Danielle Legros Georges, a writer and teacher who was born in Haiti and served as Boston's poet laureate under Mayor Martin J. Walsh, died on Feb. 11 at her home in Dorchester, according to a post made by her family today.
"Her partner Tom Laughlin and her brothers Gerard, Bernard, and Stephan were with her," according to a statement made on her Instagram page. Her family asked for donations in her name be made to the Mass General Cancer Center.
Georges, who lived in both Mattapan and Dorchester, was named the city of Boston’s official Poet Laureate in January 2014 by Mayor Walsh. At the time, she taught Creative Arts at Lesley University, and was a published poet and translator.
She moved to the United States from Haiti at age 6 with her parents, who settled in Mattapan.
“Mattapan had a small Haitian population when we first arrived, but it has since expanded dramatically,” Georges said in an interview with the Reporter in 2014.
Georges focused much of her work on the Haitian diaspora. She wrote “A Poem for the Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere” in the aftermath of the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
“I was listening to news and so often I would heard about Haiti always referred to as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. I found it troublesome, so I wanted to add to the voices as a person in the diaspora and a person who cares about Haiti.”
She received a B.S. in Communication Studies from Emerson College, and holds an M.F.A. in English and Creative Writing from New York University.
Legros Georges was published in a wide variety of publications, including: Agni, Transition, World Literature Today, SpoKe, The Caribbean Writer, Callaloo,Ibbetson Street, Salamander, Poeisis, Black Renaissance Noire, Macomère,The American Poetry Review and the Boston Haitian Reporter.
In 2001, Legros Georges published a collection of poems, entitled Maroon.
A funeral service is planned for 10 am on Saturday, February 22, at the Boston Basilica: Our Lady of Perpetual Health, 1545 Tremont Street in Boston.