Santa Barbara Celebrates National Poetry Month

Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate

In Santa Barbara, Mayor Randy Rowse offered a proclamation for National Poetry Month on Tuesday, April 9. Dos Pueblos High School student, Anna Matthews, recited her award-winning performance of “The Listeners” by Robert Frost. She is the regional champion of the Poetry Out Loud Competition. The proclamation is nine days into poetry month and Santa Barbara has already seen at least three poetry events, including the Spirits in the Air Reading on April 1, Poetry Passages launch last week and the Santa Barbara Literary Journal’s launch of issue 10 at Chaucer’s Books on Monday, April 8. It’s been wonderful seeing our town show up for poetry. Chaucer’s was packed at the launch for issue 10, which featured nine Santa Barbara poets laureate. 

 

The Poetry Passages launch last Thursday, April 4, also featured our local poets laureate, but a different crowd showed up for the outdoor event. Santa Barbara is a wonderful town for poetry. Lea Williams said the event was magical: “The wind died down, the rain held off and there was joy and connection,” she said. “The readings and the speeches gave everyone there a lovely picture of how this all came together and why it mattered.” Ride the bus, read a poem.

 

As a co-organizer for Poetry Passages, the project to put poems on our city buses, I was a little worried the day of the event. We hoped for a nice day for our outdoor event, especially since the Santa Barbara Museum of Art offered to host us on the museum’s front terrace. Lea Williams and I were very excited about an outdoor launch party because it meant people celebrating First Thursday might stop and learn about the project and poetry month.

 

Patsy Hicks, Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, said she had a contingency plan for rain. Later that day, there was a bomb threat downtown. Rain? Breeze? Bomb threat? Who would possibly show up? 

 

Some fifty people took seats around the museum’s entrance and on the portable chairs used for events inside the galleries. The museum’s portable microphone did the job and people stopped on State Street to listen to the poems that they can see riding on the buses. As a seasoned poet and event planner, I know that the best laid plans can go awry. Luckily, our event was a success. Patsy Hicks said it was a pleasure to host the Poetry Passages launch. “It had a great feeling of community of a story to be told,” she said, “a story of shared resources amid folks who have a real desire to communicate what it means to ride through and write about Santa Barbara.”

 

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is also celebrating National Poetry Month with their Post Card Poetry. They are printing postcards that feature excerpts from poems written by a Santa Barbara based poets or facilitators of Writing in the Galleries.. There will be a new postcard each week in April, collect all four. I am honored that my poem, “And Me,” is paired with Keith Mayerson’s, Someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me (2023). Sign up for my next Writing in the Galleries session at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art before next week. The workshop is April 18 at 5:30 pm, free with registration. 

 

If you want to hear more poetry from your poet laureate, I will be at the Lompoc Public Library this Saturday, April 13 at 1pm. The following Saturday, thanks to a grant from State Parks, we will have a free poetry celebration downtown. Turns out, our only state park is El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Park. Celebrate National Poetry month with an afternoon of poetry and music at the Alcehama Theatre, Saturday April 20 at 1pm. Poets include Perie Longo, Emma Trelles, Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Monica Mody, Diana Raab, and Takunda Chickowero; musical acts include the Gruntled, UCSB Middle East Ensemble, and Chumash Kiyniw Singers; and a few other surprises at this free event. 

 

*This article was originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent.

 

 

National Poetry Month Events

 

April 1, Spirits in the Air 10^th Anniversary Reading 4:30-6:30 pm. The Good Lion 1212 State Street, free admission, no host bar. 

 

April 4, First Thursday, launch party for Poetry Passages 5-6:30 pm on the Terrace of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State Street.

 

April 8, Santa Barbara Literary Journal Volume 10: Reading at Chaucer’s, features seven local poets laureate, Monday from 6-7:45 pm, Chaucer’s Books 3321 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.

 

April 9, The Mayor’s Proclamation of National Poetry Month, City Hall, 2pm.

 

April 13, Lompoc Library features City of Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, Melinda Palacio at 1pm.

 

April 14, The Poetry Zone, 1:30 pm, back patio of the Karpeles Manuscript Library, open mic and featured poet is Jan Steckel.

