Dwayne Parish is an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
. He was born in
Fairfield, California on
Travis Air Force Base and grew up in
Vallejo, California
Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to the ...
.
He moved to Richmond in 1992.
At age 55,
he was named the first
poet laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
of
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council. in 2012.
He prefers to write in the
acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...
form.
Parish also served on the Richmond Arts & Culture Commission.
Parish was succeeded as poet laureate by
Donté Clark
Donté Clark is a poet, actor, and community activist from unincorporated North Richmond, California who works with youth organizations throughout the Richmond area.
As a student in high school, Clark was recruited by his English teacher Molly Ra ...
, Lincoln Bergman, and Brendan Quintanilla, who served concurrently.
See also
*
List of municipal poets laureate in California
References
American male poets
Living people
People from Richmond, California
Writers from Vallejo, California
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Municipal Poets Laureate in the United States
African-American poets
People from Fairfield, California
21st-century African-American people
African-American male writers
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