A Volusia County poet laureate will be honored posthumously by the organization he founded to promote poetry and the arts. The Daytona Beach-based Creative Happiness Institute seeks to raise $200,000 for a new fund named for its founder, David B. Axelrod.
The nonprofit institute was founded by Axelrod 16 years ago to mentor and promote local poets and other artists. Its leaders will unveil the David B. Axelrod Memorial Endowment Fund at a Sept. 6 celebration of Axelrod’s life.
Axelrod, who was named Volusia County co-poet laureate alongside M.B. McLatchey in 2014, died Nov. 30 at age 81. He played a key role in a significant Florida cultural effort when he successfully lobbied the Legislature to resurrect the post of state poet laureate in 2014.
Since his death, Central Florida poet and Axelrod’s children have continued running the institute, which is funded through donations and grants. Among its activities: a Young Poets Mentoring Program, poetry readings and slams, and other literary initiatives for local schools, colleges, arts venues, seniors and veterans.
The Creative Happiness Institute also is assuming control of Writers Ink Press, a five-decade-old poetry-focused independent imprint also founded by Axelrod that has published more than 50 books by local poets.
A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, Axelrod taught 12,000 students as an English professor at Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York, from 1969-2009. During that six-decade literary career, he won three Fulbright Awards, dozens of grants and poetry prizes, and served as poet laureate of Suffolk County from 2007-2009.
The life of the late David B. Axelrod, pictured in a library in the 1990s, will be celebrated in DeLand. (Courtesy Creative Happiness Institute)
Dubbed a “populist poet” by Florida State Poets Association past president Al Rocheleau, critics and journalists highlighted Axelrod’s penchant for highlighting life’s comedy and irony in his works, which often dealt with family, relationships, current events and the nature of poetry itself.
Axelrod wrote 25 poetry books and an award-winning biography of feminist scholar Merlin Stone.
Married three times and a father of four, he retired to Central Florida in 2010.
“Despite his many accomplishments, Dr. David Axelrod remained an authentic, humble, generous teacher, who dedicated nearly all of his 81 years to using poetry and the arts to promote happiness, healing and health,” said Anthony Ehrlich, the new president of the Creative Happiness Institute. “CHI looks forward to continuing to improve local lives by carrying on Dr. Axelrod’s legacy of creativity, laughter, love, artistic mentorship and fellowship.”
David B. Axelrod, Volusia County’s co-poet laureate until his death in Nov., is pictured with a 2014 Florida Book Awards gold medal. (Courtesy of Creative Happiness Institute)
The celebration of his life will be 2-5 p.m. Sept. 6 at the African American Museum of the Arts’ Dr. Noble “Thin Man” Watts Amphitheatre, 322 S. Clara Ave in DeLand. Axelrod’s son, Dan, and Stetson University professor Rajni Shankar-Brown will host the event, which will feature live music by jazz guitarist Jim Graves of Port Orange. Food and beverages will be provided.
Attendees should RSVP to Ehrlich at anthonyehrlich@earthlink.net or 386-624-4925. Eventgoers can sign up to recount memories of Axelrod, read poems about him — or read his poems.
In keeping with Axelrod’s legacy, after the tribute the MainStreet Art and Culture Slam of DeLand — Volusia County’s poetry slam-series — will hold a qualifying competition for the Southeast Regional North Carolina Poetry Slam.
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