September 07, 2024
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Joliet poet laureate gets contract with city

Poet to be paid $6,000 over two years dependent on grant funding

By Bob Okon
Uxmar Torres stands on the Jefferson Street Bridge in downtown Joliet on Tuesday June 4, 2024. Uxmar who has a degree in creative writing has showed his poetry and spoken word in dozens of cities across the United States.

Uxmar Torres, the first poet laureate in Joliet, stands on the Jefferson Street bridge located outside City Hall where the Joliet City Council on Tuesday approved a poet laureate contract that runs through June 30 2026 but is dependent on outside grant funding. (Gary Middendorf)

The city has finalized a contract that puts Joliet’s first poet laureate on duty.

Uxmar Torres was named the city’s poet laureate in May after a request for candidates that included a public reading among the three finalists.

Torres’ contract, approved by the City Council on July 2, runs to June 30, 2026 and pays $6,000 in four installments.

At the council meeting, Torres read his winning poem, “A Light Over the River,” at the request of Councilwoman Jan Quillman, who said the poem had been praised by her neighbor.

Payment for Torres is dependent on a grant from the Illinois Arts Council or “a comparable funding source,” and the contract allows the city to end payments if the grant stops. For now, he is scheduled to receive payments of $1,500 starting on Aug. 31, two more payments next year on June 30 and Dec. 31, and the final payment on June 30 2026.

The contract requires Torres to create two “original literary works for and about Joliet,” provide 10 public readings and workshops for the public at no charge, read poems as special events as directed by city staff, and promote poetry in the city.

Joliet is not the first city in Illinois with a poet laureate.

City staff when presenting the proposal for a poet laureate in February noted that Rockford, Elgin, Highland Park and Urbana have poet laureates.

The poet laureate proposal in Joliet originated from the Joliet Arts Commission, which was created in 2019 to promote the arts in the city.

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