Street Poets’ Artistic Director: Barbara Fant

Welcome to the latest addition to our leadership team, Barbara Fant. A native of Ohio, Barbara brings years of experience as a poet, teaching artist, foundation administrator and community-builder to Street Poets at an exciting time of change for our organization and for the city we serve.

Please join Street Poets in welcoming the latest addition to our leadership team, Barbara Fant. “We had the privilege of collaborating with Barbara and experiencing the inspirational depth and quality of her poetry and character firsthand via the Arts for Healing & Justice Network,” Street Poets Executive Director Chris Henrikson recalls. “We’re thrilled to have her creativity and wisdom in the mix with us as we expand our programs and presence in the community.”

A native of Ohio, Barbara brings years of experience as a poet, teaching artist, foundation administrator and community-builder to Street Poets at an exciting time of change for our organization and for the city we serve. “We need poetry, and its power to re-imagine our world now more than ever. Poetry changes lives. It transforms. It gives people their voice, and their voice back –time and time again.” Barbara observes. “As a person of faith, I believe that the power of life and death lives in the tongue. Just as God spoke the world into existence, we all have the power to speak new things into being. I spoke my way into freedom. Poetry heals. I know this because it healed me. That’s one of many reasons why I’m so passionate about the work we do here.”