Meet Aurora’s Very Own Poet Laureate!

Call me uncultured if you wish, but I had no idea our humble old city of Aurora had a poet laureate. I’m familiar with the concept of a poet laureate, but I always just figured it was something big fancy cities like Chicago would have. Or maybe Naperville?

Anyway.

I came across this video on TalkingCities.com — which, by the way, if you want to learn about a ton of cool thing happening in Aurora, you should really follow them on social media and regularly visit their website.

Her name is Karen Christensen. As old as the City of Lights is, she’s actually Aurora’s very first poet laureate being named as such at the end of 2019 and installed into her new roles on January 16th, 2020. As you would assume from someone in this role, she’s a native Auroran, having worked as an urban planner for the city. Besides that, she created the A-Town Poetics poetry ground, and has written over 3,000 pieces that have been published in several collections. You may have even read her lines in the Downtown Aurora magazine quite a few times!

Feel free to like the Aurora Poet Laureate Facebook page, where Karen shares a poem every single day.