NYC Gazette

Brooklyn College is thrilled to announce JP Howard as the newest Tow Mentor-in-Residence for the spring 2023 semester. JP Howard (aka Juliet P. Howard) is a poet, educator, judge, literary activist, and curator. 

The Tow Mentor-in-Residence Program is a part of the Tow Mentoring Initiative, which was launched during the fall 2022 semester. The program selects high profile, senior scholars and practitioners for structured engagement with students and faculty over the course of a semester. Mentors-in-Residence will engage in guest lecturing in select classes, talks with students and faculty, and provide formal and informal academic and professional guidance to groups of students and encourage them to fulfill their academic and personal endeavors. 

The 2023 Mentor-in-Residence Keynote Address with JP Howard will be held on Wednesday, February 22, at 1 pm. in the Don Buchwald Theatre in the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts. It will be followed by a reception. Please register for this event here: https://forms.gle/ohKBHX8dh2f3jowT7

Before becoming a published poet and author, Howard served as a court attorney for the New York State Court System and worked as an adjunct clinical instructor at Brooklyn Law School’s Elder Law Clinic. Howard decided to pursue her creative endeavors after obtaining her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at City College in 2009. 

Howard’s debut poetry collection, Say/Mirror, published by The Operating System, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist and gained recognition. This collection is an intimate glimpse into the author’s life as an only child raised in Harlem in the 1970’s and 1980’s by a single parent, Ruth King, an African American runway model, and explores the complex relationship between the two. the. She has also written a chaplet, bury your love poems here, for the Belladonna Collective, and is co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution!

Howard has garnered acclaim in the contemporary poetry scene and received several fellowships and grants for her poetry. Among them are the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, Cave Canem, Brooklyn Arts Council, Lambda Literary Foundation, and the VONA/Voices Writers Workshop. 

In addition to being a successful published writer, Howard is also a community builder, founder, and curator of an inclusive writing haven called Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS). It is a New York-based monthly interactive literary workshop where women of all writing abilities can come together in a supportive, nurturing, collaborative space to produce new work and network. It provides an open platform which allows members the creative freedom to come together, share their stories, and feel a sense of belonging and acceptance within the writing community. 

The salon celebrates people of color, marginalized voices, the LGBTQ+ community, allies, and is also open to men. Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS) hosts literary events including workshops, poetry readings, and open mics in the New York city area.  

Howard's poems and essays have appeared in The Academy of American Poets: Poem-a-Day series, Apogee Journal, The New York Times, The Feminist Wire, Muzzle Magazine, Medium, Raising Mothers Literary Journal, The Best American Poetry Blog, "The Slowdown" podcast, and Split This Rock. Read more of JP’s published work and her accolades on her website. 

Howard has remained committed to the public law sector and was recently appointed as a judge in New York City’s Housing Court, along with her wife, Judge Norma Jennings. In 2021 they became the first married same-sex couple appointed to the same court in New York. Howard was appointed to the bench in Brooklyn in 2021, while Jennings, who is currently the Supervising Judge of Manhattan Housing Court, was sworn in as a judge in the Bronx in 2019. Judge Jennings is currently a candidate for Civil Court Judge in the First Municipal District in Brooklyn. The pair met during their early legal career while working at The Legal Aid Society’s civil division, have been together for 29 years, and have two sons. 

Howard is the second mentor in the guest lecturing series following Sam Schwartz ‘69.

For more information, please contact BCMentoring@brooklyn.cuny.edu. 

Original source can be found here.