BROD BAGERT

Background

Brod Bagert was born and raised in the city of New Orleans where in high school, he studied classical literature in the original Latin and Greek, wrestled and boxed, married his high-school sweetheart, and reared four children.

Education

He attended Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana for both undergraduate and Law School, from which, in 1971, he received his Juris Doctorate.

Career

He has written 19 books of poetry for children, young-adults, and adults. Brod practiced as a trial attorney in Louisiana from 1971-1992, and served as an elected official from 1976-1980. In the summer of 1992, Brod decided to leave his law practice to become a full-time, professional poet.

Bagert was elected to the New Orleans City Council in 1976 for a partial term representing District Doctorate, and was subsequently reelected to a full term in 1977.

While serving as Councilman, Bagert introduced legislation to designate Esplanade Avenue and a large portion of the New Orleans area referred to as the Treme as a historic district. As Councilman, Bagert almost singlehandedly created the New Orleans Home Mortgage Authority and shepherded the issuance of $85 million in single family mortgage revenue bonds to fund loans for low to moderate income, first-time home owners in New Orleans.

In October of 1980 he left the New Orleans City Council to accept an appointed to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, a five person regulatory commission that, among other things, regulated the petroleum, utilities, and telecommunications industries in Louisiana. After leaving political office, Bagert remained active in utility related consumer issues.

He pursued litigation against Louisiana Power & Light (LP&L) for the return of 1.9 billion dollars in fuel cost adjustment overpayments.

He also became one of the lead proponents for the acquisition by the City of New Orleans of New Orleans Public Service Incorporated. (NOPSI), in a years long dispute over the introduction of the cost of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant into the rate structure applicable to New Orleans rate payers. Bagert’s life as a children's author began when his eight-year-old daughter asked him to write a poem for her to perform in her school elocution program

To make the poem more performance friendly he wrote it in his daughter’s voice, the voice of an eight-year-old girl.

That was the beginning of what would eventually become one of the identifying characteristics of Bagert’s poetry: poems are written in the voice of the audience for whom the poetry is intended. In a poem for kindergarteners, he writes in the voice of a kindergartener.

In a poem for sixth-graders, he writes in the voice of a sixth-grader. The result is a body of performance-friendly poetry in which children hear their own voices, engage their own thoughts, and discover their own innermost feelings.

Achievements

• BROD BAGERT has been listed as a reputable lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell.

Membership

City Council of New Orleans, 1976-1980. Louisiana Public Service Commission, 1980-1981. Member: Louisiana State (Member, Corporate Section) and American (Member, Section on Economics of Law Practice) Bar Associations.