Detroit's got a new voice and it's ringing loud and clear. Jessica Care Moore has been crowned the city's poet laureate, a hat tip to her authentic grit and lyrical prowess that's as real-deal Detroit as they come. Born and raised in the Motor City, Moore's got the pedigree and the street cred to back it up, graduating from Frank Cody High School and packing degrees from both Wayne State and Michigan State universities in her poetic arsenal.
According to FOX 2 Detroit, the city's banking on Moore to bring poetry to the people – organizing events, crafting a yearly speech at the Detroit Public Library, and creating a bespoke poem to wrap up each year. Moore, slicing through the noise with her voice sharpened in Brooklyn, where in '97 she founded Moore Black Press Publishing Inc. Her reaching roots are set to entangle the young brains throughout Detroit schools, where she plans to shake up the lesson plans, adding a dash of contemporary poetry to the curriculum. She's got big shoes to fill, stepping into the mentorship shadow of the late Naomi Long Madgett, Detroit's previous poet laureate, and a titan of Black poetry.
But Moore is no one-trick lyrical pony. A juggernaut in her right, she's the muscle behind The Moore Art House, the nonprofit looking to pump up Detroit's literary heartbeat. She’s not stopping at paving the nation’s poetic paths, either. Moore's setting sights on the audio sphere with HarperCollins, queuing up to channel that Detroit soul into spoken word audiobooks in 2024.
This is no small-time gig – the Ford Foundation is footing the bill for this laureate spot, a badge of honor that Moore wears, celebrating Detroit's cultural heft. The timing? Impeccable. It's poetry month, after all, as Moore told the City of Detroit, and Detroit's own, is now fresh off penning some love letters to the city's robust spirit. She’s been the voice of Pure Michigan, paid tribute to Malcolm X at the Shabazz Center, and had a stanza of her Gucci-commissioned poem plastered on the Siren Hotel. A city on the move, and Moore's the conductor of this literary locomotive. "Poems save lives, poems inspire," she humbly uttered about her craft, her mission. It’s a Detroit revival, in verse.
Choosing Moore wasn’t a decision made on a whim. It took a panel packed with literary creds, including Wayne State University's powerhouse professor M.L Liebler, to sift through a decade's worth of Moore's trailblazing. She's got the backing, the clout, and now, the official stamp. With Mayor Mike Duggan and Arts Culture and Entrepreneurship Director Rochelle Riley backing her, Moore's ready to throw Detroit's next cultural fastball, straight down the poetry pipe.
