Mayor Castor Appoints Gianna Russo as Wordsmith
TAMPA, FL (September 11, 2020) Mayor Jane Castor has appointed the City’s first Wordsmith, local writer and educator, Gianna Russo. As part of the Art on the Block program, an initiative by Mayor Jane Castor that brings art and artists into the neighborhoods, Ms. Russo will be working with communities through workshops and projects in various neighborhoods throughout the City, as well as leading city-wide participation like to recent “Haiku from Home” project.
The City of Tampa recognizes the power and value of self-expression and acknowledges that the written word expressed through poetry, creative writing and verse can be a platform to engage and empower Tampa’s citizens and neighborhoods.
A lifelong educator, Ms. Russo designed and instituted the creative writing program at Blake Magnet School of the Arts in Tampa in 1997. In 2011, Ms. Russo joined the faculty of the Department of Language Studies and the Arts at Saint Leo University. She serves as editor-in-chief of the university’s literary magazine Sandhill Review and is currently Saint Leo’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence for the Collage of Arts and Sciences and scholarly journal Rebus.
For more information, visit www.tampagov.net/arts
For additional information, contact:
Robin Nigh, Manager, Arts & Cultural Affairs