Jennifer Bartell Boykin's love of poetry stems from her childhood. She said she has always loved to read and write, but she was drawn to poetry as a child when she listened to her grandmother tell stories.
“She told stories a lot. Sometimes, she would tell me the same story over and over again. And at some point, I realized Grandma's telling me all the same story because she wants me to remember it. And writing became my way of remembering,” Boykin said. “I just fell in love with poetry because it allowed me to express myself, and it allowed me to figure out parts of myself I never really explored emotionally."
As the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia, Boykin serves as an ambassador to the community, commissioning poems for individuals, events and organizations alike.
“I'm very honored and blessed to have this title. It's a really important one,” Boykin said. “There's a lot that happens with poetry in Columbia, and we have a very active, very vibrant poetry community in the city. So I've been trying to do a lot of things with promoting them more as well.”
In a highlight project of her term, Boykin founded the inaugural Soda City Poetry Festival in hopes of spreading poetry across the city and promoting the art form to young people.
The Soda City Poetry Festival hosted over 200 poets from various backgrounds and experiences who have also published their work in a number of ways, ranging from stage performances to the written word. The event, which took place on Saturday, June 22, at the Richland Library Main, also featured poetic readings, performances, workshops and programming for children and teens, including a teen poetry showcase.
Boykin said the day-long festival was made possible by the Mellon Foundation and the Poet Laureate Fellowship granted by the Academy of American Poets.
“Poetry is not just for this select group of people. Poetry is for everyone. So it was really important to me to make the festival as accessible as possible by offering different options for different ages and different types of poets.” Boykin said. “It's not like an academic festival. It’s for everyone. It was for the common person to come and experience poetry.” (Read Full Article)
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