Best known for his spirited poem of the city of New Orleans, “I Am New Orleans,” poet Marcus Bruce Christian was born 80 miles south of New Orleans in 1900. By the time he was 13, both of his parents had died. As a teenager, he moved to New Orleans. He worked first as a chauffeur and then became the owner of a dry cleaning company, Bluebird Cleaners. Though he attended night school, he did not complete a college degree. Christian worked for the Federal Writers’ Project and as a librarian at Dillard University, and he taught history and poetry at the University of New Orleans.