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Get in your seats for a poetry-filled next few months. For Better or Verse will return to your inboxes bi-weekly in order to keep you ahead of it all. There are so many reading series, special events, poetry partnerships, opportunities for teen poets, calls for submission and more coming down the road ahead. I am so here for all this—are you?
Deadlines
Feb 1: First things first. I want to remind you and the young poets in your lives that the deadline to submit an application to be our first countywide Youth Poet Laureate is Feb 1—which is just around the corner. Application and all required info is here. Please send any questions my way: poetlaureate@scpl.org
We will select an official YPL and three finalists who will be part of the inaugural cohort and have the chance to represent poetry and civic engagement for the rest of us. I’m already excited about the young people I’ve met in workshops or talked to who are thinking about poetry and our community. One last workshop takes place next Tuesday at the Watsonville Library for anyone interested in pulling poems together for any portfolio, and/or applying to this position. See below.
And hope to see you all on April 10 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center when we celebrate this cohort. Reserve your seat here.
Feb 16: In Celebration of The Muse, Santa Cruz’s poetry event, will now be produced by The Hive Poetry Collective. Submissions are open and due February 16. The Muse has a 43-year history in Santa Cruz and this year’s event will be held in person on April 26, 6:30- 8:30 pm at Cabrillo College Horticulture Room. The Muse is open to all women, women identified, and non-binary folx. More information and application here.
Upcoming Events
Saturday Jan 27, Community Writers of Santa Cruz County, via Zoom, will host former Monterey County poet laureate Daniel Summerhill. 2:30-4pm with open mic.
Friday Feb 2, 7pm. Satori Open Mic. Featured Poet Kirk Glaser. 815 Almar Ave, Unit 9, SC (on the west side). More info about the featured poet and how to sign up for the open mic here.
Tuesday Feb 6, 7pm. And, also at Satori, Inter|Act Spoken Word will continue its winter residency on Tuesday Feb 6. Info about Inter|Act here. Featured Poet: Victoria Bañales. A Chicanx educator and writer, Dr. Bañales is the founder and editor of Xinachtli Journal—Journal X—a social justice literary arts magazine. Her writing has been published in Feminist Formations, The Acentos Review, Cloud Women’s Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, La Raíz Magazine, The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, and more. She teaches Chicanx/Latinx literature, fiction writing, and English composition at Cabrillo College.
Save the date for Feb 20, 7pm. Inter|Act Spoken Word’s next featured poet is Roxi Power, with more open mic.
Tuesday, Feb 13, 6pm. Poetry Out Loud Competition, at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Poetry Out Loud is a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry— both classic and contemporary—through memorization, performance, and competition.
Calls for Submissions & Nominations
Call for Nominations for the Spotlight Award: Honoring Local Emerging Artists. Deadline for nomination letters: March 3, 2024. Through the Spotlight Award, the County Arts Commission publicly recognizes individuals who have achieved a high level of excellence and creativity in their work, but who have not received widespread acknowledgment of their talent. This annual award recognizes younger artists as well as those who are discovering their artistic voice later in life. The award will be given to one artist or artist group in each of the following mediums: visual art, performing arts, and literary arts. More info and to nominate an individual here.
2024 National Agriculture Day Poetry Contest for SC County. If you know of any students who would like to make submissions, please share widely. The deadline for submissions of Friday, February 23rd. All info is in the graphic below.
Save The Dates
Poetry & Music in the Parks continues. A partnership between the Santa Cruz County poet laureate and Santa Cruz County Parks, there are three spring dates with another great lineup of poets and a range of musicians on Sunday afternoons. April 28 and June 9 at Mesa Village Park in Watsonville and May 19 at Brommer Park in Live Oak. Keep reading FBOV for more information about these events.