An interview with Marjory Wentworth

With Statehouse Report’s exclusive publication today of Marjory Wentworth’s inaugural poem that isn’t going to be part of Wednesday inauguration of Gov. Nikki Haley because there “isn’t enough time,” we thought you would enjoy this exclusive interview with the state’s poet laureate.

Statehouse Report:  What does it mean to you for the poem to not be part of inauguration?

Wentworth: It is the one “duty” of the poet laureate, and I have done it three times thusfar.  I have not heard from  Governor Haley’s office about any matters during her first term, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  They have provided no stipend, not even gas/travel funds when I represent the state in any context. This administration has repeatedly tried to cut funding to the state Arts Commission, so not including a poem in the inauguration is in keeping with its anti-arts policy.

Governor Mark Sanford’s office provided an annual stipend of $1,500, which paid for travel and hotel.  They communicated with me and he would occasionally participate in arts events if I asked him.

The position is a great honor and I have benefited in so many ways.   It also is an enormous responsibility, which I have taken very seriously.  There are months that poet laureate responsibilities have taken between 20 to 40 hours per week.  I think of it as community service.

ShR:  What does it say about what’s happening to the office of Poet Laureate that the governor’s office doesn’t have time for a poem that you worked a month on?

Wentworth: A poem generally takes between one and two minutes to recite, so it is clear that time it is not a factor. Governor Haley inherited me. I don’t take it personally, that’s for sure.  It certainly is a statement about their ideology.  The arts are of no value. It’s a Tea Party thing, I guess.  The fact that I had to contact them to be notified shows a shocking lack of respect on their part.

I find this stance about the arts to be rather ironic.  I think the arts are one of South Carolina’s greatest resources — home to the state that hosts Spoleto … the place that  so many GREAT artists call home: Pat and Cassandra Conroy, Darius Rucker, Mary Bryan and all the Hootie guys, Stephen Colbert, Bill Murray, Jonathan Green, Quentin Baxter, National Book Award and MacArthur Genius Award winners Ted Rosengarten and Terrance Hayes, Nikky Finney, and more.

I have never heard of this happening to any other poet laureate.