County officially rescinds first poet laureate appointment

GREENE COUNTY―Reverberations of a decision made by the Greene County Legislature to cancel the appointment of the county’s first poet laureate are being felt and heard well beyond local borders.

At a meeting of the full legislature on April 15, lawmakers approved a resolution rescinding the naming of Esther Cohen to the position.

Passed unanimously, the resolution states that “after the appointment, certain publicly available social media content associated with the appointee prompted discussion regarding the alignment between the role’s expectations and the individual’s public communications.”

“The Greene County Legislature affirms that any expression condoning violence is inconsistent with the standards expected of County representatives,” the resolution states.

Lawmakers, last year, established the poet laureate title, leaving the task of recommending someone for the job to the Catskill-based CREATE Council for the Arts. Cohen was named in January.

Questions about Cohen’s selection, however, were raised at a legislative committee meeting in March by lawmaker Michael Lanuto (R-Catskill), related to posts Cohen shared on her personal Facebook page.

“Lately I’ve been doing some background,” Lanuto said. “What I found on [Cohen’s] social media channel is pretty much the antithesis of what I believe this board stands for.”

Lanuto referenced Cohen’s Facebook page that he says stated, “Donald Trump will die from bad health. Worldwide celebrations in honor of his death,” along with a second message that Lanuto said, “looks like the President being assassinated with blood dripping down his back.”

“I can’t support a person like that,” Lanuto said. “I have no problem with the position. I have a problem with the person in that position,” noting his discomfort would apply regardless of who the president was.

Lawmaker Michael Bulich (R-Catskill), at that time, said, “we may look at having Stella look at someone else to do this,” referring to CREATE executive director Stella Yoon, initiating a series of communications and in-house talks.

Cohen, a well-respected poet, author and teacher, has acknowledged the postings while saying they were not written by her, shared prior to her appointment and taken down with an apology for “offending anyone.”

In an April 17 phone interview, Cohen refuted the claim that she promoted violence, saying, “I have never advocated violence against anyone in a poem or a [social media] post or in any part of my life.”

Agreeing the messages were “anti-Trump,” Cohen emphasized they were “satirical posts predicting what might happen to the president in 2026.”

Presidents, she said, have always been subjects of satire.

“When we start fooling around with free speech we are in trouble,” Cohen said, noting she had been denied a request to speak to the legislature in the days and weeks leading up to her removal.

Since the reversal of what was a chairman’s appointment, Cohen has been approached by multiple news outlets. Cohen says she was interviewed this week by the New York Times and a photographer had been sent to her Cornwallville residence.

“I don’t want to fight this,” Cohen said. “I am being accused of something the opposite of what I have represented my whole life.”

“I don’t want this to create more polarization between people. I want to use this as a way for people to talk to each other. We have to learn to talk to each other, and not just because we think the same way,” she said.

CREATE, announcing Cohen’s appointment on their website, stated the poet laureate, “serves to promote the appreciation of poetry in Greene County as well as engage in local literary events as part of their tenure.

“This initiative aims to highlight literary activities in the county and ensure that poetry remains a vital part of the county’s cultural landscape,” according to CREATE that serves Greene, Columbia, and Schoharie counties.

A non-profit service organization, CREATE receives annual funding from the legislature to support its operations.

CREATE officials have been largely silent on the rescinding other than a recent website posting that states that the Greene County Poet Laureate program is “currently paused.”

CREATE noted that they “conducted the selection process to mirror our consistent practice―we launched an open application for direct submissions and nominations and convened an independent panel who were instructed to make choices based on cultural impact and artistic merit.”

“After careful consideration, the board of directors believe it would not be appropriate to advance an alternate candidate at this time,” the recent update states, adding that CREATE plans “to work collaboratively with the legislature to revisit and relaunch the program in the coming year.”

The contract between CREATE and Cohen states that “the contractee acknowledges that statements, opinions, or positions expressed by the contractee are their own and do not represent official positions of CREATE Council on the Arts or the Greene County Legislature.”

Further, the contract states, “the contractee shall not engage in conduct that would reasonably be expected to bring CREATE or the Greene County Poet Laureate Program into public disrepute or undermine public trust in the program.”

The county legislature, according to their resolution, “recognizes that the position of poet laureate is intended to serve as a unifying and non‑partisan cultural representative for the community.”

The legislature, “respectfully requests that CREATE submit a new candidate for consideration,” the resolution states.

Lawmakers have asked CREATE to, “develop and implement clear protocols, including review standards and eligibility criteria, to ensure that future poet laureate candidates are able to serve in a neutral, non‑partisan, and community‑representative manner.”

As the story spreads beyond county lines, one report that the legislature paid for a forensic recovering of Cohen’s deleted posts has been disclaimed by Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger.

Talking to a reporter who inquired about the removed posts, “I said that if we could hire someone to do a forensic deep dive, then [the reporter] could too,” Linger said.

“We didn’t need to. Enough of the legislature saw them,” Linger added.

Cohen, expecting the New York Times story to appear, said, “If this bridges the differences between us, it would be a positive outcome.”

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