Johnson-Green will share his work at city events and youth programming, inspiring the next generation of writers and artists.
Photo by City of St. Petersburg
By Julia Ferrara
At the city’s flag raising on Feb. 5 in commemoration of Black History Month, the city was introduced to a new poet laureate.
University of South Florida St. Petersburg alum Denzel Johnson-Green was selected to serve as an ambassador for literature as the City of St. Petersburg’s first Black poet laureate.
The poet laureate usually holds their position for the mayor’s term and Johnson-Greene will join a distinguished body of poets who previously held the role, including Peter Meinke, Helen Wallace, and more recently, Gloria Muñoz.
His reaction was one of surprise and astonishment.
“I think I began to babble something like Courage the Cowardly dog,” Johnson-Green told The Crow’s Nest.
Johnson-Green’s experience with poetry began about eight years ago, but he still considers himself new to it. He stayed away from the art form for a long time because of the sad connotations it carried.
This changed when he attended a poetry open mic at Studio@620, a local visual and performing arts venue in downtown St. Petersburg.
“The walls were a passionate red, the seating was cool and raised up like a theatre, and the poets were everyday people; the oldest around sixty-three and the youngest was about seven,” said Johnson-Green.
“After washing dishes at a crappy job, I knew that I wanted more, and those folks helped me imagine what more could look like,” said Johnson-Green.
Johnson-Green kept attending these open mics and eventually was hired by the venue — still washing a fair number of dishes.
This slowly grew into more poetry-related community involvement. Johnson-Green has hosted a weekly poetry workshop every Sunday at Black Crow Coffee Co.’s Grand Central location since 2019.
He was also on the board for Keep St. Pete Lit, an organization that promotes literary community in the city, as well as for The Friends of Jack Kerouac.
Now, he hosts an open mic at Studio@620.
Johnson-Green is also the mind behind the local poetry journal “Neptune,” which has been nominated for best literary journal by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
Along with that Johnson-Green has been a part of poetry events at the Dalí museum, the Grow House in Tampa, and several bookstores in St. Petersburg.
“There’s all these little nooks and crannies that host poetry events, gotta love it,” said Johnson-Green.
As the poet laureate, Johnson-Green will get to be a part of poetry events around the city and will get to organize some for National Poetry Month in April.
During the flag raising ceremony earlier this month, Johnson-Green shared his perspective on poetry and why he it’s so important to him.
“Poetry believes in us; teaches us that we all have rich, inner worlds waiting for dazzling articulation, and that we are worthy of this,” said Johnson-Green.
“May wonder always be within our reach, and may we have the courage to grasp it.”
