The search for the new Cambridge Poet Populist is on. The call for applications has come and gone, not that I could have done anything anyway. I don't live in Cambridge, so I have no voting power. However, since Stone Soup Poetry takes place in Cambridge, I will be paying attention to the final list the townspeople will be voting from.
They can be harder to find, but there are genuine poets that have been living in Cambridge for years. Many have even had their hands in organizing events. I hope some of them heard of this event and got their forms in on time. I've been impressed with Toni Bee's work as an arts activist, and I want to be equally impressed with whoever takes over. The last thing I want to see is a carpetbagging hipster who's recently moved to the town come take over the position and use it as an excuse to create events they can invite their equally scattered hipster friends to (Let's do some poetry, Somervi--I mean Cambridge).
Not that residency means automatic nobility. Far from it. My favorite moment one year was when a group convinced three of their friends to run for poet populist at the same time, but then, because there were three of them, the votes were too spread out for any proper stuffing of the ballots to happen. Because rewards in the arts are rarely monetary and mostly, very little light is cast on how corrupt artistic competitions can get. If I have time to see the finalists campaign, I will definitely do so, in the hopes of finding someone I can endorse.
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