Writer and educator Salaam Green has been chosen as the city of Birmingham’s first poet laureate.

The city of Birmingham announced Green’s appointment through Create Birmingham, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing performing, visual, and cultural arts.

“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,” the city said in a press release.

Green’s tenure as Birmingham’s poet laureate will run from 2024 to 2025, and Green will begin her two-year term in January 2024. The poet laureate position is an honorary position and Green’s responsibilities will include making local appearances, facilitating public and educational programs, and building advocacy and community through poetry. According to the press release, the poet laureate will receive an honorarium stipend of $5,000 over the course of the term.

“Selected through a rigorous nomination and evaluation process, Green emerged as the ideal candidate to serve as Birmingham’s Poet Laureate,” said the city of Birmingham.

The Alabama State Council on the Arts is funding the stipends for two cities– Birmingham and Mobile– to have a first-time city poet laureate program.

In an interview with AL.com, council Executive Director Elliot Knight said the idea came in part from seeing how such programs had worked in cities outside of Alabama, including Columbia, S.C., and Chapel Hill, N.C.

So far, the poets laureate positions are defined the same way in Birmingham and Mobile, and the selection processes are similar. The applications to both positions closed in early October. In Birmingham, the local partners are the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Committee of the Birmingham City Council and Create Birmingham. In Mobile, the Mobile Arts Council is overseeing the process. Mobile’s search has come down to four finalists, identified by the Mobile Arts Council as Alex Lofton, Danyale Williams, Roslyn Spencer and Charlotte Pence. A final selection by Mayor Sandy Stimpson has not yet been announced.

“Birmingham’s literary community deserves to be recognized and celebrated. It was an honor to engage with local poets throughout the application process and we are thrilled to see Ms. Green lead the way as Birmingham’s first-ever poet laureate,” said Meghann Bridgeman, Create Birmingham’s President and CEO, in the press release.

“I am thrilled that Salaam Green will be Birmingham’s inaugural poet laureate. She has demonstrated a commitment to our arts community through the creation of her literary works, by hosting countless writer workshops as well as teaching our young people the power of the pen. What better person to lead the way,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin in the same press release. “Supporting and strengthening Birmingham’s arts and culture community has been a commitment of mine since Day One. This is just one of the initiatives that we plan to implement in shining a light on the creatives in our community. I look forward to the poetry, programming and progress that will be born.”

A daughter of Alabama’s Black Belt, Saleem Green has spent more than 16 years as an arts educator, healer, and community leader. She is the founder and director of Literary Healing Arts and a Road Scholar for the Alabama Humanities Alliance. A certified trainer for the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, Green also leads “Write to Heal” workshops– a series of seminars geared to instructing both individuals and organizations in using poetry, writing, and storytelling to reclaim their voices and transform their lives. In 2018, Green helped conduct a series of “Truth Booths” during the massive For Freedoms public art project where she guided participants through conversations about social and environmental justice. Green is a published author whose work has been featured in the book “Peaches the Perfect Poet,” and the Alabama Arts Journal.

In Birmingham, Green has worked with a number of organizations including the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Magic City Poetry Festival, the month-long celebration of poetry founded by Ashley M. Jones, the state of Alabama’s first Black and youngest poet laureate. Green was the Magic City Poetry Festival’s second eco poet, a tenure that ran from 2020 to 2022. This year, Green was one of the poets featured during the Magic City Poetry Festival’s Poetry in the Gardens program. In October, Green partnered with poet Tania Russell and the Alabama Humanities Association to host “Inked and Echoed,” a series of book signings and discussions at the inaugural Birmingham FOOD+ culture festival. Green is also a poet in residence at The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation (formerly Klein Arts and Culture).

In a statement to AL.com, Jones, who consulted with Create Birmingham to help launch the process of developing a poet laureate program, described Green as a “joy to work with.”

“I’ve always admired her soulful and earnest approach to poetry and her true gift for creating community wherever she goes. Serving as laureate of any constituency is a very important and challenging job, and it takes someone with patience, open-heartedness, and true poetic spirit, and Salaam is the perfect person to serve our city,” wrote Jones. “I look forward to working with her and supporting all her endeavors–as a Birmingham girl myself, this is a fabulous new chapter in our city’s history!”

In the announcement press release, Green described her inaugural poet laureate appointment as an “honor.”

“This is a duty, a privilege, and as a citizen, it is calling to be the people’s poet in a city rich in its foundation of justice and its progression towards unity,” said Green. “As the inaugural Poet Laureate alongside the noble diverse, inclusive, and inter-generational people of the Magic City we shall emerge towards the inseparably entwined journey of belonging through the healing power of words together.”

This article will be updated.