Poetry for the mad masses

Mayor Dave has just announced that Fabu Carter-Brisco has agreed to serve as Madison's newest Poet Laureate, a position that was recently formalized by the Common Council by adding it to the Madison Arts Commission. Fabu is the city's third Poet Laureate since the program was started back in '77 (thanks Soglin!).

I wanted to express my congratulations to Fabu on receiving the honor and my thanks to the city for making it an official position.

Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I firmly believe that the arts are a vital part of any community, and positions such as Poet Laureate are important facets of keeping the arts visible and viable. There is a part of me that longs for the days when being a patron of the arts, in the sense of actually hiring people to create works of art on a full-time basis, was a perfectly normal and respectable thing for a person of means to be. It's just not as easy to make a living doing something like writing poetry, songs or stories, and that's a shame.

Anyway, my dreams of being a kept artist aside, I thought this was a positive piece of news and wanted to make sure to share it.

And that's it for me today. The nasty cold bug that's been making the rounds has finally found its way through my defenses, and I intend to spend as much of my evening as possible in blissful slumber.