 

April 18, Writing in the Galleries, write poetry at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art with SBPL Melinda Palacio, Thursday, 5:30-7pm, free with registration. 

 

April 20, Poetry in the Parks, an afternoon of poetry and music at the Alhecama Theatre, poets include Perie Longo, Emma Trelles, Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Monica Mody, Takunda Chickowero and Diana Raab; musical acts include the Gruntled, UCSB Middle East Ensemble, and Chumash Kiyniw Singers and host Melinda Palacio.

 

April 30, Amanda Gorman in Conversation with Pico Iyer, Tuesday 7:30 pm at the Arlington Theatre.  

Poetry Passages Puts Poetry on Santa Barbara Buses

Melinda Palacio  

 

* A version of this Poetry Connection Column originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent

One of the notable connections I’ve made as Poet Laureate is with Lea (pronounced Lee) Williams. Lea is a wanderer, traveler, writer who specializes in letter writing, and graphic designer. I met her early in May, during one of my first events at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, where I had the honor of sharing the spotlight with our Youth Poet Laureate Madeleine Miller at the Women’s Literary Festival’s Poetry Pairing. After the event, Lea contacted me and asked if I would be interested in collaborating with her to bring poetry on our city’s buses. I was certainly thrilled with the idea because it aligned with my mission as Poet Laureate: to bring more poetry to public spaces and create more awareness to poetry in our community. 

 

Since April, I have participated in over 30 events, most recently at Bishop Diego High School. It always surprises me how little awareness there is for the position of Santa Barbara Poet Laureate. I’m happy to help local bus riders become aware of our current and past poets laureate through Poetry Passages, the project that will put poetry on our buses. 

 

I also remember how thrilling it was when I went to New York and rode the subway and sat next to a poster of one of my favorite poems by Aracelis Girmay. Lea had a similar experience of riding the bus in Los Angeles and seeing poetry during National Poetry Month on the buses. She described seeing poetry on buses as a thrilling gift:

 

            “When I lived in Los Angeles, one April there were “Poetry in Motion” panels of classic poetry up on the buses. It was a thrilling gift. And I noticed how many riders, of every economic state, were entranced by those panels. That stayed with me—the pleasure and inspiration of poetry being presented for everyone. And the extraordinary engagement I saw over and over again. So grateful to The Poetry Society of America for launching this idea. We just chose to do it a little differently.”

 

Lea and I have been meeting since May to figure out how to make this idea into a reality for the Santa Barbara Municipal Transit District (SBMTD). There are several moving parts to this project, from getting approval of the SBMTD, to choosing poets and poems, to figuring out how to pay for the project. 

 

Luckily, several of the pieces fell into place from having access to a wonderful translator in visiting poet Alexandra Regalado to wrangling eight poets laureate to contribute some verses to the project. If you’ve been following poetry in Santa Barbara, you know that we lost one of our own, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. While she was not able to finish her bus poem, she had chosen a coastal route and we were able to find an appropriate verse for her chosen bus line. 

 

One of the most important parts was the opportunity to apply for a city grant to cover the cost of funding the project. The grant will allow us to pay the SBMTD, the poets, our translator, and fiscal sponsor. In addition to the task of choosing excerpts of each poem, there was also the issue of naming the entire project. Since we couldn’t use Poetry in Motion, we came up Poetry Passages. Lea designed the poetry panels and a flyer to let people know about the project. Download the QR in the flyer and view the routes where you’ll find Poetry Passages during National Poetry Month in April. I’ll include my entire poem. Can you guess which couplet will be excerpted for bus route 11?

 

 

 

Bus Stop

Melinda Palacio, 10th Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara 

 

 

It’s the waiting that hurts,

Makes the day feel longer.

 

Smiles and relief when the bus arrives,

a satisfying thrill, seeing a long, lost friend.

 

She speaks in a woman’s voice, announces the stop

For Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.

 

Outside, Lowriders on parade turn heads.

Too tired. I’m glad I’m not driving. 

 

So many rattling parts. The bus hums, squeals, exhales,

screeches to a false stop as it crouches to receive passengers.

 

As it gurgles forward, 

I wonder if the bus is more tired than I.