On May 14, 1999, native Washingtonian and scholar Dolores Kendrick was named the second Poet Laureate of the District Columbia the Office of the Poet Laureate.

Ms. Kendrick authored the award-winning poetry book The Women of Plums, in 1989 and released in 1996 in a music based. The author of two other books, Through the Ceiling and Now Is the Time to Praise, Ms. Kendrick has been noted as one of the top African-American poets writing today. She was commissioned to write two poems for the Red Line station at New York and Florida Avenues, included in a sculpture at the Pepco Building in downtown Washington.

Ms. Kendrick has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Award, the George Kent Award for Literature, the prestigious Anisfield-Wolf Award and is the first Vira I. Heinz professor emerita at Phillips Exeter Academy.  She also received an honorary PH.D from St. Bonaventure University in Buffalo, New York. A poem written in Shanghai, China during her teaching assignment at the Shanghai School of Foreign Languages was recently presented in both English and Mandarin to a Chinese delegation that requested it while visiting Washington, DC.

Ms. Kendrick hosts a variety of events annually in order to rejuvenate the art of poetry in the District. For Black History Month in February, she hosts a day of African American poetry for the community to engage with famed local and national literary activists. Ms. Kendrick’s Young Champion Poets Program has enhanced the creativity and vision of DC’s energetic young poets by providing opportunities for them to write and perform original poetry.

Ms. Kendrick's books are available for purchase at the Teaching for Change Bookstore at Busboys & Poets (14th & V Streets, NW)

History of the Office of the Poet Laureate:

The District of Columbia’s Office of the Poet Laureate was established in 1984 with Mayor Marion Barry’s appointment of Sterling A. Brown. Mr. Brown, a native Washingtonian and winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winner, held this position until his death in 1989.

The son of a former slave, Mr. Brown was a pioneer in African-American literature and folklore appreciation in the 1920s. He was known for introducing his students to concepts in popular jazz, blues, spirituals and other forms of black music that formed an integral component of his poetry.

Mr. Brown’s poetic work was influenced in content, form and cadence of African-American music and focused on race and class in the United States. His first collection of poetry, Southern Road is steeped in rural themes and highlighted the simple lives of poor, black farmers with poignancy and dignity. Brown is considered part of the Harlem Renaissance artistic tradition, although he spent most of his time in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC.

The Poet Laureate is officially appointed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.