Poet Kevin Young will be the new director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture starting Jan. 11. He replaces the founding director, Lonnie Bunch, who was tapped to lead the entire Smithsonian organization.

Young is currently the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which is a part of the New York Public Library. He has written 11 books of poetry, two works of nonfiction and is the editor of 10 other works including a book coming out this fall, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song. He’s also the poetry editor at The New Yorker magazine.

“Kevin will bring an exciting mix of scholarship, technological savvy and bold vision that builds on the foundational work of the many people who built the museum,” Bunch said in a statement. “As a poet, he understands how the museum fulfilled the dreams of many Americans, and under his leadership the museum will shape the hopes of future generations.”

Young said he looks forward to taking the museum, which opened in 2016, into its next phase.

“Having visited the museum myself with my family, I know what a powerful place it is, transforming visitors both in-person and online, and revealing the centrality of African American culture to the American experience,” Young said. “I am eager to engage further directions in the museum’s mission, embracing our digital present and future while furthering conversations around Black history, art, liberation and joy.”

Young got his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1992 and a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University in 1996. He taught creative writing and English at Emory University in Atlanta for 11 years.

In 2015, his poetry book, “Book of Hours: Poems” won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, which recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the U.S. that year.

In 2016, he began his leadership role at the Schomburg Center. The Center, founded in 1925, has a collection of art, artifacts, archives, photographs and recordings of Harlem’s cultural life. He secured several high-profile items, including the Harlem-based archives of Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sonny Rollins and Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite and the manuscript of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, including a once-lost chapter.

He also helped raise $10 million in grants and donations and attendance increased by 40%.

The African American History and Culture museum has been one of the most popular and in-demand attractions in D.C. with over 7 million visitors since it opened. It closed during the pandemic but reopened to the public on Sept. 18.