avery r. young [him, him, his] is Chicago’s first Poet Laureate, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. He is a Leader for a New Chicago 2022 awardee, a Cave Canem fellow and a co-director of The Floating Museum. His poetry and prose have been featured in BreakBeat Poets, Teaching Black, Poetry Magazine, and alongside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s In The Company of Black. He is the composer and librettist for a newly-commissioned work from The Lyric Opera of Chicago titled safronia. His full-length recording, tubman., is the soundtrack to his collection of poetry, neckbone: visual verses.