Office of the Mayor

Proclamation

Lawrence, Kansas

WHEREAS:  Lawrence, Kansas has been the home to exceptional poets such as Langston Hughes, Kenneth Irby, William Stafford, and two Kansas State poets laureate, Denise Low and Caryn Mirriam Goldberg; and

WHEREAS:  The Academy of American Poets in 1996 declared April to be National Poetry Month which is the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture; and

WHEREAS:  Lawrence has been the site of annual writing awards in honor of Langston Hughes, sponsored by the Raven Book Store and the Lawrence Arts Center, since 1995; of an annual birthday party celebration in Hughes’ honor at the Lawrence Arts Center; and of the Langston Hughes Center at the University of Kansas; and

WHEREAS:  Everyone may join in and celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30, 2015, by simply putting a poem you love in your pocket, carrying it with you, and sharing it with anyone you meet on this day; and

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mike Amyx, Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, do hereby proclaim the month of April, 2015 as

“lawrence poetry month”

in the City of Lawrence.

                                                          Mike Amyx, Mayor

March 31, 2015