Durham's Next Poet Laureate: The Poetry Fox

Old Erwin Road from Durham to Chapel Hill is
line break and film splice and not metaphor
I know what is happening
behind those trees though sights come through in motion-slivers

She remembered it so well

Look at that man cut his food.

She said she remembered it so well.

Is three 3?

Sights are my events // The Periodic Table is impenetrable
Or, to rephrase: Catachresis is impossible

Sorry – cars pass behind those trees

A poem by Christopher Vitiello, from the book Irresponsibility, Ashasta Press, 2008

On Sept. 3, Durham’s next Poet Laureate is expected to be the Poetry Fox – also known as Christopher Vitiello, who works as arts writer for Indy Week.

Vitiello, a fixture at Durham family events wearing a fox costume and tapping out personalized poems on a typewriter, was among 16 applicants for the role of Durham Poet Laureate under the city’s Cultural and Public Art Program.

In a letter to the selection committee, he wrote that “I have learned that every person likes poems when they encounter them in the right ways, and I’ve become expert in those ways through my career as a public poet in Durham. And I want to use the laureate platform to connect more people to poetry through those ways, here in the city I’ve called home for 30 years and raised two kids in.”

He wants to leverage connections made through his partnerships with Durham County Libraries, Duke University, Durham Central Park, Discover Durham, and other art-friendly spaces to provide free writing workshops during his tenure, “with an emphasis on the list poem as a generative form to get people writing from their own memory and experience.”

The selection committee recommended Vitiello in June. If appointed this week by Mayor Leonardo Williams, Vitiello would start his three-year term on Sept. 30, with an annual honorarium of $5,000.

In a memo to City Manager Wanda Page, Jina Propst of the General Services Department wrote:

“Christopher Vitiello is both an academic poet and a public populist poet through his much-loved character, Poetry Fox. Calling Durham his home for 30 years, Vitiello is an active member of Durham’s cultural community. He is eager to utilize his decades long connections with the Durham community to begin his ‘Poems Everywhere’-themed tenure, which includes writing workshops, a reading series, and poems visible throughout the community.”

The scope of work for his tenure includes:

• Engaging writers and readers of all ages at schools, libraries, and community centers.
• Planning and leading at least three community educational sessions per year.
• Participating in select literary and cultural events.
• Providing between 5 and 10 public readings per year at ceremonial events, council sessions, or other public meetings.
• Creating commemorative poems for historical or culturally important occasions.
• Providing an annual plan, a mid-year written report, and an annual report documenting each year’s activities.

If appointed, Vitiello would be Durham’s second Poet Laureate, following the completion of D.J. Rogers’ inaugural term in that role.

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