The chairman of the Greene County Legislature is revoking the appointment of Esther Cohen as the county’s first poet laureate, citing two of her Facebook posts that lawmakers said appeared to celebrate the prospect of President Donald Trump’s death.
In an April 3 letter, Patrick Linger, chairman of the Republican-majority Legislature, told CREATE Council on the Arts Executive Director Stella Yoon that he was rescinding the appointment “effective immediately,” writing that Greene County must take “a zero-tolerance stand against the promotion of violence of any kind, made by anyone.”
Cohen, a longtime writer and award-winning poetry teacher, said she removed the posts after learning of the objections, apologized, and doesn’t advocate violence.
“I honestly don’t understand this whole thing,” she said. “I was chosen for my poems, not my politics.”
The controversy stems from two shared posts legislators said they found on Cohen’s Facebook page. One was a text-only post that predicted Trump would die in 2026 and that his death would prompt worldwide celebrations. Another post appeared to depict blood running down Trump’s back after an apparent assassination attempt; Cohen said it may have been AI-generated.
Linger said he and three other legislators saw the posts and concluded they made Cohen unsuitable for what he described as a public-facing role.
“There’s enough there that it’s just not something we can support,” he said.
The Greene County poet laureate is a two-year honorary appointment intended to promote poetry, literacy and literary engagement across the county through public events and community programming. The position carries a $1,000 annual honorarium, and candidates are nominated or apply through a process administered by CREATE Council on the Arts, with recommendations made by a community panel to the chairman of the Legislature.
The April 11 induction ceremony, sponsored by the legislature and CREATE Council on the Arts, has been removed from the Athens Cultural Center’s website, and the future of the poet laureate position is unclear. CREATE announced Cohen’s selection in January, praising her for bringing poetry to “unexpected places” including diners, supermarkets, laundromats, and underserved communities.
In January, Linger said that he approved Cohen’s selection as poet-laureate. He plans to submit his decision to a vote of the full legislature, probably at Monday’s scheduled meeting on April 13 in Catskill.
Michael Bulich, Republican chair of the Resources Committee, which oversees funding to the arts council, said that a majority of the legislature was “adamant about CREATE selecting someone else.”
Cohen said her work as a writer and poetry teacher has aimed to foster understanding among people of different viewpoints and backgrounds. Her 2023 book, “All of Us,” published by Saddle Road Press, is a fictionalized ode in prose and poetry to the people of Greene County, particularly her neighbors and friends in the Durham hamlet of Cornwallville.
“My whole book is an inclusive portrait of all of us, dedicated to everyone in Upstate New York,” Cohen said. “We have to learn to talk to each other and listen to each other and figure out how to coexist rather than polarizing each other for our politics and our beliefs.”
She said the legislature declined her offer to speak with them. Cohen and her husband bought their house in Greene County 40 years ago and that she has taught writing for more than two decades at the Cairo Public Library, as well as in supermarkets, low-income senior housing, and at the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, where she has taught for 14 years. She said she has published nine books, most recently a fictional portrait of Greene County, as well as a poem-a-day Substack called “Overheard.”
The controversy surfaced when Yoon made a presentation at a March 4 meeting of the County Resources Committee. The county provides funding to the arts council and had been expected to approve a $1,000 honorarium for Cohen at that meeting.
Republican Greene County Legislator Michael Lanuto Jr. said he had been reviewing Cohen’s background and objected to what he found on her social media.
“I’ve been doing my due diligence, and what I found on her social media channels is pretty much the antithesis of what I believe this board stands for,” Lanuto said. He also pointed to posts supporting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani before turning to the Trump-related posts.
As a result of Lanuto’s comments, the committee didn’t vote to release the $1,000 to CREATE for Cohen’s honorarium. Some legislators said removing the posts after the fact was too late.
“I totally support Esther in her poetry and everything she’s done,” said Sherry True, the Republican county legislator who had proposed the poet laureate position. “Where the problem lies is as a representative of Greene County, we cannot have someone who is advocating for the death of a president.”
Cohen said she still loves Greene County and has no plans to fight the decision, although she had already signed a contract with CREATE and already received the $1,000 honorarium in late February, which might be rescinded. She said she hadn’t cashed the check.
Yoon didn’t return numerous calls seeking comment on the decision or the future of the poet laureate position. Cohen said Yoon told her that she doesn’t plan to select another candidate.
Linger said he hoped another poet would eventually be appointed and that the legislature would work with Yoon to establish guidelines for the role. He said the council, or its panel of judges, may not have fully understood the poet laureate’s role as a representative of the county.
“This being a new position, we’re all feeling our way through this,” he said.
Robin D. Schatz is a contributing journalist. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com.