LEGISLATURE STUFF - To Be or Not to Be - Alleged Post About Trump Leads to Potential Dismissal for County Poet Laureate

CATSKILL - If this was a play being written by William Shakespeare, the iambic pentameter is off rhythm as drama continues to mount with the position of poet laureate set up by the Greene County Legislature.

Lawmakers established the post last year, turning over the task of finding someone for the job to the CREATE Council for the Arts in Catskill.

CREATE recommended Esther Cohen, a well-respected poet, writer and teacher with homes in the village of Cornwallville and the Big Apple.

Cohen was approved in January, 2026, through a chairman’s appointment with a formal inauguration scheduled for April 11 in Athens.

The celebration has apparently been cancelled and the poet laureate post is in limbo amid controversy that has emerged surrounding postings on Cohen’s Facebook page involving President Donald Trump.

Lawmaker Michael Lanuto (District 1, Catskill) raised the matter during a legislative County Resources committee meeting in early March.

CREATE executive director Stella Yoon was at that meeting, routinely reporting on the council’s activities, funding realities, etc.

When Yoon ended her report, Lanuto asked about Cohen, saying, “before recommending her to the board, was there any background check on her?”

Yoon explained the process and Lanuto said, “lately I’ve been doing some background. What I found on her social media channel is pretty much the antithesis of what I believe this board stands for.”

Lanuto referenced Cohen’s Facebook page that he says stated, “Donald Trump will die from bad health. Worldwide celebrations in honor of his death,” along with a second message that Lanuto said, “looks like the President being assassinated with blood dripping down his back.”

“I can’t support a person like that,” Lanuto said. “I have no problem with the position. I have a problem with the person in that position.”

Lanuto, subsequently asked what had prompted him to do background on Cohen, said, “I can’t tell you that,” emphasizing his discomfort with the Facebook material would be the same “if it was any President.”

County Resources chairman Michael Bulich, during the committee session opined, “when representing Greene County, there shouldn’t be anything political about it in any way, one way or the other. 

“We may look at having Stella look at someone else to do this,” Bulich said, setting in motion a series of communications and discussions that were expected to culminate in a CREATE statement, this week.

That statement was not issued before our deadline, awaiting signing by the full board of directors, according to board president Marya Warshaw.

“There are a lot of moving pieces,” Warshaw said, noting the statement will include CREATE, “communications from and to the legislature. We will be very forthcoming.”

In the meantime, lawmakers, at a recent workshop, opted to reject a request from Yoon to let Cohen come before them to speak.

Cohen, acknowledging the Facebook messages, says they were shared “satyrical reposts,” not authored by her, and they have been removed.

Cohen says she has penned a letter to lawmaker Sherry True (District 8, Cairo), who suggested the legislature establish the poet laureate title,  “apologizing for offending anyone.”

“I am a poet not a politician. I operate from a place of love for all people,” Cohen said in a phone interview, also defending her right to free speech.

“If people read my books and poetry, they would know my life’s work is about bridging all sides,” Cohen continued.

“What I am hoping is that we can move past the politics. My hope is that we become a national model that shows, in spite of our differences, we can work together,” Cohen said.

Yoon has not returned multiple messages left on her CREATE phone and her cell phone as well as with a CREATE staffer.

Legislature chairman Patrick Linger, in a phone interview on Wednesday, said it is anticipated Cohen’s “appointment will be rescinded.”

Some messaging by Cohen, “was seen by our legislature as promoting violence,” Linger said, in particular the characterization of a bleeding President regardless “if it’s Trump, Obama, Biden or Ford.”

Linger did not detail the process by which the rescinding could happen, whether introducing a fresh resolution or some other method.