Douglas Powell, aka Roscoe Burnems, will serve as Richmond’s poet laureate for a two-year term. (Photo by Jay Paul)
On January 20, 2021, when Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history as she presented her poem “The Hill We Climb” during the inauguration ceremony for President Joseph R. Biden, the world experienced the power of poetry.
Just one week earlier, the city of Richmond announced that Douglas Powell — known as Roscoe Burnems when he is onstage — would become the city’s first poet laureate.
Burnems was a teenager when his love of poetry began to blossom. That’s when he learned that a poet laureate is a poet who is recognized for achievement and named by a government-appointed group to serve as a representative for an area or region.
When buzz began to swirl last year about Richmond selecting its first poet laureate, Burnems, also a published author, spoken-word artist, comedian and teacher, says he knew he had to go for it.
To qualify, applicants had to be a resident of greater Richmond for at least the past five years and be at least 21 years old. Applicants did not have to be published poets but must have “demonstrated a commitment to the Richmond community and dedication to the craft of poetry.”
A committee of 21 writers, artists, publishers and librarians reviewed applications this past fall, and Burnems was introduced as Richmond’s poet laureate at The Poe Museum’s Birthday Bash, a virtual celebration of Edgar Allan Poe’s 212th birthday earlier this month.
During his two-year term as poet laureate, Burnems is responsible for being a poetry advocate by providing access to poetry throughout the city and offering opportunities to “use the power of words to heal wounds, open hearts and minds, and weave us closer together,” according the press release announcing his appointment. He has the freedom to create and develop his own projects during his tenure and will receive a $4,000 annual honorarium.
Burnems, a 34-year-old father of two, was born in Richmond’s South Side and grew up in Henrico County. His love of verse began at an early age. “I was always in love with lyrics and songwriting,” he says. “Music was my first love — I was deeply invested in hip-hop culture and always wrote poetry but wasn’t taking it seriously.” Early influences included musicians Prince and Outkast.
Burnems says poetry helped him work through a difficult time in middle school when he was struggling through depression and suicide ideation. “People gravitate to poetry because they can find themselves in the narrative,” he says. “It allows the listener to delve into the emotional part of our experiences that other mediums do not allow.”
In 11th grade, one of his Henrico High School teachers encouraged him by giving feedback on his work and praising his efforts. Since then, he has made a career of sharing his love of poetry through competitions and teaching. He has worked with young people at the St. Joseph’s Villa Alternative Education Program, the University of Richmond’s Partners in the Arts and ART 180. He leads poetry workshops at multiple middle and high schools in the city and is a National Poetry Slam Champion, a former TEDx speaker and the founder of The Writer’s Den art collective. He has even experimented in comedy with his “Traumedy” routine, where he uses jokes, sarcasm and spoken word to address taboo topics.
He says poetry is a great medium to discuss mental health and depression, resilience, and the emotional stresses that come with daily life. Relieving those stresses is central to some of the work he does with young people, he says.
While Burnems says he loves his work in the community, the bulk of his success in poetry comes from spoken-word competitions. He has competed for more than a decade, collecting awards in multiple competitions individually and on teams. He has authored and published three books, “Fighting Demons,” “Chrysalis Under Fire,” and “God, Love, Death and Other Synonyms,” and his work has been featured in more than a dozen literary magazines and journals.
In his new venture as poet laureate, he says he is seeking guidance on the basics of the role from friends in other states who are poet laureates, and he already has three projects he is looking to get started, working around the limitations of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to create a performance series that can happen outdoors, that puts poetry in easily accessible places where people can feel safe and be around the art,” he says. “We can utilize parks and open spaces in the city where we can gather in a safe way.”
He also wants to start a youth poetry slam tournament for Richmond high school students. Teams from other cities “battle” against each other at the state, regional and national level, and he wants Richmond high schoolers to have a chance to compete.
Burnems says he loves and supports different types of art, and he also wants to explore poetry through collaboration across media. Richmond’s murals are a perfect example, he says. “Richmond is getting known for these beautiful murals on display across the city, and I want to add a literary component to that.”
Eat
The first time you feed yourself
A hearty word like
beautiful
it will taste unconvincing and wrong.
Salty,
fruitless rhetoric
still coats your palate.
Eat.
Until your belly is swollen.
Until you are stuffed and confident.
Eat
Until you can’t stomach
anything that doesn’t feed you.
First published in "Scene & Heard" journal in 2018 and in "God, Love, Death, and Other Synonyms" by Roscoe Burnems
Never miss a Sunday Story: Sign up for the newsletter, and we’ll drop a fresh read into your inbox at the start of each week. To keep up with the latest posts, search for the hashtag #SundayStory on Twitter and Facebook.
