WORCESTER, Mass. - For the first time in three years, Worcester has a new poet laureate. Award-winning poet Oliver de la Paz is taking over the role, starting this month.

De la Paz is an associate professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross. His work “The Boy in the Labyrinth,” published in 2019, was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry.

Worcester City Manager Eric Batista announced the appointment earlier this month. De la Paz is replacing Juan Matos, who served in the role for the past three years.

As Worcester’s poet laureate, de la Paz explained his role is to promote poetry throughout the city and amplify the voices of residents, especially those who express themselves through the arts, In addition to public events focused on creative writing, de la Paz must provide a commissioned poem for every year that he is in office.

One of de la Paz’s goals is to make poetry more accessible to Worcester residents. He said people are oftentimes intimidated by poetry, but through his work, he hopes to change residents’ perceptions and show that poetry is a form of self-expression that allows writers to be vulnerable and share their perceptions and emotions with others.

“In other words, what I want to do is I want to marry town and gown,” de la Paz said. “I want to bring down the folks from the various college communities who are teaching poetry who have their life's work in the study of poetry, I want to bring them together with folks who are maybe in public schools and who are experiencing poetry for the first time. In a lot of ways, my role as educator is to demystify the mysteries of poetry.”

De la Paz does not look far for poetic inspiration, as he draws ideas from his own life journey and family connections.

“My family immigrated from the Philippines in 1972,” de la Paz said. “This was during the rise of the Ferdinand Marcos regime, and some of my family members were imperiled by that regime. So a lot of my early work centered around my story of immigration and my family's story of immigration.

“Lately I have been writing very much about family. I am a family member with a large number of folks who classify themselves as neurodiverse. A lot of what I write about is operating within a family of that dynamic, in support of that dynamic.”

Yaffa Fain of the city’s Cultural Development Division was part of the team that unanimously voted to name de la Paz as Worcester poet laureate. She said that while the pool of poets was competitive, it was de la Paz’s vision, established connection to the city and experience that set him apart from the other applicants.

As poet laureate, de la Paz is eligible to receive a $1,000 annual honorarium, according to the city.

Fain said sometimes the department faces questions about financially investing in the arts, especially during economic downturns.

“In our office and as a city, we respect that creativity is vital to a city success,” she said. “Housing, food security, mental health and innovation, those are all integrated with creativity and arts and culture. So, a poet laureate like Oliver is a champion and a voice for our community in a time when we so desperately need to hear what our community has to say.”

One of the first projects de la Paz will be working on as poet laureate is the Worcester County Poetry Association’s “Rain Poetry Project,” where community members will submit poems. Selected works will be stenciled on a public art exhibit that reveals the poems every time it rains.