Pacia Anderson to be installed as St. Louis City’s 4th Poet Laureate

Growing up in the foster care system, Pacia Anderson did not understand herself or feel understood by those entrusted with her care. She escaped into literature and found happiness in books, magazines, and comics. She even hid away in the library during her lunch periods at school, also in part to avoid the taunts of the kids who would make fun of her.

She didn’t know it, but she was honing her future craft and creative response to the world around her. During Anderson’s time in the library, she discovered the works of Black voices – like those from Third World Press and those she described as “titans and legends” in the black arts movement Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez.

Anderson is now one of those voices. She has transcended the library to become a teaching artist, creative consultant, arts administrator, community caregiver. She will be installed as the 4^th Poet Laureate of St. Louis City on Monday June, 2 at 6 p.m. at the City Hall Rotunda.

She considers the appointment “a tremendous honor.”

“It’s about the craft first,” Anderson said. This was a lesson she learned from Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, the first and only Poet Laureate of East St. Louis – who counts literary legends such as late Dr. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison among his friends and creative contemporaries.

“Being a spoken word artist is cool, but who cares if you’re not making sense with what you’re saying,” Redmond told her, according to Anderson. Anderson is thankful for Redmond and has given him the honor of speaking at Monday’s ceremony.

She stands on the shoulders of a long line of many exceptional poets. They include her mentor Shirley LeFlore, who served as the 2^nd Poet Laureate for the City of St. Louis. Anderson was bestowed with the honor of reciting a poem during LeFlore’s funeral services in 2029.   

“That was my most memorable speaking engagement,” Andersson said.

Anderson is also extremely grateful for Michael Castro, the inaugural Poet Laureate of St. Louis. She was encouraged by them both.

“They were always encouraging who was coming after them,” Anderson said. “And they were always about skilled development, forwarding the craft, and using this to talk about what’s going on in the world.”

Anderson’s journey to becoming a Poet Laureate began while growing up in a C.O.G.I.C. church in Springfield, Illinois, where she recited speeches for Christmas and Easter. “Anyone who grew up C.O.G.I.C. knows that once they discover that you’re good at something or you like to do something, they will have you do it all the time,” Anderson joked.

She participated in a talent show at her church where she won for her recitation of “I am there,” a standard poem within the Black faith community.

It was one she saw often around her home, framed and transposed on top of a pair of praying hands. It was this experience of winning the talent show that sparked her interest in poetry.

“There wasn’t this moment where I was like ‘oh I’m a poet’ until adulthood,” said Anderson. “It started by just being in our community – because churches, regardless of their doctrine, are a place of community and development.”

Anderson also expressed immense gratitude for her mentor Carolyn Blackwell. While in middle school, Blackwell gifted Anderson with a full collection of Angelou poems. The collection became a prized possession that introduced Anderson to Angelou’s less popular works like “Gathered Together In My Name,” “Singing’ and Swinging’ and “Getting’ Merry Like Christmas.”’

A graduate of the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute and current Program Lead, Anderson is also an Urban Bush Women SLI and a New Leaders Council-St. Louis alumnus, and a founding member of the youth-based art camp Cherokee Street Reach. She serves as a Missouri Regional Coordinator for the NEA-sponsored Poetry Out Loud youth recitation competition. In 2020, Pacia was named Community Impact Artist by the Saint Louis Visionary Awards.

According to Anderson, the overall job of the Poet Laureate is “to promote poetry and get people active in the writing, reading, and performance of poetry, while also curating gatherings to celebrate poetry and poets.”

As St. Louis’s 4th Poet Laureate there are many things Anderson hopes to accomplish, however for the two year term she has narrowed it down to three:

Documentation and History: community collaborations focused on record keeping, gathering, and archiving. “Really telling the story and making sure that we have a way to house and keep stories of the poets who made St. Louis what it is,” she says.

Skill Sharing: educational programs to develop the craft. “What are we doing to make ourselves better writers and performers?”

Convening: events curated for the community to gather together for the sake of poetry and getting to know one another as artists. “There’s different kinds of silos in the poetry community, academic, spoken word, open mic, and I just want us all to be together.” 

Along with promoting unity within the art form, she has her eye on the future.

“I look forward to continuing the work of our poetic and cultural forbearers,” Anderson said. “While amplifying new ideas and ways of engaging with the artform, and using poetry as a method of gathering us together in the spirit of collectivism that provides the loving connection that moves humanity forward.”

A gathering to recognize Pacia Anderson as the new St. Louis Poet Laureate will be held on Monday, June 2, 2025 from 6:00–8:00 pm in the City Hall Rotunda, 1200 Market Street, 1st floor vestibule near the Tucker Blvd entrance.

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