Lorraine Currelley

Lorraine  Currelley, Bronx Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2022 State of New York  is a poet, spoken word artist and multi-genre writer, Pearls of Wisdom storyteller, educator, art/literary curator and visual artist. She's the Executive Director for Poets Network & Exchange, a multi- award winning   organization, where she curates and produces featured poetry/spoken word readings, writing workshops, panel discussions, an open mic, a blog and a scholar lecture series.  In 2017 she made herstory becoming the first female Executive Director for the Bronx Book Fair, the premiere and largest literary event in the Bronx.. She's widely anthologized and publications include but are not limited to Writing the Walls, 2020, Climbing the Walls 2020, DoveTales (Resistance, 2020), Dove Tales ( Empathy in Art: Embracing the other) 2018, DoveTales ( Refugees and the Displaced) 2017, DoveTales (Family & Cultural Identity) 2016, Mandela Tributes 2014, PA PoetsArtists #57 2014, Blind Beggar Press 35th Anniversary Anthology, Shirley Part of the Problem Belladonna Publishers, Sling Magazine, Mom Egg Review, MER VOX Gallery (Curator) and Gaptooth Girlfriends: The Third Act, An Anthology. Compulsive Reader (book reviewer 2016 to present), Amazon (book reviewer 2016-present). Memberships include Poets & Writers, AWP, National Writers Union, Studio Museum in Harlem and Hudson Valley MOCA. Workshopped with playwright and actress Laurie Carlos, the original woman in blue in For Colored Girls. Jessica Hagedorn,  Tyehimba Jess, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan,  Ginnah Howard, Remica L. Bingham, Robert Agard, Roger X and Alexis De Veaux among others.   She's the former President of The Harlem Arts Fund.

She has a Master of Science Degree in Mental Health Counseling and a Certificate  of Specialization in Thanatology (grief and bereavement). She resides in New York City.