If you’ve read along over the last year here you know that I have been anticipating, and celebrating, the fact that our county now has a Youth Poet Laureate (YPL) program, and last week we announced the first official Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Dina Lusztig Noyes. The Kuumbwa Jazz Center in downtown Santa Cruz was full of thrilled and supportive community members, including families of the finalists and cheering friends, as we all got to listen to five stellar young poets read their distinctly individual groups of poems. The selection committee had a difficult task, and we were all heartened by the finalists’ poise, the clear affection they had for each other, and their embodied demonstration of support for each other as a community. I’m excited to see what they will do to expand the visibility of teen poets across the county over the next year, and I’m glad to keep supporting that visibility beyond my tenure as Poet Laureate in my commitment to this program.
Meanwhile, as opportunities arise for the community to meet and hear the new YPL and the other youth poets, I’ll share those here.
More Poetry Month Events
Tuesday, April 16, 7pm. Inter|Act Spoken Word Open Mic: Featured Poet, Jace Rowe. Satori Arts, 815 Almar Ave, Unit 9, SC (on the west side). Jace is a playwright turned poet from Prunedale, CA. Her plays have seen the stage at the historic El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, and The Side Project Theater in Chicago. Her poems have been published in The Porter Gulch Review and Wandering Metaphors Magazine (and she is the regular cohost of this Open Mic)!
Tuesday, April 23, 7pm. Author Talk & Book Signing with Madeline Aliah: Poems by a Teen Trans Fem. Diversity Center, 1117 Soquel Ave. This Is My Body: Poems by a Teen Trans Fem covers Maddie's journey from gender dysphoria to empowerment as she "womanifests" her authentic self. More info and RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/thisismybodypoems
Friday April 26, 6:30pm, Cabrillo College: The Hive Poetry Collective presents In Celebration of the Muse, 19 women, women-identified and non-binary poets, including three Cabrillo College students, will read their work at the Cabrillo College Horticulture Building 5005 for a two-hour program. Parking in front of the Horticulture Building is limited. Free overflow parking down the hill in the F and G lots. Doors open at 6pm.
Saturday, April 27, 1-3pm. An afternoon of poetry (1:00-3:00) at the Santa Cruz Hostel at 321 Main Street, 95060. Reading in the garden, hosted by hostel volunteers...all are welcome to this free event.
Sunday April 28, 1:30-3:30. Poetry & Music (and snacks & fun) at Mesa Village Park, 790 Green Valley Rd, Watsonville. Poets Chopsy Gutt, Rachel Huerta & Sara Santistevan will read from their work, with music provided by the Watsonville Youth Orchestra & Youth Pre-Orchestra.
Also on Sunday April 28!
Mic Drop + Open Mic, Sunday April 28, 5:30. Open Mic plus Joseph Jason Santiago LaCour at 418 Project, 155 S. River St, Santa Cruz.
New Book + Launch Event
Friday April 26, 5:30pm: Gabriel Kittle-Cervine’s “Blank Page Boy" Book Launch Event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.
Kittle-Cervine’s second book of poetry is described on his website as “a four part poem that delves soul first into the author’s identity. From gender, to race, to faith and language, what makes a person themselves?” All of us are taught so much about ourselves, but the richest knowledge is that in which we learn about ourselves. This piece, available now in this 5.5” x 5.5” pocket poem book, exclusively from T*B*D*ink., is simultaneously a mirror, a window, a door and a wall wrapped into one.”