Our poet-in-residence program is a program dedicated to bringing poetry to less privileged communities and schools in order to share the power words can have. Our mission as Mass poetry is to catalyze the spread of poetry within Massachusetts, and we believe that must begin in schools and with children, by showing the next generation the versatility and depth of poetry in the Commonwealth.
Princess Moon
Poet-educator at Edward M Kennedy School for Health Careers
Princess Moon is a 2nd generation Cambodian-American award-winning poet, illustrator, and teaching artist based in Boston, MA. Her storytelling work unearths conversations with ancestral spirits, trauma left behind by the ghosts of violent men, and the hauntingly beautiful journey of finding one’s self. As the daughter of refugees, her work as an artist is heavily informed by the Cambodian Civil War and America’s involvement leading up to the genocide. She is published in Out of the Shadows of Angkor, Merrimack Valley Magazine, Gateways Mag, Swift Collective’s Stop Asian Hate campaign, and in her first debut collection of poetry The Genocide’s Love Baby Learns to Sing (Bootstrap Press). Currently, she is represented by Jill Grinberg Literary Management in NYC and is writing her second book. For more information, please check out byprincessmoon.com.
Anthony Febo
Poet-educator at Mario Umana High School and New Mission High School
Febo is a Puerto Rican poet and teaching artist from Lowell, MA. As an educator, Febo provides young people with tools for their own learning. For the last 13 years he’s been practicing and developing his own pedagogy, sharing it in after school programs, non-profits, summer camps, museums, and more recently as the artist in residence at Edward M Kennedy School. As an artist, Febo tours the country individually and as half of the cooking and poetry duo Adobo-Fish-Sauce. His work explores what it means to actively choose joy in the face of what is trying to break you.
Wendy Drexler
Poet-educator at New Mission High School
Drexler is a poet living in Belmont, Massachusetts. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Her third poetry collection, Before There Was Before, was published by Iris Press in April 2017. She is the author of Western Motel (Turning Point, 2012), and a chapbook, Drive-ins, Gas Stations, the Bright Motels (Pudding House, 2007), which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
JD Debris
Poet-educator at Salem Academy Charter
JD Debris writes poems, songs, and prose. He was a Goldwater Fellow at New York University from 2018-20, where he completed his MFA. His work has been chosen for Ploughshares’ Emerging Writers Prize, and he has twice been named to Narrative’s 30 Below 30 list. His releases include the chapbook SPARRING (Salem State University Press, 2018) and the music albums BLACK MARKET ORGANS (Simple Truth Records, 2017) and JD DEBRIS MURDER CLUB (forthcoming).
Durane West
Poet-educator at Salem High School
Durane West, spoken word artist, and educator was born and raised in Boston. He channels intense imagery, and intuitive emotional exploration to showcase transparency in his writing. Through versatile form usage and raw introspective diction West offers his readers a sneak peek into his closeted mind.
West has several years of experience working in the non-profit sector for organizations that aim to improve literacy skills for inner city youth throughout Boston. As an educator, West not only challenges his students, but himself to ask questions and chase the metaphysical in life and on the page. West was a lead instructor working directly with youth artists and author Desmond Hall for 826 Boston’s first anthology “Lift Ev’ry Voice” showcasing stories, narratives, and poems written by young boys and men of color in partnership with the Becoming A Man foundation.
In 2022, West was nominated by the Boston Music Awards for Spoken Word Artist of the Year. The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture published his poem “617” which he performed in a short film. West leads workshops for a multidisciplinary arts education program at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
He currently lives in Brighton, MA. In his free time, you can find West napping.
Sam Cha
Poet-educator at Josiah Quincy Upper School
Sam Cha has an MFA from UMass Boston. He is the author of the chapbook, American Carnage and The Yellow Book, a cross-genre meditation on what it means to be Korean/American.Other work has appeared in apt, Assay, Best New Poets, and Boston Review. He lives with his family in Cambridge, MA.