Trapeta B. Mayson was the 2020-2021 Philadelphia Poet Laureate. She is the founder of Healing Verse Philly, which includes the Healing Verse Poetry Line, a hallmark project of her poet laureate tenure. Mayson is a Pew, Academy of American Poets, and Aspen Word Fellow. She is also a Leeway Transformation, Leeway Art and Change, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awardee. She is the author of She Was Once Herself and Mocha Melodies.
A native of Liberia and she was raised in the North Philadelphia and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Temple University, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, and Villanova University School of Business. Currently working in the community mental health field, Mayson is a member of several local organizations where she uses the arts to help mobilize and build community.
