HATTIESBURG — The Hattiesburg Arts Council and Hattiesburg Poet Laureate Jennifer Polson Peterson will host a celebration and awards event on April 25 recognizing young poets at the Rebekah Stark Johnson Community Arts Center. 

The free event, titled the “Hattiesburg National Poetry Month Celebration and Young Poets Awards,” will run from 1 to 3 p.m. at 825 Main St. 

Activities will begin at 1 p.m. and will include creative games, snacks and a chance to view award-winning poetry by young writers from across Hattiesburg. 

A poetry reading and awards ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Organizers will recognize outstanding writers from each participating school. Poetry contest winners and honorable mentions will also be invited to the stage to read work they created in response to Hattiesburg’s public art. 

One grand prize winner will receive a scholarship to the Young Authors Academy in summer 2026. 

All community members are invited. Organizers especially encourage students, teachers and families who participated in the Hattiesburg Poet Laureate’s Writing Sky Words workshop series during the 2025-26 school year to attend. 

Peterson’s poet laureate project, created in partnership with the Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art, includes a poetry-themed mural on the city’s public art trail and an ekphrastic poetry challenge for students. The mural features a line by Mississippi poet Etheridge Knight: “[T]ake your words and scrape the sky.”