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Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed says St. Louis should have a poet laureate this month

File photo: St. Louis Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed said it would be unfair to appoint a poet laureate until the controversy is settle.d
File photo | Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed said it would be unfair to appoint a poet laureate until the controversy is settle.d

The delay in naming a new St. Louis poet laureate may soon be over.

in December, a poet laureate task force recommended local poet and educator Jane Ellen Ibur. The next step was up the Board of Aldermen, which oversees the position. But a dispute about whether the task force followed regulations has delayed the board’s vote for five months.

Board President Lewis Reed now says he believes Ibur will be offered the position. But first, he wants a board committee to look into the way task force chair Aaron Williams handled its affairs.

“The process was absolutely disregarded,” Reed said.

A question of timing

Reed said Williams violated the terms of the ordinance that created the poet laureate position by removing poet MK Stallings from that task force.

File photo: Aaron Williams heads the task force charged with recommending a poet laureate. File photo: Aaron Williams heads the task force charged with recommending a poet laureate.
Credit File photo | Nancy Fowler | St. Louis Public Radio
Aaron Williams heads the task force charged with recommending a poet laureate.

In 2014, the task force chose Michael Castro as St. Louis’ inaugural poet laureate and the Board of Aldermen made it official. Castro’s two-year term started Jan. 1, 2015.

As Castro prepared to step down, the task force discussed who would succeed him. Task force member and poet MK Stallings thought it should be longtime St. Louis poet Shirley LeFlore. Williams, who favored Ibur, said his was the majority opinion.

Stallings said Williams removed him from the task force during the disagreement — before Stallings’ term on the task force was set to end at the end of June 2016.

Williams said that because the committee would not meet again until November, five months after Stallings’ term was over, Stallings' term did not end prematurely.

“I didn’t kick him off the committee," Williams said.

‘Jane would be just incredible’

With Stallings no longer on board, the task force unanimously recommended Ibur in December 2016. The process stalled when the recommendation didn't come up for a vote. Castro agreed to stay on for a short time but then resigned in May, four months after his term was set to end.

But Reed said he can’t let the matter drop because he doesn’t want it to taint Ibur’s nomination and service.

“[We don’t want] the poet laureate to end up having to take on all the flak of all the anger that was built up from people who were marginalized in the process,” Reed said.

Jane Ellen Ibur, seen in this May 2017 photo, has been a poet and educator for 35 years.
Credit Nancy Fowler | St. Louis Public Radio
Jane Ellen Ibur has been a poet and educator for 35 years.

Ibur told St. Louis Public Radio last week thatshe was disappointed over the delayand had no information about the reason behind it. She said no one has called her to explain.

Reed said it would be unfair to appoint her until the controversy is settled.

Williams, however, said he doesn’t understand why it’s taken Reed so long to look into the matter, letting Ibur and others wonder what happened and when it might be resolved.

“Lewis Reed has had six months to pick up a phone and talk to me to get the facts,” Williams said.

Reed said he needs to figure out which committee will take up the issue, but that it won’t take that long to investigate. He expects the position to be filled by the end of June.

One thing Reed and Williams agree on: Ibur is a good choice.

“Jane would be just incredible,” Reed said. "I think she’d be extraordinary; I think she’d do a great job.”

Follow Nancy Fowler on Twitter: @NancyFowlerSTL

Nancy is a veteran journalist whose career spans television, radio, print and online media. Her passions include the arts and social justice, and she particularly delights in the stories of people living and working in that intersection.