Randall Jarrell was a UNC-Greensboro professor, poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was also the 11th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress or, as referred to today, Poet Laureate of the United States of America. He was the first man of color to be crowned US Poet Laureate. Jarrell was one of the most loved children's poets of his day.
Because poetry is one of the performing arts and because your's truly is also a Greensboro poet, I would love to see East Greensboro's performing arts center named in honor of Randall Jarrell.
That said, like with the placement of the Greensboro Performing Arts Center, I am not in charge so someone other than I will decide what to name our gem. I just hope it's named after one of our local performing artists. Naming buildings after politicians and corporations just seems dirty to me. And naming anything after a point on the compass simply says you chickened out.
Another well known poet, Robert Lowell, said about Jarrell, "the most heartbreaking poet of our time'. . . [and] had written 'the best poetry in English about the Second World War."
More on "The Bat Poet" as Jarrell was called, can be found via Wikipedia.
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