Greene County will not have a poet laureate this year.
On Wednesday evening, the Greene County Legislature voted unanimously, without discussion, to rescind the January appointment of writer Esther Cohen as the county’s first poet laureate.
The vote formalized a decision outlined in an April 3 letter by Patrick Linger, chairman of the legislature, to Stella Yoon, executive director of CREATE Council on the Arts. In the letter, Linger said he moved to revoke Cohen’s appointment after reviewing social media posts he said promoted violence. Legislators said one post appeared to depict the assassination of President Donald Trump.
“Greene County must take a zero-tolerance stand against the promotion of violence of any kind, made by anyone,” Linger wrote.
Support for Cohen has grown since she was stripped of her title. She has since been invited to speak at the April 26 Writers Resist Revival event in Woodstock and at a June event sponsored by Greene County Pride in Catskill.
Cohen said she has received messages of support by email, text, and social media, including from a poet in Norway, a former Cornwallville neighbor now living in Texas, and students from her writing classes at the Cairo Public Library.
“I’m gratified by the people of Greene County, Republicans and Democrats, who’ve contacted me, and I’m still hoping this experience leads to dialogue between all sides,” Cohen said.
Cheryl Clarke, a poet and bookstore owner in Hobart, said she wrote to four county legislators to express dismay over the decision and to praise Cohen’s longstanding ties to the community. Cohen has taught a workshop for 14 years at Clarke’s annual women writers festival.
“The literary landscape of her book ‘All of Us’ demonstrates her devotion to the lives and culture of your county and its people,” Clarke wrote in an email to legislators. “Surely, her presentation of those lives should prevail over two Facebook reposts about the president. Aren’t presidents supposed to bear the brunt of satire? The action taken on the part of the Legislature sets a dangerous precedent for those writers and other citizens whose political beliefs and practices do not align with yours and some of your members.”
Bjorn Thornstad, executive director of the Hudson Valley Writers Residency in Coxsackie and a member of the selection committee, said the county had not allowed enough public discussion before revoking Cohen’s title.
“There hasn’t been enough dialogue about the rescission and there hasn’t been enough input from the community,” Thornstad said.
“I think there’s a real opportunity here for an important conversation about the overlap between First Amendment rights and the right of a government body to internally oversee its appointees,” he added. “Those are both defensible positions.”
As part of Wednesday’s resolution, the legislature also agreed to develop a formal nomination process and protocols for the position moving forward.
After the meeting, Linger said lawmakers still supported the idea of a county poet laureate and planned to meet with Yoon to establish clearer parameters for the two-year role, which is funded by the county with a $1,000 honorarium that has since been revoked from Cohen.
CREATE, which convened an independent panel last year to select the inaugural poet laureate, said in a statement that it is pausing the appointment of a replacement until next year.
“After careful consideration, the Board of Directors believe it would not be appropriate to advance an alternate candidate at this time,” the organization said. “Given the circumstances, we want to ensure that any future process fully reflects all expectations and priorities of both CREATE and the legislature. We believe this is the most fair and respectful approach to potential candidates. We plan to work collaboratively with the Legislature to revisit and relaunch the program in the coming year.”
The controversy first surfaced March 4 at a County Resources Committee meeting, when Legislator Michael Lanuto, R-Catskill, cited two anti-Trump posts and other posts supporting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Cohen’s Facebook page.
Lanuto said one repost appeared to show Trump with blood running down his back in what seemed to depict an assassination attempt. Another, he said, predicted Trump’s death in 2026 due to ill health with celebrations around the world.
Linger said Thursday that the latter post was not the one he viewed as inciting violence. He said a third post, not mentioned at the March 4 meeting, also promoted violence, but declined to provide further details. He also said the legislature hired someone to conduct a forensic review of Cohen’s deleted posts.
After learning of the objections, Cohen removed two anti-Trump posts, which she said she had reposted from other accounts, and apologized. Legislators said the damage had already been done and that she could no longer represent the county.
Cohen said she does not recall making or deleting any other post that could be interpreted as promoting violence.
“I’ve been a nonviolent pacifist all my life,” Cohen said. “That doesn’t say I don’t post other people’s things about Trump. I’m not very Facebooky.”
CREATE said members of the independent panel were instructed to choose a poet laureate based on “cultural impact and artistic merit.”
Robin D. Schatz is a contributing journalist. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com.