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Boston Poet Laureate
The Poet Laureate is a ceremonial appointment tasked with learning, teaching, and embodying the great literary traditions of Boston. To learn more, visit boston.gov/poetry.
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah (they/he) is a Ghanaian American poet, editor, and educator living out the diaspora in Boston, Massachusetts. For six years they taught 11th grade English at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and prior to that served as a teaching artist at organizations throughout Boston. They have very recently (September 2023) transitioned from teaching high school English, and are currently working as a school librarian at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester, Boston (it's a K-8!). While they miss their high schoolers, Emmanuel says the transition to working with littles, particularly kids growing up in the city they themself grew up in, has been incredibly joyful and life-giving. The pursuit of joy, and that which sustains life, is essential to their creative practice, and to their practice of living. Emmanuel's first chapbook, "not without small joys" (published in 2021 by Game Over Books Press) explores the centrality of joy as an animating force, especially in the face of human suffering. In their free time, they enjoy hot carbs, afternoons spent playing board games, and the long sigh at the end of a good book.
Oppong-Yeboah is Boston’s fourth Poet Laureate, following Porsha Olayiwola, Danielle Legros Georges, and Sam Cornish, all of whom helped elevate the city’s poetry scene through this role.