Douglas Powell, aka Roscoe Burnems, the first Richmond Poet Laureate (Photo by Onajé Baldwin)
In his button-adorned baseball cap, Richmond’s first poet laureate is easy to spot at events around town. His gigs range from teaching creative writing workshops to performing at venues such as the recent MLK Celebration at the University of Richmond and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ upcoming Rhythm and Roots show, scheduled for Jan. 28. But on Tuesdays, he’s often found at the Tuesday Verses open mic night at Addis Ethiopian Restaurant in Shockoe Bottom. “It’s an amazing spot, full of a lot of love,” says Douglas Powell, 36, who writes under the name Roscoe Burnems.
When he was 19, Powell/Burnems took a chance and began performing at Tuesday Verses, then held in a different venue. “I was both nervous and excited,” he says.
The risk paid off. Today, he is a dynamic spoken-word poet and National Poetry Slam Champion. He has published three books of poetry and has a comedy special, “Traumedy,” on Amazon Prime Video. As co-founder of The Writer’s Den art collective, he hosts a variety of events, including poetry slams at Addis on the first Sunday of each month.
“I think that the city has a really booming poetry and spoken word scene,” he says via Zoom. For much of the call, his 4-month-old daughter — one of three children he is raising with his wife, Krystal — sits quietly on his lap, playing with a toy.
Powell/Burnems began his two-year term as Richmond’s poet laureate in January 2021, following a committee review and an appointment by Mayor Levar Stoney. The position comes with an honorarium of $4,000 per year.
The experience has drawn him even closer to the city, he says. He writes about growing up and raising his children here, and local happenings such as the summer the monuments came down. “I think it’s important to tell these stories, to capture these moments.”
For one of his initiatives as poet laureate, “If These Walls Could Talk,” he worked with the public art project Mending Walls RVA to pair 11 poets to 11 murals expressing themes of social justice and equality. “The poets had to write an ekphratic poem, which is basically a poem centered around a piece of art … about what the mural was saying, and how it made them feel,” he explains. The poets, which included Powell/Burnems, then read their works in front of the murals. (The performances can be seen here or via a QR code found on each mural.)
Working with young people was a priority for Powell/Burnems, a longtime teaching artist who has worked with students in public schools through partnerships with the St. Joseph’s Villa Alternative Education Program, the University of Richmond’s Partners in the Arts and ART 180.
As poet laureate, he directed Richmond Public Schools’ first citywide Youth Poetry Slam. In preparation for the event, poets assigned to each of the eight high schools led students through a series of writing and performance workshops. The schools then formed teams that competed against each other. Open High took home the top prize. “It was a great event. The kids were really, really into it. They wrote some very powerful work,” Powell/Burnems says.
The students were a little nervous at first but soon opened up. “Poetry is such a vulnerable art form that we get to look inside the mind or inside the hearts of these youth in a way that no other art form does,” Powell/Burnems says, “and I think that the parents and the teachers also walked away with a lot of information, and a new perspective after hearing some of these poems. It was beautiful.”
Powell/Burnems faced challenges growing up in poverty in the Richmond area, including an absent father and solo mother. He says many of the students he works with can connect to his story, including the mental health challenges he faced as a teen. He tells them about the therapeutic value of poetry, but also the importance of getting help.
“I talk to them very candidly about depression, anxiety, mental health, suicidal ideation,” he says. “I know it’s a topic we get a little cautious talking to youth about, but they’re also experiencing these things. One of the worst feelings in the world is feeling like you’re alone.” For the students, Powell/Burnems is a role model, someone who survived the rough times and is now a devoted father and successful poet.
As the end of his term draws near, Powell/Burnems is appreciative of the experiences and the valuable connections he’s made by representing Richmond locally and through the national network of over 200 City Poet Laureates. “My time as poet laureate has been full of a lot of growth. I’m the first [in Richmond], so we’ve been trying to figure out things as we go about the relationship between the city and its laureate,” he says. “I’ve been really fortunate to accomplish all the major things that I set out to do as laureate, with the help of some grants that I was able to apply for.” In addition, Powell/Burnems just finished his fourth manuscript of poetry and plans to continue his community outreach.
His advice for new writers? “Do everything, write everything. See what works and see what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to fail. The beauty of being an artist is just embracing all the trials and errors, really. All the successes and failures. Because the failures make you a better writer.”
Douglas Powell/Roscoe Burnems will be on the committee to help pick Richmond’s next poet laureate. The application deadline is Feb. 1, and the position will be awarded in April during National Poetry Month. Think you’ve got the chops? Apply to be the 2023-25 Richmond Poet Laureate.
Ode to Richmond
By Roscoe Burnems
One of the first poems Powell/Burnems published about his hometown was “Ode to Richmond.” “This was around the time when we were starting to see that Richmond had really turned into an art city. They redid the Arts District, and they were opening all these galleries down there, and there were all these beautiful murals that were being placed all across the city,” he says. “I love art. And that’s one of the things that really struck me about the city: how it embraces artists.”
Rainbows cascading across the ribs of Boulevard.
Lost lives on lips of 17th and Main.
Honey bees cycle upon the back of Cary
and Davis Ave dances in rain.
The skin of Jackson Ward’s buildings
tell the story of legacy.
When the mind does not fit upon the canvas
and thirsts for reach,
it is not James River that quenches an artist,
it is the hunger for feat.
Brick and mortar battle with bustling brushes,
hues slain across wall
This becomes a civil war for creative unrest,
another canvas falls.
A body of tattoos in abstraction and technicolor, of joy, of memories, of hurt.
Richmond is home to some of the greatest art on earth.
A reflection of its people. A tell-tale of its ghosts,
found in the heart of the music,
in poetry, and most
never truly appreciate the frame of thought,
when imagination cannot be caught in woven
cotton and needs space for anarchy
and chaos and craft and desires to be free.
That is when Richmond becomes a gallery.
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