Campbell named poet laureate
San Jose resident Tshaka Campbell was named Santa Clara County poet laureate Jan. 11 for a two-year term ending Dec. 31, 2023.
Campbell is the curator of “Beautiful Black Books” as part of Poetry Center San Jose. He also conducts lectures and workshops in creative writing, spiritual verse and other related topics. He has written four books — “Tarman,” “Muted Whispers,” “Tunnel Vision” and “Stuff”— and released three music albums: “One,” “Bloodlines” and “Skin vol.1.”
Campbell was recommended to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, who appointed him to the honorary position following a call for applications and a twostep review process organized by the county, Silicon
Valley Creates, and the Santa Clara County Library District. He is the county’s seventh poet laureate.
“I am standing on the shoulders of those who have held the post in the past, so I am both honored and humbled to be chosen,” Campbell said in a statement.
Among the programs Campbell is planning is “In Our Words,” for local youth to write poems that capture the impact the last two years have had on them. Their work will be published in an anthology and displayed at various locations around the county.
Campbell will be formally installed at the
Feb. 8 board of supervisors meeting, where he will read a selection of his work as part of the invocation.