For National Poetry Month, 64 Parishes presents Laureates Online, a weekly virtual reading with Louisiana’s current and former poets laureate featuring poetry relevant to current times. Stay tuned every Wednesday at noon on Facebook and 64Parishes.org for new readings.

Dr. Julie Kane was Louisiana’s Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2013. She was a professor of English at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for seventeen years before retiring in 2016. She is widely anthologized, with works appearing in numerous volumes and journals.

The poem Kane chose to read is “Saint Joseph’s #2, New Orleans” about her ancestors, who immigrated from Ireland and settled in New Orleans before succumbing to yellow fever.