Temple alum Kai Davis is Philly’s new poet laureate

When Kai Davis first heard that she had been selected as Philadelphia’s poet laureate, it took a few seconds to sink in. Earlier that day, she received both the COVID and flu shots and in response, she was sweating and feverish by the time Yolanda Wisher, a previous poet laureate and Davis’s close family friend, rang.

“She has this smooth way of talking, and she calmly told me that I got the position,” said Davis, 30, who grew up in Germantown. “Once it really did hit me, we were both tearing up.”

As poet laureate, Davis will be an ambassador for poetry throughout the city, tasked with amplifying literacy efforts, participating in community service, speaking at events, and mentoring the Youth Poet Laureate, Oyewumi Oyeniyi. The two-year position comes with a $5,000 stipend. Davis succeeds Bryn Mawr College professor and author Airea D. Matthews, who was Philadelphia’s poet laureate from 2022-24.

“In Philadelphia, the neo-soul scene, the hip-hop scene, the underground rap scene, the battle rap scene, even in churches, and other places where folks can be — the word is really, really valuable. Philly is filled with people who have that ability to use lyricism creatively, to connect with one another to build communities with one another,” said Davis. “As poet laureate, my job is to give all these people their flowers while they’re still here, and to draw attention to the work that’s happening.”

Davis has been writing poetry since she was a teen. At 15, she was struck by the power of spoken word performances at the Germantown Poetry Festival and immediately knew she wanted to be part of that world. Eventually, she started participating in slam poetry competitions and joined the Philly Youth Poetry Movement.

At Temple, she was the artistic director of the Babel Poetry Collective. After graduation, she taught English as a substitute teacher in Philadelphia public schools and led a number of poetry workshops throughout the city.

Currently, Davis is a co-organizer of the Philly Pigeon, a regular poetry performance event held at PhilaMOCA that blends poetry and other performing arts. (By day, she works at Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice.) Fostering that intersection across art forms is a practice that Davis will champion as she works with various artistic communities in Philadelphia. She also intends to work on projects around trauma-informed arts education to ensure that local writers can feel supported while engaging in art that is intimate and sometimes difficult.

This year’s poet laureate application pool included 16 applicants from 12 zip codes, a record high, said Wisher, who chairs the poet laureate governing committee. She remembers when Davis was a flower girl in her wedding and she’s thrilled to see Davis become one of the city’s youngest poets to hold this position. (Wisher was not involved in the voting process for Davis.)

Davis has engaged with younger audiences across the city, especially through Philly Pigeon, and Wisher believes she will expand that outreach and support new young poets.

“It’s particularly rewarding to see how somebody born, raised, and really steeped in this poetry community in Philadelphia can come to this role,” said Wisher. “That’s my sense of what this program should do — really nurture that sense of leadership among the poetry community. Kai is really emblematic of that.”