Colorado has a new poet laureate.
Bobby LeFebre is an Emmy-nominated performer who thinks poetry has the power to heal and promote cultural change. He was appointed to the position by Governor Jared Polis.
As he read a poem to a large crowd at the state Capitol on Tuesday, his booming voice echoed off the granite walls and grew louder after each verse.
“Blessed be the creatives! The ones predisposed to questioning. The ones with an immoderate hunger for understanding. Come and meet us at this new juncture where expression devoid of consciousness is merely decoration.”
LeFebre is Colorado’s 8th poet laureates since the program started one hundred years ago.
He takes over from Joe Hutchison, who read poems in twenty one counties during his tenure. He will spend the next four years traveling across the state touting the power of creative writing. The poet will get two thousand dollars a year to attend events and promote poetry.
LeFebre also told the crowd at the state Capitol “in this beautiful but bleeding world that we live in, we need poets now more than ever.”
