News | City of West Hollywood

The City of West Hollywood will celebrate National Poetry Month in April with innovative events, including a poetry spa day and public exhibitions honoring poets and the art of poetry. National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world.

Throughout the month of April, the city of West Hollywood will honor living poets by featuring selections of their poetry on street pole banners along Santa Monica Boulevard. Currently, 49 poets are honored and each year the West Hollywood City Poet Laureate selects two additional poets to honor. This year, the winners are Shonda Buchanan And Mariano Zaro:

• Shonda Buchanan is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Oxfam Ambassador, Fellow of the USC Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and Master Artist Fellow of the City of Los Angeles (COLA) Department of Cultural Affairs. She is the author of five books, including the award-winning memoir, Black Indianwhich won the Indie New Generation Book Award 2020 and was chosen by PBS News Hour among the 20 best books to read to learn more about institutional racism. About to grab a 3rd print, Black Indian begins the saga of her family's migration stories from communities of free people of color exploring identity, ethnicity, landscape, and loss. Buchanan is also a faculty member in Alma College’s creative writing master’s program. Buchanan is the recipient of the Brody Arts Fellowship from the California Community Foundation, a Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, several grants from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Denise L. Scott and Frank Sullivan Awards, and an Eloise Klein- Healy Scholarship. A consulting curatorial poet for the Broad Art Museum, Buchanan is also a member of the Sundance Institute Writing Arts, a member of the PEN Center Emerging Voices, and a member of the Jentel Artist Residency.

• Mariano Zaro is the author of six collections of poetry: Decoding sparrows, Father Earth, Tres letras/Three letters, Mae Rim's House/Mae Rim's House, Erosion Poems/Erosion PoemsAnd Where does/Desde Donde come from. His poems have been included in anthologies Monster Worms, Awake, The coiled snake, and in several magazines in Spain, Mexico and the United States. News from Zaros appeared in Portland Review, Pinyon, Baltimore Review, Louisville Review And Magnapoetes. He is the winner of the 2004 Roanoke Review Short Fiction Prize and the 2018 Marthas Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Short Fiction Prize. Since 2010, he has hosted a series of video interviews with prominent American poets as part of the Poetry.LA literary project. He is a Spanish teacher at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier.

On Monday April 1, 2024 at 6 p.m., the City of West Hollywood Council will issue a commemoration National Poetry Month proclamation, which will be received by West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng. The presentation will be visible during the municipal council meeting broadcast on Citys. WeHoTV YouTube Channel. The city's poet laureate, Jen Chang, will also present a new poem celebrating the city of West Hollywood, titled Recipe for creativity, blessed by the ghosts of adults (below, at the end of the press release).

With the support of an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood, Women Who Submit (WWS) presents Transformation – A book release party on Saturday April 13, 2024from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Plummer Parks Great Hall, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. Transformation is WWS' third anthology and features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and theater from 42 women and non-binary contributors around the world. The event will include readings by Erika Ayn, Lisa Cheby, Liz Gonzlez, Monona Wali, Aruni Wijesinghe and Sandy Yang, music by DJ Langosta and an exhibition of literary organizations and booksellers. For more information, please visit the City of West Hollywood website calendar.

THE WeHo reads: Poetry Spa the event will take place on Wednesday April 17, 2024 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Respite Deck at the West Hollywood Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC), located at 8750 El Tovar Place, next to the West Hollywood Library. From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the public is invited to explore poetry at spas including Feng Shui poetry, Poemaroma (essential oils), Lotus poetry (origami), and other poetic experiences. At 7:30 p.m., participants will gather at the Grand Staircase as the sun sets to hear all the poets share their words. Poetry Spa is a concept created by Brian Sonia-Wallace during his tenure as West Hollywood City Poet Laureate 2020-23 and is curated by current West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng.

WeHo Reads is a literary series produced by the City of West Hollywood Arts Division and BookSwell. Additional support is provided by the UCLA Extension Writers Program and Poets & Writers, with media partnerships with Book Soup and Los Angeles Review of Books. The books will be available for sale at historic West Hollywood retailer Book Soup. This event is free to attend and RSVPs are requested. For more information and to RSVP, please visit: www.weho.org/wehoreads.

Poets participating in WeHo reads: Poetry Spa the event includes:

• Terry Wolvertonauthor of eleven books, including his latest, Eclipse seasonhosts the Poemaroma thermal spa.

• K. Toney is a griot, writer, musician and educator who hosts the Listening Libations spa resort where participants can mix poetry and calming sounds.

• Brian Sonia-Wallaceauthor of Poetry of strangers hosts the Poetry Bath spa.

• Members of the Pride Poets Timothy Nang will host the Lotus Poetry spa resort and Jose Rios will host the Poetry Bingo spa station.

• West Hollywood Poet Laureate Jen Cheng hosts the Feng Shui Poetry spa resort which guides participants through the five elements.

Participants will receive raffle tickets for a drawing and win a large tote bag featuring works by poets including Jen Chengs. Braided spaces, Timothy Nangs Lotus ChildrenBrian Sonia-Wallaces Maze mouthTerry Wolverton Ruin Pornand the AK Toneys album Neo Griot and the Afrocentric Prince.

The community is also invited to visit Poetic walk, a public art installation, located in the central reservation of Santa Monica Boulevard, between Doheny and Almont Drives. This temporary public art installation, which was installed in April 2023, displays poetry alongside pre-existing empty concrete plinths where sculptures are usually displayed. The poetry excerpts reflect on absence, desire and what is invisible or uncelebrated. Contributing poets include former West Hollywood City Poet Laureates Brian Sonia-Wallace, Steven Reigns, Kim Dower and Charles Flowers; and Tonya Ingram, a young poet who died in December 2022. The poetry walk can be experienced in written form or by listening to audio recordings. Members of the public were invited to submit their own short poems reflecting on absence, desire and the invisible, and a selection of poems are published on the City's website.

During the month of April, with the support of an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood, Greenway Arts Alliance will present the 8th Annual Los Angeles Get Down Festival at the Greenway Court Theater, located at 544 N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. Programming in recent years has included open mics, workshops, poetry slams, performances and much more. As part of this festival, West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng invites the community to join her at Greenway Court Theater for a free writing workshop, Feng Shui Poetry, on Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 12 p.m. More information and links to purchase tickets. for the LA Get Down Festival can be found at https://greenwaycourttheatre.org/la-get-down.

The City of West Hollywood began officially celebrating National Poetry Month in 2015 after launching its City Poet Laureate program in 2014. The West Hollywood City Poet Laureate is an ambassador for West Hollywood's vibrant literary culture and leads the promotion poetry in the city, including contributing to the annual celebration of National Poetry Month.

For more information about the City of West Hollywood Poet Laureate Program or National Poetry Month activities, please contact Mike Che, the City of West Hollywood Arts Coordinator, at [email protected] or at (323) 848-6377. For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

For up-to-date information on City of West Hollywood news and events, follow @wehocity on social media, sign up for updates at www.weho.org/email and visit the meeting calendar and city ​​events on www.weho. .org/calendar. West Hollywood City Hall is open for walk-in services at public counters or by appointment by visiting www.weho.org/appointments. City Hall services are available by telephone at (323) 848-6400 and via the website at www.weho.org. Receive text updates by texting WeHo to (323) 848-5000.

For reporters and members of the media interested in additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact City of West Hollywood Public Information Officer Sheri A. Lunn at (323) 848-6391 or [email protected].