The family of the late Volusia County poet laureate David B. Axelrod is joining forces with the poetry and creative communities to continue his legacy of supporting and promoting arts in the area.
Axelrod was a teacher for decades and a student of Robert Frost. He was an author of 25 books and recipient of several Fulbright awards. He ran his own publishing house for poetry books, and he was the poet laureate for Suffolk County in New York before he retired to the Daytona area. He passed away in November.
Axelrod also founded an arts-promoting mentoring organization called the Creative Happiness Institute – or CHI – with a mission for creativity and wellness that his children and other local poets are hoping to grow.
Axelrod’s son Dan says an event this weekend will celebrate the man who was often seen as a bit of a rebel for working to break down barriers for aspiring poets.
The David A. Axelrod tribute happens September 6th at the African American Museum of the Arts’ Dr. Noble “Thin Man” Watts Amphitheatre in DeLand. Dan Axelrod said it will feature music, personal stories, readings and a special announcement of CHI’s upcoming plans. Moving forward, CHI will add to its work an endeavor to raise money for the arts in Volusia County and other surrounding areas.
CHI offers an ongoing Young Poets Mentoring Program as well as regular poetry readings and slams. The organization also maintains initiatives with local schools, colleges, arts venues, seniors and veterans.
The younger Axelrod said it’s important to him to keep his father’s vision going.
“He was going into senior homes and reading to seniors,” he explained. “He was publishing high school poets, kids that didn't necessarily have self-esteem, and suddenly they're being promoted, and the mayor is coming to their poetry reading. And community groups are coming out to an arts fair. We want to carry on that tradition…we want to expand it. We want to keep publishing and empowering people, because really, sometimes the mask comes off through art, you can authentically be yourself.”
Helping people connect to their authentic selves was important to his father, Axelrod noted, saying the elder Axelrod scoffed at the elitist way poems were often taught.
“He believed, more than anything, that the reason that poetry doesn't resonate with some people is because too often it's taught like a test or a riddle. And there are ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups,’ and the ‘in-groups’ are the teachers” mandating a rigid interpretation, said Axelrod. “But for him, poetry was for everyone, and he was often called by critics a ‘populist’ poet. And he was very proud of being a populist poet. He didn't think that poetry had to be something stuffy and academic.”
Axelrod said his father lived by the axiom “Authority is service,” and treated everyone like a friend. “And if I could be even one half that person, if I could know what he knew…I would be doing really well in life.”
