Jillian Hanesworth is a spoken word artist, the founding Poet Laureate Emeritus of Buffalo, New York, a community activist and the recent recipient of a national sports Emmy in The Dick Schaap Outstanding Writing Award category. Jillian was born and raised on the east side of Buffalo, where she developed a vision to use art and advocacy to help her community reimagine justice and work together to create a system where all people can thrive.
Currently, Jillian travels the country performing poetry and speaking on various topics including art for activism, the impacts of storytelling, and the importance of honest and critical social and political conversations. In addition, Jillian oversees “Buffalo Books,” a nationally recognized program which aims to improve access to culturally relevant books for residents of the east side of Buffalo, with the hopes of helping to increase literacy rates among Black and brown communities.