Heights Arts’ poet laureate program s the longest running such program in Ohio, naming a Cleveland Heights poet as laureate for a two-year term since 2000. So far, it’s named ten poets and As of this month, Siaara Freeman will become its 11th. She follows Ray McNiece, one of the area’s best-known poet/writer/performers who served a three-year term due to the pandemic. The role is now official known as the “Heights Poet Laureate” as the writer will now be representing University Heights as well as Cleveland Heights.
Freeman is a writer, performer and educator, who is currently a teaching artist for the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning. She was a Catapult Fellow at Cleveland Public Theatre in 2021-22. She published her first book of poetry, titled Urbanshee, in 2022.
Freeman’s first public event in her role as poet laureate will be Heights Arts gallery’s Ekphrastacy, in which poets respond to the art currently on display. She’ll also be part of a community celebration of past and present laureates at the B-Side Lounge on Coventry on May 4.
Learn more here.