Ghanaian American poet and educator Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah is Boston’s new poet laureate

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah still remembers hearing the first poem that moved him.

The Boston native was in eighth grade when he heard a poet read about his experience as an Arab person in a post-9/11 world. Hearing it made Oppong-Yeboah want to write his own poem. As Boston’s newest poet laureate, Oppong-Yeboah hopes to make similar experiences with poetry available to the people of Boston.

Oppong-Yeboah is a Boston Public Schools educator working as a librarian at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester. Their experience as an educator will lend itself to increasing poetry access and education for young people, a cause that former poet laureate Porsha Olayiwola focused on as well. Oppong-Yeboah says schools can function as a microcosm where things like the right to education and the right to regular meals are more universally agreed upon than in the larger societal landscape.

“I think of schools as visionary spaces that are straddled between our dreams and our expectations and beliefs for our young people and the world that is,” said Oppong-Yeboah. Operating in that visionary space has allowed them to see how the larger world, or in this case, more specifically the poetry landscape, could function with the right resources and attention.

Just as Oppong-Yeboah encourages BPS students to dream big, they plan to dream big for the city. 

“Something that I’m bringing into this role, and that I’ve been counseled to bring into this role from Porsha [Olayiwola], the last poet laureate, is just dreaming,” said Oppong-Yeboah. “Allowing myself to dream whatever I want for the city and I think might be good for the city and then knowing that it just might be possible.”

Although they won’t take the helm officially until July, Oppong-Yeboah is already thinking about goals for the position. They’d like to focus on stewarding poets of all ages, but particularly young people, at every stage of the process from conceptualizing and writing the poem to having spaces to perform. On the audience side, they want to make poems and poetry readings accessible to everyone in Boston.

“As a school librarian at the Lee K-8 School, Emmanuel nurtures curiosity, creativity and a deep love for words in our students every day,” said BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper. “Their passion for poetry and education exemplifies the transformative power of the arts in young people’s lives. We are proud to see a BPS educator in this role and excited for the inspiration they will spark across our city.”

Oppong-Yeboah says the Boston poetry scene is a bit in flux. Many performance and gathering spaces shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic and after, and organizers are working hard to make poetry events more frequent and accessible. Oppong-Yeboah and Crystal Valentine have been hosting the Just Be(Loved) poetry slam and open mic night at Just Book-ish in Fields Corner on a bimonthly basis. They also note 826 Boston, poet Myles Taylor, Grub Street and others are continuously moving the needle for poetry and literature in Boston.

In tumultuous and uncertain times, experiencing art and expressing emotions through a creative vehicle like poetry feels more urgent than ever.

“Anyone should be able to to an event in their community in Boston and hear a poem that does something for them,” said Oppong-Yeboah. “The best definition that I’ve encountered for poetry is an expression of one’s thoughts and feelings. That makes poetry beautiful for me, how simple it can be and also how much it can hold.”