appearances, facilitating public and educational programs, and building advocacy and community through poetry. The poet laureate will receive an honorarium of $5,000 over the course of their term. Additional funds will be available for materials and other approved costs associated with community engagement programs that the poet laureate facilitates.
The City of Birmingham Poet Laureate will agree to the following scope of work, repeatable for each year of their term:
- Host three workshops for Birmingham City Schools.
- Participate in five City of Birmingham events (dates/events to be shared no later than February of each term year).
- Write two original poems for the City of Birmingham.
This initiative is administered by Create Birmingham. After reviewing the submission form and requirements, if you have questions, please email viola@createbirmingham.org well in advance of the deadline so that we may assist you.
A PDF of the information on this page can be found here.
A PDF of the Birmingham Poet Laureate Rubric can be found here.
August 1, 2023: Application opens
September 29, 2023: Final day to submit application questions by 5 pm
October 2, 2023: Submissions due by 11:59 pm
November 2023: Finalist interviews take place
December 2023: Poet Laureate is selected and announced
January 2024: Poet Laureate officiation and start of two-year term
In order to be eligible, applicants must:
- Be age 18 years old or older at the time of application.
- Reside in the City of Birmingham at the time of application and for the duration of the appointment.
- Demonstrate a track record of public presentation of original poetry, including in-person and/or online events and via websites and/or social media.
- Have the capacity and availability to attend periodic public events over the course of the two-year term.
Poets will be selected for consideration by a distinguished community review panel that will make recommendations to the Mayor of the City of Birmingham, who will officially appoint the City of Birmingham Poet Laureate.
For questions regarding residence eligibility, please refer to this list of the City of Birmingham’s 23 communities and 99 neighborhoods.
Along with a brief form providing contact information, applicants are asked to submit the following:
- A resume listing published works and related experience. (not to exceed two pages)
- A statement describing your ties to the City of Birmingham and why you would like to serve as the City’s poet laureate. (1500 characters or less)
- A description of relevant community engagement and/or public speaking events you have participated in. Please include the year(s) of each event and the organization(s) you partnered with. (1500 characters or less)
- Two professional references, including affiliation, phone number, and email address.
- Five work samples, including the title and date completed for each.
(not to exceed one work per page and five pages total) - Optional: Link to audio or video recording(s) of no more than five minutes total, reading work aloud, in either a public setting or recorded for the purpose of this application.
2026-2027 CITY OF BIRMINGHAM POET LAUREATE
Create Birmingham, in partnership with the City of Birmingham and funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Birmingham City Council’s Cultural Arts Committee, invites Birmingham-based poets to apply to be Birmingham’s 2026-2027 Poet Laureate.
The City of Birmingham Poet Laureate will serve as an ambassador for poetry in Birmingham. This is an honorary position and roles and responsibilities include making local appearances, facilitating public and educational programs, and building advocacy and community through poetry. The poet laureate will receive an honorarium of $5,000 over the course of their term. Additional funds will be available for materials and other approved costs associated with community engagement programs that the poet laureate facilitates.
The City of Birmingham Poet Laureate will agree to the following scope of work, repeatable for each year of their term:
- Host three workshops for Birmingham City Schools.
- Participate in five City of Birmingham events (dates/events to be shared no later than February of each term year).
- Write two original poems for the City of Birmingham.
This initiative is administered by Create Birmingham. After reviewing the submission form and requirements, if you have questions, please email viola@createbirmingham.org well in advance of the deadline so that we may assist you.
A PDF of the information on this page can be found here.
A PDF of the Birmingham Poet Laureate Rubric can be found here.
KEY DATES
August 1, 2025: Application opens
September 30, 2025: Final day to submit application questions by 5 pm
October 3, 2025: Submissions due by 11:59 pm
November 2025: Finalist interviews take place
December 2025: Poet Laureate is selected and announced
January 2026: Poet Laureate officiation and start of two-year term
ELIGIBILITY & SELECTION PROCESS
In order to be eligible, applicants must:
- Be age 18 years old or older at the time of application.
- Reside in the City of Birmingham at the time of application and for the duration of the appointment.
- Demonstrate a track record of public presentation of original poetry, including in-person and/or online events and via websites and/or social media.
- Have the capacity and availability to attend periodic public events over the course of the two-year term.
Poets will be selected for consideration by a distinguished community review panel that will make recommendations to the Mayor of the City of Birmingham, who will officially appoint the City of Birmingham Poet Laureate.
For questions regarding residence eligibility, please refer to this list of the City of Birmingham’s 23 communities and 99 neighborhoods.
APPLICATION & QUALIFICATIONS
Along with a brief form providing contact information, applicants are asked to submit the following:
- A resume listing published works and related experience. (not to exceed two pages)
- A statement describing your ties to the City of Birmingham and why you would like to serve as the City’s poet laureate. (1500 characters or less)
- A description of relevant community engagement and/or public speaking events you have participated in. Please include the year(s) of each event and the organization(s) you partnered with. (1500 characters or less)
- Two professional references, including affiliation, phone number, and email address.
- Five work samples, including the title and date completed for each.
(not to exceed one work per page and five pages total) - Optional: Link to audio or video recording(s) of no more than five minutes total, reading work aloud, in either a public setting or recorded for the purpose of this application.
This initiative is in partnership with the City of Birmingham and funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Birmingham City Council’s Cultural Arts Committee.